Paolo Zanzu

After his studies in Italy, at the Paris Conservatoire (CNSM), and at the Royal Academy of Music in London, with Orio Buccellato, Noëlle Spieth, Christophe Rousset, Carole Cerasi and Patrick Cohen, Paolo Zanzu was a prizewinner at the Bruges International Harpsichord Competition in 2010. Since then his career as a harpsichord and fortepiano soloist has taken him to major international venues (BBC Proms, Utrecht Early Music Festival, Cartagena International Music Festival, Festival de La ChaiseDieu, Festival de Radio France Occitanie Montpellier). He took part recently in the ambitious ’Scarlatti 555’ project organised by France Musique; and made his début as a soloist with the English Baroque Soloists in harpsichord concertos by Bach in January 2019.

In parallel, Paolo Zanzu has been chosen as assistant conductor by William Christie and Sir John Eliot Gardiner. At William Christie’s request, he directed Les Arts Florissants in a new production of Lully’s Monsieur de Pourceaugnac (staged by Clément Hervieu-Léger) on tour in Europe and China from 2016 to 2018. Sir John Eliot Gardiner invited him to take part in the monumental ‘Monteverdi 450’ project in 2017.

Also in 2017, after years of experience in different ensembles (Les Arts Florissants, Les Musiciens du Louvre, the English Baroque Soloists, the Monteverdi Choir, Le Cercle de l’Harmonie), Paolo Zanzu founded Le Stagioni. Le Stagioni is an ensemble of variable size, gathering together musicians with major international careers as soloists and members of the great European periodinstrument ensembles, focussing on the great works of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Paolo Zanzu is also a committed pedagogue, and has taught basso continuo at the Conservatoire royal de Bruxelles since 2011. His educational collection Great Italian Masters of the xvith and xviith Centuries was published by Ricordi in 2013.

His recording of Handel’s harpsichord suites (Musica Ficta/Pavane, 2017) has been praised by the press, and his forthcoming recordings include Bach’s English Suites (Musica Ficta, 2020) as well as piano sonatas by Schubert, supported by the Fondazione Cini in Venice.