Solo violinist and Konzertmeister of the Teatro alla Scala and the Filarmonica della Scala. He has established himself as one of the most talented musicians on the international music scene and is highly regarded by critics. His interpretations are characterised by an inimitable romantic sound that expresses the beauty of bel canto combined with the rigour of the great central European instrumental tradition.
Francesco De Angelis began studying the violin at the age of six with Giovanni Leone, heir to the great school of Pablo Sarasate. At a very young age he took part in one of the most important Italian musical events, the “Rassegna giovani violinisti” Città di Vittorio Veneto, winning first prize three times in 1982, 1984 and 1985. Encouraged by Jean-Jacques Kantorow, he entered the Academy of Sion (Switzerland), where he perfected his skills under the direction of Maestro Tibor Varga. At the age of nineteen he won the international competition for the position of co-leader (Concertino dei primi violini) of the Teatro alla Scala orchestra. In 1993 he won the first prize, awarded unanimously, at the 21st National Violin Competition in Città di Vittorio Veneto. In 1995 he was elected first violin of the orchestra of the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. In 1998, at the International Second Violin Competition at the Teatro alla Scala, he was chosen by Riccardo Muti to be Konzertmeister of the Orchestra d’Opera e della Filarmonica della Scala.
Francesco De Angelis has collaborated with some of the greatest conductors, including: Daniel Barenboim, Gary Bertini, Semyon Bychkov, Riccardo Chailly, Myung-Whun Chung, Colin Davis, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Charles Dutoit, Gianandrea Gavazzeni, Valery Gergiev, Carlo Maria Giulini, Paavo Jarvi, Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Muti, Georges Pretre, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Georg Solti, Jeffrey Tate and Yuri Temirkanov. He has participated in the Ravenna Festival’s “Vie dell’amicizia” project for peace and has performed with the Filarmonica della Scala, conducted by Riccardo Muti, in symbolic cities: Sarajevo (July 1997), Beirut (July 1998), Jerusalem (July 1999), New York at Ground Zero on the first anniversary of the fall of the Twin Towers (September 2002) and Damascus (July 2004).
As a soloist he has performed in some of the world’s most prestigious concert halls, including the Gasteig in Munich, the Bachzaal in Amsterdam, the Conservatoire de Paris, the Rockefeller Center and Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Reiss-Engelhorn Museum in Mannheim. He has performed with the Euskadi Orchestra, the “Tibor Varga” Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto.
In 1999, with the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala, under the direction of Riccardo Muti, he performed Haydn’s Sinfonia Concertante as a soloist at the Teatro alla Scala. In 2000 he performed as a soloist in Montana, accompanied by the Orchestre de l’Académie de Sion under the direction of Tibor Varga. In 2003 he was personally invited by Valery Gergiev to St. Petersburg and Moscow as the only Italian representative in the “World Orchestra for Peace”. He has been invited as first violinist in the Orchestra della Fenice in Venice (first suitable in public audition), in the Orchestra Euskadi in San Sebastian, in the Orchestra Nazionale della Rai in Turin, in the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, and again in the Lucerne Festival Orchestra. During the 2005-2006 season of the Filarmonica della Scala, he performed Glazunov’s Concerto in A minor, op. 82, at the Teatro alla Scala under the baton of Semyon Bychkov, achieving extraordinary success with the public and the critics.
Equally intense is his activity in the field of chamber music with prestigious soloists, including Daniel Barenboim, Enrico Dindo, Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Tibor Varga, Marcio Carneiro, François Guye, Madeleine Carruzzo, Alfredo Persichilli, Lang Lang and the soloists of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
On the recording front, his last two recordings for Decca (London) are particularly noteworthy. Accompanied by the La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Maestro Riccardo Chailly, he recorded G. Verdi’s Solo de Lombardi alla prima crociata and O. Respighi’s Leggenda.
Francesco De Angelis teaches violin at the HEMU Valais-Wallis and gives master classes in France, China, USA, Brazil, Japan, Italy and Switzerland.
He is regularly invited as a member or president of the jury in important international violin competitions such as the Tibor Varga in Sion, the Vittorio Veneto or the Postacchini in Fermo. In 2019 he is the artistic director of the Città di Vittorio Veneto violin competition.
He plays a G.B. Vuillaume-Paris 1864 violin and an A. Poggi-Bologna 1969.
