Lorenzo Gorli, violin

By Marta Ceron

Gorli was born in Como in 1964. He began studying piano at age four, and soon after began taking violin lessons with Franz Terraneo. He continued his studies with Emilio Poggioni and graduated as a private student at age 17 with highest honors. In 1981 he made his solo debut at the Autunno Musicale festival in Como with the Pomeriggi Musicali Orchestra of Milan. In 1982 he won the Franz Terraneo medal. He continued his studies with Cristiano Rossi and Franco Gulli in Siena in 1983, and then with Max Rostal in Berna in 1984. In 1985, during a tour of the U.S., Maestro Ruggero Ricci offered him a scholarship to complete a master’s degree at the University of Michigan — Ann Arbor. Gorli has served as first violin in the Divertimento Ensemble since 1988. He has won national and international competitions, always with highest praises and unanimous decisions from judge panels that featured Elisa Pregreffi, Roberto Michelucci, Piero Toso, and Paolo Borciani. Gorli keeps a busy concert schedule; he participates in some of the most important music festival in Italy and around the world, including in Milan, Rome, Salzburg, Strasbourg, Paris, Frankfurt, the US, and Japan. He’s performed as a soloist with the orchestra of Tunisia, Prague, and Hong Kong, and in duet with renowned violinist Giuliano Carmignola. Gorli has recorded with Salabert, Fonit Cetra, and Stradivarius, and has recorded live concerts for RAI in Rome, RAI 2, and RAI 3.

He dedicates much of his activity and concertizing to contemporary music, and has performed in numerous contemporary music concerts in Italy and worldwide, particularly as a soloist with the Divertimento Ensemble. In 2001 Gorli was asked to perform at Italian Cultural Institute of New York where, together with the Circolo Italian Cultural society, he organized a solo violin concert at United Nations Plaza.
Following that success, he gave his second performance New York in November 2002 for the Americas Society of New York. In 2003 he held a solo violin recital at the United Artists Club of New York and numerous other concerts in Italy. The Institute of Italian Culture in Vancouver organized a recital and a masterclass with him in collaboration with the Vancouver School of Music in September 2005. In September 2006 he was invited by Maestro Claudio Abbado to play with the “Soloists of the Mozart Orchestra” at the Manzoni Theater in Bologna on a program dedicated to Schoenberg. In September 2007 he was invited to the Biennale Music Festival in Venice for a contemporary music program dedicated to him and recorded for RAI 3.

For four consecutive years Gorli was awarded a professorship of contemporary music master class by the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Turin. He plays a 1695 Amati violin.