Concert Series: Simone Rugani & Simon Zhu

Violin & piano performance by Rugani & Zhu.

About the artists:

Simon Zhu recently won the prestigious Paganini Prize in Genoa. Born in Tübingen, Germany, he is twenty-two years old and has been playing the violin since he was six. Since winning first prize in 2016 at the 13th “Georg Philipp Telemann” International Competition in Poznan, Poland, with the best interpretation of a “Fantasia for solo violin” by Georg Philipp Telemann, he has won numerous important awards. He is an academician at the Hope Music Academy and at the Walter Stauffer Academy in Cremona, where he studied with Professor Salvatore Accardo. From 2020 to 2023, Simon performed with a prized Montagnana violin, generously loaned by the Florian Leonhard Fellowship, while he now plays a Zosimo Bergonzi violin, Cremona circa 1760, generously loaned by the Stretton Society.

Simone Rugani is an award-winning Italian pianist and experienced chamber musician. He is increasingly sought-after, performing with renowned instrumentalists and for many important festivals both in Italy and abroad, including Teatro dal Verme, Amici della musica di Firenze, Musica Insieme Bologna, Bologna Festival, Perugia Classica, Società dei Concerti di Milano, Royal College of Music in Stockholm and the Italian Cultural Institute of Edinburgh. Particularly active in chamber music, he has been performing for 10 years alongside the violinist Daniele Sabatini, with whom he has won numerous awards. Their collaboration with composers has resulted in the world premiere of a significant number of new pieces, many written specifically for them.