Quartetto Goldberg & Umberto Ruboni
Quartetto Goldberg – formed by violinists Jingzhi Zhang and Giacomo Lucato, violist Matilde Simionato and cellist Martino Simionato – is winner of the Critic prize “Piero Farulli – best Italian Rising Ensemble”, “Una vita nella Musica” Award from Teatro La Fenice of Venice, first prize at Filippo Nicosia Chamber Music Award and it is semi-finalist at Lyon Chamber Music Competition 2024.
The quartet has been “Artist in Residence” for Fondazione Società dei Concerti di Milano 2022/23, guest ensemble of Nuit du Quatuor 2022 in Paris and “Quartet in Residence” at Ticino Festival 2022. Supported by the scholarship “Young Talents of Accademia Stauffer”, it collaborates with the Department of Innovation for the Arts of Juilliard School in New York and is selected by Fondazione I Teatri of Reggio Emilia as the only Italian quartet of “Casa del Quartetto 2023”.
The ensemble takes part in international Festivals like Zeist Music Days (Netherlands), Vibre ! Festival (France), Allegra Festival (Bulgaria), Crans-Montana Classics (Switzerland), Musique à Flaine (France), Verão Classico (Portugal). It is member of MERITA platform and Le Dimore del Quartetto, for whom it has been awarded “Ensemble of the Year 2022”.
By the end of 2024, it will record two new CD albums. The first one is sponsored by Filo di Note music label and it will include string quartets by Mozart and Ravel. The second one, a monographic to Brahms string quartets n. 1 op. 51 and n. 3 op. 67, is offered by Da Vinci Publishing.
The group is regularly invited by Italian and international Music Societies including Fondazione Società dei Concerti di Milano, MiTo settembre musica, Società dei Concerti di Trieste, Fondazione I Teatri Reggio Emilia, Gioventù Musicale Italiana, Viotti Festival, Filarmonica Laudamo, Ticino Musica Festival, Musica Insieme Bologna, Associazione Scarlatti, Amici della Musica Palermo, ProQuartet – Center européen de musique de chambre, Jeunesses Musicales of Deutschland. Thanks to Italian Institutes of Culture and Embassies, it has appeared in concert venues in Helsinki and Salo (Finland), Casablanca (Morocco), Jeddah and Riyadh (Saudi Arabia).
Quartetto Goldberg was born in 2021. It is studying at Accademia Stauffer in Cremona with Quartetto di Cremona and it selected as Artist in Residence 2024/25 at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Bruxelles, with Miguel da Silva. The name is a tribute to J. S. Bach’s Variations, a piece that deeply binds the four members and expresses the key ideals of their music-making: refinement, simplicity and communicativeness.
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Born in 1996, Umberto Ruboni has been an Artist in Residence at the Ingesund Piano Center in Arvika (Sweden) since 2022, under the mentorship of Julia Mustonen-Dahlkvist.
Graduated with honors and distinction from the “G. Verdi” Conservatory in Milan, he pursued his musical education at the Conservatories of Alessandria and Milan, as well as the Chigiana Academy in Siena and the Pinerolo Academy, among others. His teachers have included Maddalena Lolaico, Angela Colombo, Marco Rapattoni, Gianmaria Bonino, and Sergio Marchegiani. Additionally he has received advanced training from renowned pianists such as Roberto Plano, Olaf John Laneri, Roberto Cappello, Lylia Zilberstein, Sergejs Osokins, Pavel Nersessian and Jacques Ammon.
He has achieved distinction in numerous piano competitions, including the Orbetello Master Piano Competition (1st prize – 2023), the YAMAHA International Piano Competition in Malmö (1st prize – 2022), the Thalberg International Piano Competition in Naples (3rd prize – 2021), and the Conservatory of Milan Prize (1st prize soloist – 2015, 1st prize chamber musician – 2017), as well as the Albenga International Piano Competition (3rd prize – 2019).
He has performed for prestigious concert societies such as the Società dei Concerti in Milan, Società del Quartetto in Milan, Accademia Filarmonica Romana in Rome, Società Umanitaria, Festival Echos, and has appeared as a soloist with orchestras conducted by Beatrice Venezi, Nikolay Lalov, Fabrizio Dorsi, Marcello Rota, and Pietro Mianiti.
An enthusiast of chamber music, he regularly performs in piano duo with Eunmi Park and duo with cellist Matteo Fabi. He has also had the honor of performing with extraordinary musicians such as Bruno Canino, Elio Marchesini, Vicens Prats, Sarah Louvion, Alena Walentin, Marina Piccinini…
Since 2023 he has been working as Piano Accompanist for Instrumentalists at “G. Verdi” Conservatory in Milan. He’s also the official accompanist of numerous festivals such as the Vivaldi Flute Week in Alessandria, the FVG International Music Meeting in Sacile, the Valtellina Festival Le AltreNote in Valdidentro, The Complete 21st Century Flutist: the Global Artist at the California State University (Summer Campus in Mondovì)… This role has allowed him to deepen his knowledge of music, especially in chamber music repertoire, by assisting Masterclasses of musicians such as Peter-Lukas Graf, Sergei Krylov, Ludwig Quandt, Fabio Di Casola, Juliette Hurel…
Since the age of 16, he has also been successful as a teacher. He has served as a chamber music teacher for the Valtellina Festival Le AltreNote, a piano teacher for the Oltregiogo Workshops, and a piano teacher for the Pianitalia Festival with Eunmi Park and Tony Yike Yang.
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