Amedeo Cicchese

Born in Campobasso in 1988, Amedeo Cicchese graduated in cello with top marks and honours at just seventeen under Michele Chiapperino. He then continued his studies at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, where he earned diplomas with honours in both Cello and Chamber Music, studying with Rocco Filippini and Giovanni Sollima, two central figures of the great European cello school. He later studied with Antonio Meneses at the Hochschule der Künste in Bern and with Enrico Dindo at the Pavia Cello Academy.

Winner of the prestigious “Premio Giuseppe Sinopoli”, presented to him personally by the President of the Italian Republic in 2014, Amedeo has also won prizes in more than 30 national and international competitions.

He made his solo debut at just sixteen, followed by an intense career that has taken him to perform as a soloist in Italy, Germany, Turkey, Hungary, Bulgaria, Albania, China and Japan.

Riccardo Muti chose him as principal cello of the Orchestra Giovanile Cherubini, the start of a path that has seen him perform in major theatres and concert halls, both in the orchestra and as a soloist, under conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Daniel Harding, Fabio Luisi, Paavo Järvi, Daniele Gatti, Lahav Shani, Christoph Eschenbach and Tan Dun.

His artistic partnership with Tan Dun led him to appear as a soloist with the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, the China Youth Symphony Orchestra, the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra and the MDR Sinfonieorchester Leipzig, on prestigious stages such as the Shanghai Grand Theatre, the Sala Santa Cecilia of the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, the Leipzig Arena and the Beethoven-Saal in Stuttgart. Among his most significant debuts is the Suntory Hall in Tokyo, where he performed with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra alongside Yundi Li and Ryu Goto for the hall’s 25th anniversary celebrations.

At the same time he won numerous auditions for principal cello, including those of the Orchestra of the Teatro La Fenice in Venice and the Orchestra Sinfonica Abruzzese, until his appointment in 2016 as principal cello of the Teatro Regio di Torino, chosen by Gianandrea Noseda, a position he held until 2025. During these years he worked as principal cello with leading ensembles such as the Orchestra and Filarmonica of the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Camerata Salzburg, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Teatro San Carlo in Naples and the Orquestra de Cadaqués.

In 2025 came the most important achievement of his orchestral career: he won the audition for solo principal cello of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, one of the oldest and most renowned musical institutions in the world, chosen by the orchestra and its music director Daniel Harding.

Also highly regarded as a chamber musician, he has won the “Vittorio Gui” and “Premio Trio di Trieste” international competitions. He is a founding member of the Trio Laetitia, with Daniela Cammarano and Alessandro Deljavan, and with cellist Paolo Bonomini he formed the Duo Janigro, a project that carries on the musical and artistic legacy of Antonio Janigro, one of the most influential cellists of the twentieth century.

Over the years he has attended masterclasses with great performers such as Frans Helmerson, Maria Kliegel, David Geringas and Natalia Gutman, and distinguished himself at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, where he received the prestigious Diploma d’Onore, awarded by the legendary Alban Berg Quartet.

His discography includes a Brilliant Classics CD of works for cello and piano by Castelnuovo-Tedesco and Pizzetti, recorded with pianist Barbara Panzarella, and the complete quintets of Louise Farrenc with the Quintetto Bottesini. With the Trio Laetitia he has recorded the trios of Debussy and Tchaikovsky; their debut album on the renowned French label Artalinna was well received by audiences and critics.

Alongside his concert career, for more than ten years he has devoted himself to teaching, working with the leading Italian conservatories both as a permanent teacher and as a guest teacher in masterclasses and advanced courses. From 2026 he will be the sole cello teacher at the Accademia Lorenzo Perosi in Biella, a historic international institution for advanced musical training (succeeding names such as Antonio Meneses and Daniel Grosgurin), and at the Accademia Martha in Palermo, alongside leading figures such as Giovanni Sollima and Massimo Polidori.

In orchestral training, he teaches at the APM in Saluzzo and has been a tutor of the Pan Caucasian Youth Orchestra since the first edition of the prestigious Tsinandali Festival in Georgia (artistic director Gianandrea Noseda).

He is artistic director of the Festival Janigro, an international festival held in Montagano (Campobasso), Antonio Janigro’s hometown, devoted to the great master’s teaching and performing legacy, combining training and concerts with guests such as Antonio Meneses, Jens Peter Mainz, Natalie Clein, Oliver Herbert and Suyeon Kang.

He plays a 1780 Joseph Hill cello and a 1904 Annibale Fagnola cello.