Francesco Teopini

Francesco Teopini
Highly commended by classical guitar personalities such as David Russell (“he has a bright future in his guitar playing career”) and Angelo Gilardino (“he was born to donate the gift of music to the audience”), Francesco Teopini is a classical guitarist, musicologist, and music educator currently based in Hong Kong.

As a concert artist, Francesco has performed in important international venues and music festivals for two decades; his performances and recordings have been broadcast by TVB, RTHK, Radio France, RAI, NPO, and RBB. A player whose interpretive proficiency encompasses a wide music repertoire ranging from the common-practice period to the 20th and 21st century, Francesco’s enthusiasm for contemporary music has led him to collaborate with the
Manson Ensemble, the Danilo Dolci Ensemble, and the Hong Kong New Music Ensemble under the baton of Diego Masson, Tonino Battista and Manuel Nawri. Recently, Francesco has worked with Italian composer Giovanni Santini as one of the ensemble members of Santini’s virtual reality opera, Essere.
Francesco’s first international release, J. S. Bach: Sonatas and Partitas BWV 1001–1006 (Brilliant Classics, 2016), has been receiving enthusiastic praises from audiences and experts alike as “[a] major undertaking […] show[ing] a deep understanding of these major works” (David Russell), “[an] intense and felt interpretation…[possessing a sound] endowed with warmth and attack but also power” (Diapason, France) and “a recording that achieves a beautiful sound and a dignified interpretation” (Melόmano Digital, Spain).
Francesco obtained his Diploma in Classical Guitar from the “G. B. Martini” Conservatory in Bologna (Italy) under the guidance of Michele Corbu, and the Postgraduate Diploma in Guitar Performance with Distinction from the Royal Academy of Music (London), where he studied with Timothy Walker, Michael Lewin, and John Mills. During his two years at RAM, he won the Blyth Watson Award and the Foundation Award, as well as the second prize title at the 2007 Julian Bream Prize. As one of the recipients of the prestigious Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme, in June 2019 Francesco has been awarded a PhD in musicology from the Hong Kong Baptist University, where he is currently employed as a lecturer. During his PhD years, Francesco explored the famous Mauro Giuliani’s guitar potpourris called Le Rossiniane through the use of his own method of interdisciplinary analytical approach involving musicology and literary theory, based on the theory of Transtextuality by French literary theorist Gérard Genette. Francesco’s academic publication list includes articles in Malaysian Journal of Music and for The International Association for Word and Music Studies.