Born in Bari and was taught violin and viola by his father. Later he studied with Denes Zsigmondy at the Salzburg Mozarteum and Yair Kless at the Rubin Academy in Tel Aviv. In 2010, the Italian National Music Critics Association awarded Francesco with the Premio Abbiati as “Best Soloist” of the year. As soloist Mr. D’Orazio has performed in concerts in all Europe, North and South America, Mexico, Australia, China and Japan. He has recorded for Decca, Hyperion, Opus 111/Naive, Stradivarius and Amadeus. Mr. D’Orazio has performed at such major concert venues as the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Berliner Philarmonie, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Royal Albert Hall and Cadogan Hall in London, the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, New York University, the South Bank Center in London, the Centre de la Musique Baroque in Versailles, the Cervantino Festival in Mexico, Buenos Aires, Instanbul, MiTo, Montpellier, Potsdam, Ravenna, Ravello, Urbino, Salzburg, Strasbourg, Stresa, Tanglewood, Venice Biennale. Mr. D’Orazio’s large repertoire includes works from early music, as violinist in the original instrument ensemble L’Astrée of Turin, to classic, romantic and contemporary music. Indeed, he is a favourite of many composers: he premiered violin and orchestra works by the composers Terry Riley, Brett Dean, Ivan Fedele, Michael Nyman, Michele dall’Ongaro, Vito Palumbo, Maury Buchala, Marcello Panni, Fabio Vacchi, Gilberto Bosco, Marco Betta, Fabian Panisello and Valerio Sannicandro and also many chamber works. Luis De Pablo wrote for D’Orazio his last violin work, “Per Violino”. For many years he worked with Luciano Berio, whose Divertimento for string trio he premiered at the Festival of Strasbourg, performing Sequenza VIII at the Festivals of Salzbourg and Tanglewood and Corale for Marco studied clarinet under Cesare Salati at the Arrigo Boito Conservatory of Music in Parma, graduating in 1997 with distinction.

Marco studied Composition several years under Mario Garuti. In 2010 he completed a postgraduate course in clarinet under Corrado Giuffredi, graduating with distinction with a

thesis on Ferneyhough’s Time and Motion Study I, called “Time and Motion Study, ergonomia utopica” (Time and Motion Study, utopic ergonomy) and performed solo clarinet and

bass clarinet pieces including Time and Motion Study I. In the same year he won the third prize at the Valentino Bucchi International Clarinet Competition in Rome. In May 2015 he

is finalist in the clarinet audition for the Finnish National Opera Orchestra of Helsinki, Finland. After graduating in 1997 he founded Trio Klee (violin, clarinet and piano), with

which he performed the most significant works of the 20th century and received important recognition from critics and audience in national and international competitions.

Afterwards, a flutist and a cellist joined the Trio, which became the Farben Ensemble. The new group performed contemporary music works as well as pieces from the 20th century

repertoire and received important recognitions in national and international competitions and festivals in Damascus, Graz, Thessaloniki, Genova and Antwerp. He has been the

clarinetist of FontanaMIXensemble (based in Bologna) since 2006. With the Ensemble he has played at important contemporary music festivals, and worked with composers from

the Italian and international contemporary music scene, as well with the Ensemble AccrocheNote of Strasbourg. With the Ensemble he performed in renowned venues, such as:

Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Auditorium Manzoni di Bologna, La Biennale di Venezia, Teatro Politeama, Auditorium Zo in Catania, Hall des Chars and la Cité de la musique et de

la danse in Strasbourg, the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, the Sala Filarmonica of Rovereto, DIMITRIA Festival of Thessaloniki. He performed at the 58th International Festival of

Contemporary Music at La Biennale di Venezia for the premiere of the chamber opera Katër i Radës (Il naufragio) by Admir Shkurtaj (libretto of Alessandro Leogrande and

theatrical direction of Salvatore Tramacere), conducted by Pasquale Corrado, collaborating with Cantieri Teatrali Koreja of Lecce. The work was recorded in May 2015 for

AnimaMundi and performed in various occasions such as the Book and Arts festival in Tirana, Brjuni, Sarajevo, Timisoara, Bari and Lecce.violin and orchestra at the Citè de la Musique in Paris and the Auditorium Nacional de Musica in Madrid conducted by the composer. Mr D’Orazio has performed the UK premiere of “Electric Preludes” for electric 6 strings violin and orchestra by the Australian composer Brett Dean at the Proms in London and the Italian premiere of the violin concertos by John Adams (“The Dharma at Big Sur” for electric 6 strings violin), Kaija Saariaho, Unsuk Chin, Luis De Pablo, Michael Daugherty, Aaron jay Kernis and Michael Nyman (Violin Concerto n.1). Mr. D’Orazio has concertized with the London Symphony, Teatro alla Scala Philarmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Mexico City Philharmonic, Orchestre National Il de France, the Shangai Philarmonic, the Berliner Symphoniker, the RAI National Symphony Orchestra, the Nagoya Philarmonic, the Orchestra of the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, the Teatro Comunale Orchestra in Bologna, the Saarlandischer Rundfunk, the Timishoara Philharmonic, the Teatro Petruzzelli Symphony Orchestra, the Sicilian Symphony Orchestra, the Accademia Bizantina, the Academia Montis Regalis, Plural Ensemble in Madrid, Ensemble Court-Circuite in Paris, the Reina Sofia Chamber Orchestra of Madrid conducted by Lorin Maazel, Hubert Soudant, Pascal Rophé, Luciano Berio, Ingo Metzmacher, Sakari Oramo, Steven Mercurio, Daniel Kawka, Zuohang Chen, Aaron Jay Kernis, Ottavio Dantone, Arturo Tamayo and Hansjorg Schellenberger. Mr D’Orazio plays a violin by Giuseppe Guarneri, “Comte de Cabriac”, Cremona 1711 and a Jean Baptiste Vuillaume made in Paris in 1863.