The violinist Elisa Citterio joined Tafelmusik as Music Director from 2017 to 2022. She moved to Toronto from her native Italy, where she divided her artistic life between orchestral work and an intense schedule as a chamber musician. She has recorded, performed and toured, often as leader , soloists or concertmaster, with such ensembles as Dolce & Tempesta, Europa Galante, Accademia Bizantina, Accordone, Zefiro, la Venexiana, La Risonanza, Ensemble 415, Concerto Italiano, Orquestra del Monsalvat, Il Giardino Armonico, I Turchini, La Lira d’Orfeo,Orchestra Academia 1750, and Balthasar-Neumann Choir & Ensemble (Thomas Hengelbrock). From 2004 to 2017 she was a member of the Orchestra del Teatro della Scala di Milano. Elisa’s arrival in Toronto has created much excitement. Just 18 months into her new position at Tafelmusik, she was awarded 2019 Leonardo Award for Arts, Science & Culture by the Italian Chamber of Commerce for her contribution to the cultural and intellectual life of Canada. With her arrival in Toronto, Elisa’s renown has spread through North America. Recent appearances as Guest Director include Québec's Les Violons du Roy.
Elisa Citterio was born in Brescia, Italy, and grew up in a musical family, including her composer mother and brother, and sisters who are professional musicians. Elisa began playing piano and violin as a preschooler, and as a teenager played baroque sonatas with her mother and sister. At eleven she began formal studies in violin at the L. Marenzio Conservatory in Brescia, winning many prizes in national competitions and graduating in violin and viola with highest honours. She continued her post-graduate studies with Franco Gulli, Pavel Vernikov, Corrado Romano, Dora Schwarzberg, Matis Vaitsner, Ilya Grubert, and Dejan Bogdanovich.
In 2000, Elisa was selected as concertmaster and soloist with the orchestra of the Accademia del Teatro alla Scala di Milano, where she received intensive professional training in orchestral and chamber music repertoire, as well as violin technique. Soon after graduating, she began studying baroque violin, taking part in masterclasses with Enrico Onofri, studying with Chiara Banchini at the Schola Cantorum Basilensis and with Luigi Mangiocavallo in Rome.
Elisa Citterio’s discography includes more than 35 recordings with Tafelmusik (Vivaldi solo concertos), I Turchini (Neapolitan concerti grossi and first recording of a solo violin concerto by Barbella), Accademia I Filarmonici (Vivaldi), Europa Galante (Vivaldi and Bach), Zefiro (Handel), Accordone (Storie di Napoli), Brixia Musicalis (Vivaldi Four Seasons and Gnocchi triosonatas), Accademia Bizantina (Handel and Corelli), Il Giardino Armonico (Handel and Haydn), La Venexiana (Monteverdi), Joachim Quartet (Schuster), Helianthus Ensemble (C.P.E. Bach trios),
and a number of opera recordings with the Orchestra e Coro del Teatro alla Scala under such conductors as Daniel Barenboim, Riccardo Chailly, Edward Gardner, Daniele Gatti, Daniel Harding, Lorin Maazel, and Riccardo Muti.
Elisa played with Stefano Montanari in Estravagante Ensemble, and from 2014 to 2016 worked alongside Stefano as co-chair of the baroque violin studies program at the Civica Scuola di Musica Claudio Abbado in Milan. She has given many masterclasses in Italy (Urbino, San Vito al Tagliamento, Faenza, Modena, Brescia, Cremona), in Canada (Toronto), Switzerland (Lugano). She taught baroque violin at the Conservatory in Udine, Florence, Campobasso, Rovigo and Ferrara. In January 2020 she has been invited to give a masterclass at Juilliard School in New York and afterwards she has been invited again to repeat the masterclass and lead the Juilliard Baroque Orchestra. In July 2024 she made her debut in NY as chef d'orchestra from the violin , leading the Teatro Nuovo historical Orchestra, choir and singers, playing an opera by Carolina Uccelli (1835).