Lunchtime Recital: Isabella Gori and Viola Lenzi (piano duo)

Hailing from diverse musical backgrounds yet united by their passion for the piano, Viola Lenzi and Isabella Gori make a dynamic team that brings classical elegance and contemporary flair to audiences worldwide.

Programme: 

Antonín Dvořák, Slavonic Dances Op. 72 n. 1, 7
Edvard Grieg, Norwegian Dances Op. 35 n. 1, 4
Camille Saint-Saëns, Danse Macabre
George Gershwin, Rhapsody in Blue

Isabella Gori

Isabella Gori is an Italian pianist based in London. Isabella started her musical path at the age of eight, taking her first piano lessons at the local music school of her hometown in Italy. As she was graduating at school, she had lessons with the pianist David Bacci, preparing to join the music university. After school, she studied classical piano at L. Boccherini Conservatoire in Lucca (Italy) with Riccardo Peruzzi. At the Conservatoire she attended a series of masterclasses with the pianists Aquiles Delle Vigne, Benedetto Lupo, and Vincenzo Balzani. She spent her third year of undergraduate studies in Katowice, Poland, at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music. Here she studied with Joanna Domanska and had chamber music lessons with Joanna Galon Frant. After graduating with honours, she decided to move to London to study at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. Here she studied with Margaret Fingerhut, Douglas Finch and Martino Tirimo and attended the annual masterclasses with Pascal Rogé and Rolf Hind. London and its cultural heterogeneity gave her the opportunity to broaden her interests in music and art. Thanks to Douglas Finch, who holds improvisation classes at the Conservatoire, she took an interest in classical and jazz improvisation, using it in multidisciplinary and collaborative performances with the dance department of the Conservatoire.

Viola Lenzi

Italian-born Viola Lenzi started studying piano at the Pietro Mascagni Conservatoire in Livorno, where she received a first-class Bachelor’s degree under the guidance of Monica Cecchi and a Master’s in Piano Performance with Maurizio Baglini. Viola moved to London in 2018 to study at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance where she completed her Postgraduate Advanced Diploma with Sergio De Simone and Tirimo. Viola participated in many masterclasses given by prestigious pianists such as Micha Dacic, Daniel Rivera, Sergio De Simone, Jeffrey Swann, Pascal Rogé, Martino Tirimo, Megumi Masaki, Stephan Loges and Dr Emily Kilpatrick. Viola took part in the New Lights Contemporary Festival, London Film Festival, won the Elizabeth Schumann Lieder Competition with the soprano Anna Marmion and was highly commended in the semi-final of the Soloist Competition at Trinity Laban for her performance of the Grieg Piano Concerto in A Minor. As passionate collaborative pianist, she has an active music duo with bass clarinettist Hannah Shilvock and a piano duo with Isabella Gori. She has worked for the Livorno Classical Music Festival, as répétiteur of “All Aboard Opera!” company and given professional recitals in venues around the UK including Westminster Music Library, Poole Lighthouse, St George’s Bristol and Chichester Cathedral.