Gordon Fantini, Italian - Solo Bassoonist
Gordon Fantini started playing the bassoon at the age of 14, following five years of studying the piano. In 2004 he studied with Prof. Leonardo Dosso in the
Conservatory G. Verdi in his home- town of Milano where he achieved the
Diploma with the Laudae. He perfections his studies with Sergio Azzolini, Carlo
Colombo, Gilbert Audin, Gabriele Screpis, Albrecht Holder...
In July 2021 he wins the 1st prize in his category of the World Music Competition (Wien).
In 2021, Gordon was invited to perform a recital at the Morellino Classica
International Festival, in Tuscany.
From September 2020 he become artist member of the Brussels Muzieque.
In 2019, Gordon was prize winner of the Sàndor Vègh Competition (president of
jury Ivàn Fischer) that has seen him as soloist with the Budapest Festival
Orchestra in October 2020.
In February 2020 he won the position as Solo Bassoon, Section Leader at the
Belgian National Orchestra, Bruxelles.
In 2019 he becomes bassoonist of the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra
after being selected in 2017 for the Verbier Festival Orchestra. During that
summer he auditioned for the Budapest Festival Orchestra winning the only
place available.
He is also invited as principal bassoon at the Teatro la Fenice in Venice and he
was in Trial at
the Malaysian Philarmonic Orchestra during the season 2018/2019.
In the past he succeeded also in other auditions for important festivals like the
Schleswig Holstein International Music Festival (2013 and 2014).
Gordon has collaborated with many orchestras in Switzerland such as Verbier
Chamber Festival Orchestra, Berner Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de
Chambre de Lausanne, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (taking part in a CD
recording under the baton of Johnathan Nott)
and KammerOrchester Basel.
In 2017, Gordon has been invited to perform “Histoire du Soldat” by Stravinsky/
Ramuz at the Château de Chillon (Swiss) with musicians from the Orchestre de la
Suisse Romande with Michel Voïta and to record all the woodwind ensemble
works of Richard Strauss at the Amiata Piano Festival (Tuscany).
He is also participating in various Swiss festivals: Gstaad Menuhin Festival
(since 2015), Sion Festival by invitation of Pavel Vernikov. He also played in the
“Feast of Duos” show with musical comedy duo Igudesman & Joo and Ray Chen.
In the 16/17 season, Gordon was successful in auditions for extra work in Teatro
alla Scala (Milan) having the great pleasure to play in April '18 with the
Filarmonica conducted by Fabio Luisi, Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini (Parma),
Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (Geneva) and the Haydn Orchestra (Bolzano).
In 2014 he also won a trial for the position of solo bassoon at the Royal
Philharmonic Orchestra (London) where he performed on tour with the
orchestra in venues including the Royal Albert Hall and Cadogan Hall.
As a soloist, Gordon has performed Vivaldi’s “La Notte”, Mozart’s Sinfonia
Concertante and many performances of Mozart’s Bassoon Concerto with the
Ensemble “Accademia dell’Annunciata” of Abbiategrasso. In September 2012 he was also invited by the Chamber Music Society of Colombo (Sri Lanka) to play
two concertos by Vivaldi and he was the first bassoon player to perform as
soloist on the island; in this occasion he shows his mastery achieving good critics
by the locals newspapers; in fact the Sunday Times writes about him :
“His mastery of the instrument was truly on display in this performance, as he
showed us how wrong we are to suppose that the Bassoon is just a continuo
instrument, which it was, til Vivaldi took it in hand.”
He is conducted by many of the most known conductors in the world.
