The Balourdet Quartet, based in Boston, Massachusetts, is currently in residence at the New England Conservatory’s Professional String Quartet Program. The quartet received the Grand Prize at the 2021 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition as well as the top prize awarded in the 2021 Premio Paolo Borciani in Reggio Emilia, Italy. The group also received the Gold Medal in the 2020 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and the 2021 Chamber Music Yellow Springs Competition.
Highlights of the 2021-2022 season include the Nevada Chamber Music Festival, ProMusica Santa Fe, Montgomery Chamber Music, ProMusica San Miguel de Allende, Chamber Music Yellow Springs, and a recital in NEC’s Jordan Hall. This summer, the group will perform in concert series including Oklahoma Mozart Festival, Music Mountain and Bravo! Vail.
The Balourdet has performed at festivals including La Jolla Music Society Summerfest, Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival, and Accademia Musicale Chigiana. It works primarily with Paul Katz at New England Conservatory, as well as Miriam Fried and members of the Cleveland and Borromeo Quartets. The quartet was formed in 2018 at Rice University in Houston, Texas under the tutelage of James Dunham, Norman Fischer, and Cho-Liang Lin.
Italian pianist Fabio Bidini is one of this generation’s top-flight pianists. His appearances have included performances with The London Symphony Orchestra at The Barbican, The Philharmonia Orchestra of London at Royal Festival Hall, the San Francisco Symphony, New World Symphony, Dallas Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Forth Worth Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra Prague at the Rudolphinum, and the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra at Liszt Academy Hall. He has collaborated with conductors including Michael Tilson Thomas, Carlos Prieto, Max Valdes, Dimitry Sitkovetsky, Ivan Fisher, Jesus Lopez Cobos, JoAnn Falletta, Zoltan Kocsis, Michael Christie, and Gianandrea Noseda,
In 2015 Fabio Bidini became the first recipient of the Carol Grigor Piano Chair – a new position enabled by a $5-million endowment gift from the Colburn School’s board chairwoman Carol Colburn Grigor in Los Angeles. Mr. Bidini has been Professor of Piano at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler, in Berlin, one of Europe’s premiere music conservatories. He also serves as an Artist-in-Residence at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Köln.
Fabio Bidini’s discography comprises thirteen CDs recorded under the labels BMG, Classichord, Musikstrasse, EPR and True Sounds. He is a Steinway artist.
Brahms Piano Quintet in f minor, op. 34 (44’)
The two masterpieces of romantic chamber music repertory by Mendelssohn and Brahms are juxtaposed with, perhaps, the most favorite piano works of Chopin and Debussy.
