Piovano graduated in cello and chamber music under the guidance of Radu Aldulescu. For years he was first cello in the Concerto Italiano group, directed by Rinaldo Alessandrini. In 1999 he was chosen by Maurizio Pollini to participate in the ‘Pollini Project’ at the Salzburg Festival, Carnegie Hall, Tokyo and Rome.
Luigi Piovano
He has given chamber concerts with the likes of Sawallisch, Chung, Lonquich, Lucchesini, Sitkovetsky, Kavakos, and the Labeque sisters. Since 2005 he has been playing regularly in a duo with Antonio Pappano. Piovano has played as a soloist with orchestras such as Tokyo Philharmonic, New Japan Philharmonic, Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Seoul Philharmonic, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, under conductors such as Chung, Menuhin, Nagano, Pappano, Pletnev. His CD including the Brahms Sonatas in duo with Pappano was released in 2020 For more than 20 years Piovano has been first cello soloist of the Orchestra dell’Accademia di Santa Cecilia. He plays a Francesco Ruggeri cello known as ‘il Per’ (Cremona, 1692) kindly provided by Francesco Micheli. Also very active as a conductor, he has worked with soloists such as Bacalov, Bollani, Brunello, De Maria, Lupo, Mingardo, Sitkovetsky and has recorded for Naxos, Eloquentia and Arcana. Since 2013 he has started a regular collaboration conducting the Strings of Santa Cecilia with whom he has released six CDs.
His engagements as conductor in recent years include concerts on the podium of many of Italy’s leading orchestras and, abroad, his debut with the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra and, in 2022, with the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra, which immediately re-invited him for March 2023 and February 2024. In 2022, he also made his debut on the podium of the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano and conducted Tosca at the Teatro Bellini in Catania.