Grazia completed her musical studies at the Conservatorio ‘G.B. Martini’ in Bologna, her hometown, graduating in violin with top marks and honours under the guidance of Giovanni Adamo. She subsequently attended master classes with Franco Gulli (Diploma di Merito at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena), Salvatore Accardo, Corrado Romano and Maurice Raskin. Thanks to the ‘J.W. Fulbright’ scholarship from New York, she was a pupil of Franco Gulli (violin) and Rostislav Dubinsky (chamber music) and also attended lessons with J. Gingold and I. Stern at the Indiana University in the U.S.A., where she obtained an Artist Diploma.
Grazia Raimondi
he won 1st prize in several competitions, such as: “Rassegna Nazionale di Vittorio Veneto”, “Ugo Conta Music Awards Hong Kong” National Violin Competition in Mantua, “Sibelius International Competition” held at the Indiana University (USA). In 2012 Grazia gave a solo concert at New York’s Carnegie Hall to great public and critical acclaim and opened the 44th Newport Music Festival with a concert that received three standing ovations. She has been repeatedly invited to participate in the Newport Festival, confirming the constant and remarkable following to her performances. Grazia has performed Trio concerts with Antonio Pappano and Luigi Piovano, played Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with Giovanni Sollima and Olaf John Laneri, collaborated in chamber music with Alberto Bocini, Maurizio Baglini, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Francesco Di Rosa, Kevin Fitz-Gerald, Giuliano Mazzoccante and Aldo Orvieto; in the field of contemporary music, she has been a member of the ‘Ensemble Prometeo’ since 2018, also founding the Trio Soloists of the Ensemble Prometeo with Michele Marelli, clarinet and Ciro Longobardi, piano. She has given several masterclasses in violin and chamber music at the international courses of Akiyoshidai in Japan, at Silpakorn University in Thailand and at the Conservatorio Superior “Adolfo Salazar” in Madrid, Spain, and has been a guest at Southern Louisiana and Louisiana State Universities for masterclasses and concerts (USA).
Grazia has performed intensively as a soloist and chamber musician in prestigious theatres and concert halls: Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Royal Albert Hall in London, Grossen Musikvereinsaal in Vienna, Philharmonie in Munich, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires and more, taking part in many television broadcasts and several recordings, including Rossini’s Six Sonatas in Quartet for the Tactus label. She has been a member of ensembles such as ‘I Solisti Veneti’, ‘I Virtuosi di Roma’ and ‘New European Strings Orchestra’. She performed in Japan in chamber music concerts with the first parts of the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra and as First Violin of the Tokyo Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra and the Hyogo Pac Orchestra with Yutaka Sado in Osaka. Grazia was first violin soloist with the Friuli Venezia Giulia Symphony Orchestra, then with the Chamber Orchestra of Padua and Veneto, the Musici Aurei, with whom she recorded Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” (Eloquentia), a recording that received rave reviews in Italy and abroad, the Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana, the Orchestra Sinfonica Abruzzese, the Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana and the Camerata Strumentale di Prato. Among the CDs she has published: Kindertotenlieder and Lieder Eines Fahrenden Gesellen in a chamber version with Sara Mingardo and Luigi Piovano, Mahler’s Quartettsatz in A minor (Eloquentia), which received a wonderful BBC review in the UK and won the “Schwarzkopf” prize in France as the best Mahler CD of the year 2012; in Duo with Giuliano Mazzoccante she recorded “Continuum Nomade” by Giovanni Sollima dedicated to her: a journey through Italian music from Tartini to Sollima via Paganini, Martucci, Respighi and Petrassi (Wide Classique); in Duo with Andrea Castagna the first CD of Viotti’s opera omnia for two violins (Wide Classique); in Duo with Aldo Orvieto and the participation of Luigi Piovano a CD with music by Martinu, Schnittke, Part, Prokofiev and Montanaro (5 Nocturnes dedicated to her) (Wide Classique); in Duo with Giuliano Mazzoccante the Sonatas by Franck and Strauss (Wide Classique). She holds the Chair of Violin at the Conservatorio ‘G. Verdi’ in Ravenna. Grazia plays a Giuseppe Gagliano violin from 1783.