Francesco Tristano

“Music is music”. This is what Alban Berg responded to George Gershwin in Paris during the spring of 1928, as to why there was no distinction between what we consider “educated” music and “popular” music. Francesco Tristano has endorsed this quote over the last decade with his work; combining piano and synthesizer, between the scores of Johann Sebastian Bach – and also Frescobaldi, Berio, Buxtehude, Stravinsky, and Gershwin, among others – and the latest production and sequencing tools.

Francesco Tristano is an artist of many talents: pianist, composer, techno and jazz musician, combining eras, genres and styles in his music. Francesco has become a key reference in a new movement which explores the creative intersection between classical and electronic music, homogenising it in a natural way which unites audiences from various worlds into his own universe. Tristano often collaborates with important names in different genres such as Derrick May, Carl Craig and Michel Portal to name a few.

Born in 1981, Tristano discovered the piano at the age of five and studied at New York’s Juilliard School for five years. It was in New York that he started to work with electronic and club music as well as completing a master class with Rosalyn Tureck. In 2004, he won the first prize at the International piano competition for contemporary music in Orléans, France. After recent successes such as 'A Soft Shell Groove', Tristano continues to present new compositions regularly.

Tristano works with a number of important orchestras including the MDR Sinfonieorchester Leipzig (with Kristjan Järvi), Orchestre National de Lille, hr-Sinfonieorchester, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, BBC Concert Orchestra, Szczecin Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and Spanish National Orchestra and Choir. Recent and upcoming concert highlights (orchestral and recital) include La Folle Journée, Sonar, Metz and Evian Festivals, Cité de la Musique, and recitals at Royal Festival Hall, Funkhaus Berlin, the Sala São Paulo and Teatro Municipal do Rio de Janerio.

Tristano has a growing discography including recordings of Bach’s Goldberg Variations and complete keyboard concertos, Luciano Berio’s complete piano works, and Girolamo Frescobaldi’s Toccatas. His album ‘Idiosynkrasia’ (inFine, 2010), recorded at Carl Craig’s Planet E-communications in Detroit, was released to critical acclaim; Tristano accomplished the synthesis of digital virtuosity and rare electronic textures, which he now calls ‘Piano 2.0’. On Deutsche Grammophon he released ‘BachCage’, produced by Moritz von Oswald, in 2011, 'The Long Walk' (Buxehetude/ Bach/ Tristano) in 2012, and ‘Scandale’ with Alice Sara Ott. Tristano releases 'Piano Circle Songs' featuring Chilly Gonzales with Sony Classics in September 2017, a recording which explores the gentler, more innocent side of his creative personality with simple, poignant melodies being the key creative impetus.