Francesca Dego

First Italian woman since 1961 to reach the final of the Paganini Competition, Francesca Dego did so in 2008 and took the prize for youngest finalist. Born in Lecco in 1989, she started at four and worked with Daniele Gay, Salvatore Accardo, Shlomo Mintz and Itzhak Rashkovsky, graduating from the Milan Conservatory and taking postgraduate study at the Royal College of Music in London. She plays with orchestras across Europe, North America and Australia, and her recordings include Paganini's 24 Caprices, the complete Beethoven violin sonatas and concerto albums for Deutsche Grammophon and Chandos. She writes as well, contributing to music magazines and publishing a book about understanding classical music. She finished at the Milan Conservatory in 2006, went on to Accardo's classes at the Chigiana Academy in Siena and the Accademia Stauffer in Cremona, and took a master's degree at the Royal College of Music in 2010. Her solo debut came at seven in San Diego in an all-Bach concert, and she played in the Sala Verdi of the Milan Conservatory at fifteen and alongside Mintz in Tel Aviv at sixteen. Among her records are Mozart's third and fourth concertos with Roger Norrington and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Paganini and Wolf-Ferrari concertos with Daniele Rustioni, and a recital played on Paganini's own violin; she has played a Francesco Ruggeri of 1697. She has also played an Antonio Stradivari on loan from J & A Beare.