Giampaolo Pretto
“… the choreographic gesture of Giampaolo Pretto, a true étoile of the podium, conveys a changing and varied expressive intention: from Mozart’s exuberance to Schubert’s grandeur, passing through Duparc’s moving pages, the visual suggestion corroborates the sound fascination in a concert experience of great value”.
Antonino Trotta, l’Ape Musicale, settembre 2018
Giampaolo Pretto has been music director of the Turin Philharmonic Orchestra since 2016. Since 2009, he has been on the podium of numerous Italian and international ensembles: Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari (to which he has been linked since 2015 by an intense collaboration), Arena di Verona, Wuhan Philarmonic, Z. Paliashvili in Tbilisi, Haydn in Bolzano, Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, Unimi in Milan, OPV in Padua, Toscanini in Parma, Sinfonica Abruzzese, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano.
He conducted from 2016 to 2018 the New Year’s Concert at the Florence Opera, as well as in all editions of the Festival Mito from 2016 to the present. His repertoire ranges from the Baroque to the contemporary, favouring Romanticism and the historical 20th century; particular mention should be made of the performances of Schubert’s Das Gebet des Herren (Novara 2007), Britten’s Misericordium (Florence 2013), Brahms’s Nänie (Bari 2017) (of which he recorded the first symphony) and Bruckner’s Messa in E minor (Bolzano and Trento 2016). In addition to many Italian premieres, including the Four Preludes and Fugues by Bach/Stravinsky, Feux d’artifices by G. Connesson, the viola concerto by J. Higdon, Nähe fern by W. Rihm, he conducted many works by contemporary composers such as Battistelli, Campogrande (whose opera La notte di San Nicola was also premiered), Colasanti, Glass, Pärt, Dessner and Larcher, collaborating with soloists of the calibre of Ian Bostridge, Katia and Marielle Labèque, Duo Jussen, Alexander Malofeev, Gabriela Montero, Enrico Dindo, Andrea Lucchesini, Chloe Mun, Benedetto Lupo, Suyoen Kim, Signum Quartet, Nils Mönkemeyer.
He graduated in flute and composition at the Conservatories of Verona and Turin, and was a pupil of Piero Bellugi for conducting. For eighteen years (2000-2018) he was tutor and conductor trainer of the Orchestra Giovanile Italiana in Fiesole. Also engaged as a composer, some of his highlights are the flute, cello and string orchestra Concerto Nine Rooms (2013); the quartet A flat, commissioned in 2014 by the Ex Novo Ensemble of Venice; Per quelli che volano, a clarinet Concerto commissioned by Haydn of Bolzano and conducted for the first time in 2016; Tre d’amore for chamber orchestra (2018), conducted for Unimi in Milan. In 2019 Durand published his transcription for quintet of Debussy’s second Sonata.
Sky’s Classica television channel dedicated two in-depth portraits of him for the series “I Notevoli” and “Contrappunti”.