The biography of Salvatore Accardo

Origins and Training

Salvatore Accardo was born in Turin on September 26, 1941, into a family originally from Torre del Greco. His father, Vincenzo, a cameo engraver and great music enthusiast, encouraged his son's violin studies from early childhood. Even as a young child, Accardo showed precocious talent: at the age of three, he managed to reproduce the famous song Lili Marleen by ear, beginning to practice at home with the support of his sister Anna and his cousin Ermanno Corsi.

At the age of eight, he began his musical studies with the Neapolitan violinist Luigi D’Ambrosio. Two years later, he took his lower-level completion exam at the San Pietro a Majella Conservatory in Naples, already demonstrating remarkable technical maturity. In 1954, he passed his intermediate level with honors, and in the same year, he performed publicly, playing the complete Capricci by Niccolò Paganini—an exceptionally rare feat for such a young violinist.

Diploma and Further Specialization

In 1956, at only fifteen, he obtained his violin diploma. During the same period, Count Guido Chigi Saracini invited him to further his studies at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, where he studied with Riccardo Brengola and the violinist Yvonne Astruc, a pupil of George Enescu. The Accademia Chigiana would remain a point of reference for him in the following years; he returned there as a teacher from 1973 to 1981 and again starting in 2003.

The Paganini Prize and the Start of His Career

True acclaim came in 1958 when, at just seventeen, he won the prestigious Paganini Prize in Genoa, becoming one of the youngest winners of the competition. This success marked the beginning of his international career and opened the doors to the world's leading concert halls.

In subsequent years, Accardo collaborated with many of the world's most important orchestras, performing both as a soloist and as a conductor of chamber ensembles, quickly gaining recognition from both audiences and critics.

International Career

Starting in the 1970s, Salvatore Accardo consolidated his international career, performing with some of the main Italian and European musical institutions. In 1971, he founded the Le Settimane Musicali Internazionali festival in Naples, an initiative that stood out for offering the public the chance to attend concert rehearsals, fostering direct contact between performers and listeners.

During that decade, he collaborated with major conductors and soloists. In 1979, he performed Alban Berg's Violin Concerto in the Sala Verdi of the Milan Conservatory for the Teatro alla Scala, and in 1982, he performed Mozart's Sinfonia concertante for violin, viola, and orchestra at La Scala with violist Bruno Giuranna under the direction of Claudio Abbado.

In the same year, on the bicentenary of Niccolò Paganini's birth, he performed the complete 24 Capricci in Genoa using the famous Guarneri del Gesù violin once owned by the composer, known as "Il Cannone." The performance was repeated in several other cities during the celebrations dedicated to the great Genoese virtuoso.

Teaching Activity and Chamber Music

Alongside his solo career, Accardo developed a deep interest in chamber music and the training of young musicians. In 1986, he helped found the advanced string instrument courses at the Walter Stauffer Foundation in Cremona, together with Bruno Giuranna, Rocco Filippini, and Franco Petracchi. Numerous educational and musical initiatives for new generations were born from this experience.

In 1992, he founded the Accardo Quartet, and in the following years, he continued his teaching and musical outreach activities internationally. In 1996, during a tour in the Far East, the Beijing Conservatory awarded him the title of Most Honorable Professor. During the same period, he relaunched the Orchestra da Camera Italiana, largely composed of the best students from the Cremona advanced courses.

From 2004, he returned to teaching violin at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, continuing his pedagogical work alongside his concert career.

Instruments and Trivia

Throughout his career, Accardo has used instruments of great historical value, including several violins by Antonio Stradivari and a 1734 Guarneri del Gesù. Among the most famous instruments he has owned are the 1727 Stradivari Hart ex Francescatti and the 1718 Stradivari Firebird ex Saint-Exupéry.

In 1974, he also participated in the television advertising segment Carosello, appearing in a commercial for Carpené Malvolti prosecco—a curious episode in the career of a great classical music performer.