ARTISTIC PATH
Italian Brazilian-born keyboard multi-instrumentalist (piano, organ, harpsichord, and clavichord), Marco Orsini-Brescia started his musical education at home. His father, Arnaldo Brescia, a medical doctor who was also a pianist and painter, opened to the child his rich library, which was decisive for the boy’s humanistic education. His mother, Denise Orsini, was the person who put his six years old hands in the piano, giving him a solid technique. The music was the young boy's favourite activity and he wanted to pursue his piano and music lessons with Clotilde Lobo de Rezende, his mother’s former piano teacher, who visited the family every Friday for a private musical soirée. Another key influence on the young boy’s musical development was Sergio Magnani, an Italian conductor close to the family. Later, Orsini-Brescia decided to improve his piano and musical skills with Vera Nardelli, who was a decisive influence for the 20 years old young man. This fortunate meeting resulted in the first prize in the 10th National Piano Competition Arnaldo Estrella, then the most reputed Brazilian piano competition.​
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In 2000, Marco Orsini-Brescia moved to Spain after receiving a scholarship to the renowned international piano course of the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofia, given in Santander by the eminent pianist Russel Sherman. The following year, Orsini-Brescia took part in the Daroca International Early Music Course, also in Spain, under the guidance of the Spanish early keyboard master José Luis González Uriol, who was a decisive influence in his musical path, introducing him to the early music world and boosting his passion for ancient keyboard instruments and repertoire.
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From 2014 to 2018, Orsini-Brescia carried out his post-doctorate studies in Historical Musicology at the Universidade NOVA de Lisboa. In 2013, he concluded his joint Ph.D. studies in Historical Musicology at Universities Paris IV–Sorbonne and NOVA de Lisboa. His thesis about the Spanish historic organ-making and its expansion to Portugal received the maximum grade, très honorable à l’unanimité. The same year, he earned a master’s in Early Music / Historic organ performance at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya / Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, under the guidance of Javier Artigas, obtaining the prestigious matrícula de honor. Orsini-Brescia also got a master’s in Art History from the Université Paris IV–Sorbonne (2007-2009) and a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (1995-2000).
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Marco Orsini-Brescia performs in the most distinguished venues and international festivals in Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, England, Northern Ireland, Switzerland, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Brazil, Peru, and Panama. Since 2006, he has had an acclaimed duo with his wife, soprano Rosana Orsini, with whom he recorded the album ‘Angels and Mermaids: religious Music in Oporto and Santiago de Compostela (18th / 19th century)’ (Arkhé Music, Portugal, 2016). The most prestigious international musical magazines praised his performance in the solo album ‘Zipoli in Diamantina: complete organ works’ (Paraty, France, 2020). This first recording at the oldest historic organ built in Brazil in 1787 was especially highlighted by the Spanish magazine Scherzo and recommended by the French magazine Diapason. It was also broadcasted in Germany by the Bayerischer Rundfunk. The Government of the State of Minas Gerais decorated him with the President Juscelino Kubitschek Medal of Honour.
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Marco Orsini-Brescia is concomitantly immersed in two pianistic projects. The first regards the study and historically informed performance of all Mozart piano sonatas, and the second, Saint-Saëns’ solo piano works, both aiming at future phonographic recordings.
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Parallel to his intense musical activity, Orsini-Brescia is also one of the most recognized musicologists in the field of Iberian organ studies, presenting lectures at prominent international musicological meetings and publishing well-known scientific works on this matter. Since 2019, he is a researcher at the Faculty of Human Sciences / Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, where he is currently the coordinator of the research group Music in the Modern Period / CESEM – Centre for the Studies of Sociology and Musical Aesthetics.