Francesco Spendolini belongs to a new wave of young Italian musicians with a growing presence on the international concert scene. In 2016, after performing Vivaldi’s Juditha Triumphans in London at the Barbican Centre with the Venice Baroque Orchestra conducted by Andrea Marcon, he was praised by the critics, « for his tender use of the chalumeau (as a turtle dove) during the Veni, veni, me sequere fida Aria », as « the perfect accompanist for Magdalena Kožená ». In 2015 he delighted his audience as « a chalumeau player with excellent technique and exquisite sensitivity » (Corriere della Sera).

Francesco Spendolini regularly works with period instrument orchestras and ensembles, such as I Barocchisti, the Kammerorchester Basel, La Cetra Baroque Orchestra, the Venice Baroque Orchestra, the Chambre Philharmonique, Le Cercle de l’Harmonie, Il Complesso Barocco, the Ensemble Arcimboldo, the Hofkapelle Stuttgart, Capriccio Basel, La Riscoperta, Divino Sospiro, La Phoenix, I Pizzicanti, the Orchestra of the European Baroque Academy of Ambronay, under conductors like Ton Koopman, Christopher Hogwood, Emmanuel Krivine, Andrea Marcon, Giovanni Antonini, Diego Fasolis, Alan Curtis, Martin Gester, Leonardo García Alarcón, Frieder Bernius, Antonio Florio.
Since 2013 Francesco Spendolini has had the honour to ceaselessly collaborate with Les Musiciens du Louvre and its conductor Mark Minkowski.

In addition to his performances with period instruments, Francesco Spendolini has extensively played with leading modern orchestras, such as the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the Orchestra of Padua and Veneto, the Orchestra of the Giuseppe Verdi Theatre in Trieste and the Orchestra Regionale delle Marche.
In his chamber music concerts, he also had the privilege to closely work with artists such as, among others, Anthony Pay, Thomas Friedly, Luca Lucchetta, Agide Brunelli, Guido Arbonelli and Sauro Berti.

Besides performing during prestigious international festivals both as a soloist, chamber and orchestral musician in Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy, England, Scotland, Belgium, Portugal, Turkey, and Argentina, Francesco Spendolini has shown a keen interest in discovering unknown works and extending the clarinet repertoire, e.g. with his own adaptations and through cooperation with chamber music ensembles, as the Ensemble Delfico, with which he regularly performs late 18th Century and early 19th Century works.
He has recorded for Naïve, Gold&Lebert, Paragon, Delphin Alard, Radio France, France 2, Arte, and Vatican Radio.

Following his clarinet studies at the Conservatory “Gioacchino Rossini” of Pesaro in 2000, Francesco Spendolini continued his specialization in historical clarinet, first in Italy with Luca Lucchetta at the Conservatory “Arrigo Pedrollo” in Vicenza, and later on in Switzerland under the guidance of Pierre-André Taillard at the “Schola Cantorum Basiliensis”, where he also obtained two Masters of Arts with honours in Specialized Musical Performance - Early Music (Medieval-Renaissance and Renaissance-Romantic, both focused on the Historical Performance Practise).

Committed to education and development of young musicians, he regularly teaches in master classes and music schools. Since 2014 he has been working as a Co-Supervisor - along with Donna Agrell - for the Harmoniemusik Laboratory at the faculty of Early Music at the “Schola Cantorum Basiliensis”.

©Francesco Spendolini 2016-17