Leonora Armellini was a very young winner of the “Janina Nawrocka Prize” for the “extraordinary musicality and beauty of sound” at the F. Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw (2010). Her result was brilliantly confirmed in the 2021 edition, with a Fifth Prize that makes her the first Italian woman to have climbed the heights of the competition considered as the top of international pianism.

Leonora Armellini was born in Padua (Italy) in 1992. She graduated summa cum laude from the Padova Conservatory at the age of 12 with Laura Palmieri then won the first prizes at the “Premio Venezia” (2005) and at the “C. Togni” International Piano Competition in Brescia in the section piano and orchestra (2009). Finalist at the XVI Busoni International Piano Competition, she achieved many awards for her qualities and artistic career such as the “Galileo 2000” for her “great courage and talent”, received by Zubin Mehta. She graduated summa cum laude at the age of 17 at the National Academy of S. Cecilia in Rome, under the guidance of Sergio Perticaroli and her artistic development is also influenced by Lilya Zilberstein (Musikhochschule Hamburg) and Boris Petrushansky (Accademia Pianistica “Incontri col Maestro”, Imola).

She made more than 500 public appearances in important concert halls and festivals worldwide (Carnegie Hall – New York, Mariinsky Theater – Saint Petersburg, Salle Cortot – Paris, National Philharmonic – Warsaw, Teatro La Fenice – Venice, Steinway Hall – London, Tongyeong Concert Hall – South Korea, Musashino Concert Hall – Tokyo, Millennium Monument Theater – Beijing, Martha Argerich Project – Lugano, to name a few). Leonora performed as a soloist with many orchestras, (Orchestra Teatro “La Fenice” di Venezia, Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto, Orchestra dell’Arena di Verona, Orchestra da Camera del Teatro “Alla Scala” di Milano, Warsaw Philharmonic, “Sinfonia Varsovia”, Cracow Philharmonic, Ukraine National Orchestra, Belarus Symphonic Orchestra, Symphonic Orchestra of Lodz Philarmonic, …) conducted by Alexander Rabinovich-Barakowsky, Jacek Kaspszyk, Ola Rudner, Andrea Battistoni, Claudio Scimone, Zoltan Pesko, Anton Nanut, Massimiliano Caldi, Christian Benda, Bassem Hakiki, etc.

Leonora is very passionate about chamber music: she plays regularly in the FortePiano Trio and the Duo Pianistico di Padova, and as a member of the AMAR Trio won the prestigious “Abbiati Prize” for chamber music assigned by Italian Association of Music Journalists. She has recorded many CD, including the two Chopin Piano Concertos, the complete Album for the Youth by Schumann, the complete music for two pianos by Brahms and Poulenc Concerto for two pianos and orchestra (Duo Pianistico di Padova, with Mattia Ometto) and a lot of her concerts and interviews were broadcast by Italian and international TVs and radios: worth to mention are her appearance as a special guest in “Sanremo Festival” 2013, broadcasted worldwide by RAI TV, the recitals for “I Concerti del Quirinale” in Rome for RAI Radio 3, a piano recital and Beethoven Piano Concerto n. 1 with Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto conducted by Marco Angius for Rai 5. She wrote a book in collaboration with Matteo Rampin, “Mozart era un figo, Bach ancora di più”, reprinted eight times and translated in Spanish.

She is currently Faculty Member of Piano at the Buzzolla Conservatory of Music in Adria (Italy).

Rudolf Buchbinder is one of the legendary performers of our time. The authority of a career spanning more than 60 years is uniquely combined with esprit and spontaneity in his piano playing. Tradition and innovation, faithfulness and freedom, authenticity and open- mindedness merge in his reading of the great piano literature.

His interpretations of the works of Ludwig van Beethoven in particular are regarded as setting standards. He has performed the 32 piano sonatas in cycles all over the world more than 60 times to date and has continued to develop the history of interpretation of these works over the decades.

With the edition BUCHBINDER:BEETHOVEN, Deutsche Grammophon presents a complete recording of the 32 piano sonatas and the five piano concertos in the run-up to Buchbinder’s 75th birthday in December 2021, thus creating a sounding monument to two outstanding Buchbinder-Beethoven cycles of recent times. Buchbinder was the first pianist to play all of Ludwig van Beethoven’s piano sonatas within one festival summer at the 2014 Salzburg Festival. The Salzburg cycle was recorded live for DVD (Unitel) and is now also available on nine CDs.

The sensational cycle of Ludwig van Beethoven’s five piano concertos came about during the 2019/20 concert season at the Vienna Musikverein. In celebration of its 150th anniversary, the Vienna Musikverein, for the first time in its history, gave a single pianist, Rudolf Buchbinder, the honor of performing all five piano concertos by Ludwig van Beethoven in a specially created series. Buchbinder’s partners in this unprecedented constellation were the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra under Gewandhauskapellmeister Andris Nelsons, the Vienna Philharmonic under Riccardo Muti and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic and the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden under their principal conductors Mariss Jansons, Valery Gergiev and Christian Thielemann. All concerts were recorded live.

The Musikverein cycle, released on three CDs in September 2021 on Deutsche Grammophon, is a historic document of these artistic summits and a tribute to Buchbinder as one of the most profound Beethoven interpreters of our time.

As a contribution to the celebrations marking the 250th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven’s birth, Rudolf Buchbinder initiated a cycle of new Diabelli Variations. Following the genesis of Beethoven’s epochal Diabelli Variations op. 120, Buchbinder succeeded in enlisting eleven leading contemporary composers of different generations and origins – Lera Auerbach, Brett Dean, Toshio Hosokawa, Christian Jost, Brad Lubman, Philippe Manoury, Max Richter, Rodion Schtschedrin, Johannes Maria Staud, Tan Dun and Jörg Widmann – to write their personal variations on the same waltz theme as Beethoven once did. The <em>New Diabelli Variations </em>were commissioned by eleven concert promoters worldwide with the support of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation and received their world premiere by Rudolf Buchbinder at the Vienna Musikverein before becoming a part of his touring programs in Europe, Asia and the United States. The project reflects Beethoven’s work into the 21st century and impressively underlines the universality of his language across all borders.

Under the title <em>"The Diabelli Project"</em>, Deutsche Grammophon released the world premiere recording of the New Diabelli Variations in March 2020 alongside a new reading of

Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations, which Buchbinder last recorded before in 1976. The double album marked the beginning of his exclusive partnership with Deutsche Grammophon. Also in 2020, a live recording of Beethoven’s 1st Piano Concerto with Christian Thielemann and the Berlin Philharmonic followed.

Rudolf Buchbinder is an honorary member of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien, the Wiener Konzerthausgesellschaft, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. He is the first soloist to be awarded the Golden Badge of Honor by the Staatskapelle Dresden.

Buchbinder attaches great importance to source research. His private collection of sheet music includes 39 different editions of Beethoven’s complete piano sonatas as well as an extensive archive of first printings, original editions and copies of the autograph piano parts of both piano concertos by Johannes Brahms.

As Artistic Director, he is responsible for the Grafenegg Festival, which has been one of the most influential orchestral festivals in Europe since its founding 15 years ago.

Rudolf Buchbinder has published an autobiography entitled "Da Capo" as well as the book "My Beethoven – Life with the Master." His latest book, "The Last Waltz," was published to coincide with the premiere of the <em>New Diabelli Variations </em>in March 2020 and tells 33 stories about Beethoven, Diabelli and piano playing.

For more information please visit <u><a href="http://www.buchbinder.net/">www.buchbinder.net</a></u>