Winter Series at Dartington Great Hall

Francesca Orlando is a British-Italian pianist who has performed internationally both as soloist and chamber musician across many European cities including London, Copenhagen,Vienna, Budapest, Malta, Florence and Rome.  

Francesca was awarded an Open-Academy Fellowship at the Royal Academy of Music, where she completed her undergraduate and postgraduate studies in Solo Piano Performance under the tutelage of Prof. Joanna MacGregor and Diana Ketler respectively. During her undergradutate studies she was a recipient of the Miriam Duncan Scholarship and Constance Bastard Memorial Scholarship.

Francesca is a pupil of British pianist Nicholas Walker and is currently residing in Vienna where she is studying with Prof Lilya Zilberstein at MdW for a Postgraduate diploma, alongside Elisso Virsaladze at “Scuola di Musica di Fiesole”, Italy. She has performed in numerous masterclasses with renowned pianists such as Imogen Cooper, Pascal Devoyon, Martino Tirimo, Ian Fountain, Stephen Hough and Steven Osborne.  

Born in Florence, Francesca moved to Bristol with her family where she started playing the piano under the guidance of Catherine Miller. Since her debut recital in Florence, at the age of fourteen, Francesca has performed in many acclaimed concert venues across England, amongst which, the Wigmore Hall, where she performed chamber music with Nash-Ensemble musicians, St James’ Church Piccadilly, The Duke’s Hall, and the Royal Academy of Arts, London.

Following her debut Schumann Piano Concerto in May 2012 in the prestigious concert venue, St George’s Hall, Bristol, Francesca has performed as soloist with various orchestras including the “Orchestra Filharmonica Mediterranea”, Exeter University Symphony Orchestra with Richard Gonski and the Bristol Symphony Orchestra. She has been invited to perform in numerous music festivals including Petworth Music Festival, Bloomsbury Festival, Farley Festival, Gaulitana Festival, Victoria International Arts Festival and Dartington International Summer School where she played as duo partner with renowned pianist Steven Osborne.  

In addition to her solo performances, Francesca loves collaborating with other instrumentalists and singers as chamber musician and accompanist. She has received masterclasses from Richard Stokes, Joseph Middleton, Michael Dussek and Ian Ledingham and is currently teaching as Italian vocal coach at the Royal Academy of Music. In April 2022 Francesca was a finalist of the prestigious song competition, Kathleen Ferrier Awards held in the Wigmore Hall, where she performed with bass-baritone Charles Cunliffe .

In 2021 Francesca received first prize in ‘Premio Crescendo’, Florence, and 'Concorso Internazionale "Citta di Massa". During her studies she was awarded highly commended, in the Lilian Davies Beethoven Sonata prize alongside the Edna Bralesford prize, William Northam Prize and Mozart Concerto Prize in 2017 at the Royal Academy of Music.  

Alongside her performance activity, Francesca is a passionate advocate for quality music education and in making classical music more accessible within the community. Francesca founded a voluntary organization called ‘Musica Vitae’ whose aim is to provide young musicians with performing opportunities by organising concerts in aid of charity. Through her Open-Academy Fellowship at the Royal Academy of Music she developed her skills as workshop leader and collaborator, working on various musical outreach projects, ranging from participants living with dementia to children with SEN. She has worked on these projects with many leading arts organisations such as Wigmore Hall Learning, Resonate Arts, Oxford Lieder Festival and Spitalfields Music.