Salvatore Accardo made his debut at 13 playing Paganini’s Caprices. Two years later he won the Geneva Competition and the Paganini Competition in Genoa.
His repertoire ranges from pre-Bach to post-Berg; composers like Salvatore Sciarrino, Franco Donatoni, Walter Piston, Astor Piazzolla, Silvia Colasanti and Iannis Xenakis wrote works for him.
In addition to playing with the world’s leading orchestras and conductors, Accardo plays recitals and particularly loves chamber music. He founded the Accardo Quartet as well as the Walter Stauffer Academy for young strings players.
He also conducts opera and for the 200th anniversary of Rossini’s birth, he conducted, at the Pesaro Festival and in Rome, the first modern edition of the Messa di Gloria (recorded live), repeated in Vienna with the Wiener Symphoniker.
Salvatore Accardo has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, EMI, Sony Classical and Fonè. He has been awarded with the Abbiati Prize by the Italian Musical Critics for the exceptional standard of his playing and interpretation and with the Italian highest honor Cavaliere di Gran Croce. He also received the Life for the Music Award and the Gold Medal in the Arts by the Kennedy Center of New York.
Accardo created the Orchestra da Camera Italiana with the best pupils of Stauffer Academy and recorded with them all of the Paganini Concerti for violin for EMI Classics, and the Concerto per la Costituzione and Piazzolla works for violin in 3 SACDs for Fonè.
He plays a violin Guarneri del Gesù “Hart” 1730.
