Francesco Granata, born in 1998, is an Italian pianist. Highly active both in solo and chamber music settings, his collaborations include Trio Eclipse, an ensemble based in Basel that he joined in 2024 and Wendel Quartet, of which he is a founding member. Additionally, he frequently performs duo recitals with various musical partners.
Winner of numerous piano competitions, he received the First Prize at the Premio Venezia in 2017, which led to many solo recitals across Italy and abroad. Subsequently, he was a Laureate at the Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition (2021), won Second Prize at the Rahn Musikpreis (2024), was a Finalist at the Montreal International Piano Competition (2021), and reached the final stages of the prestigious Van Cliburn International Piano Competition (2022). Since then, Francesco has performed in solo recitals and chamber music ensembles in Europe, the United States, and India, giving concerts in renowned venues such as KKL in Lucerne, the Experimental Theatre of the NCPA in Mumbai, the Opera House in Bordeaux, the Musical Arts Center in Bloomington (USA), or the Gran Teatro La Fenice in Venice.
At the age of 13, Francesco made his debut as a soloist with orchestra and has since performed with the Luzern Sinfonieorchester and I Pomeriggi Musicali, among others.
In 2018, the magazine Suonare News released his first CD, featuring a repertoire ranging from Mozart to Debussy. In 2015, he recorded a DVD for Limenmusic studios of a chamber arrangement of Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto. In 2023, the Italian magazine Amadeus published a CD featuring Giuseppe Martucci’s Trios recorded with the DaVinci Ensemble.
He has attended various masterclasses with Pavel Gililov, Robert Levin, and Elisabeth Leonskaja. In 2023, he was selected by Maria João to participate in one of her »Partitura Project« workshops (in collaboration with the Gilmore Festival), which offers a unique masterclass concept focused on dialogue and the sharing of music and experiences between musicians of different generations.
Francesco graduated at 17 from the Conservatory in Milan with top marks and special mention. In 2019, he completed the Master Course Diploma at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome under the guidance of Benedetto Lupo. He went on to study for an Artist Diploma at Indiana University, Bloomington (USA), with Roberto Plano. At the same university, he also served as an Assistant Instructor. He currently resides in Basel, where he is pursuing his second Master in Music Pedagogy at the Musik Akademie, after having earned the Master in Performance (with a minor in Jazz) at the same school in June 2025, under the guidance of Claudio Martínez Mehner.
