Andrea Botticelli - Stimme Aus Der Ferne (2021)

Celebrated for launching a “Fortepiano Renaissance” (The WholeNote), Canadian pianist Andrea Botticelli combines captivating artistic sensibility with insightful historical research. She is a performer acclaimed for her originality and sensitivity performing on numerous keyboard instruments from the fortepiano, clavichord, and harpsichord to the modern piano. An innovative and versatile artist, she has performed as a soloist and chamber musician across Canada and abroad in England, France, Italy, Spain, and the United States. Her performances have been praised as "brilliant and dynamic", with "poetic nuances" and "virtuosity" (Corriere Canadese).

For her performance on various keyboard instruments, Andrea has received numerous awards and grants from the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Canada Council for the Arts, Early Music America, National Music Centre, Ontario Arts Council, Stingray Music, and the Wirth Institute for Austrian and Central European Studies. Her debut CD recording of solo works written by Schubert, Czerny, Clara Schumann, and Robert Schumann recorded on the Banff Centre fortepiano replica of an instrument by Conrad Graf will be released in 2021.

Andrea's ability to revive and breathe new life into historical practices and to coax the expressive voice from each different instrument result in performances with a unique sound and an individual expressive style. She has recently presented concerts across Canada performing on fortepiano models from the 18th and 19th centuries, introducing performance on the instruments and historically informed methods to new audiences. Performance projects from past seasons have included appearances at York Region Chamber Music, the Scaramella series, the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, and the University of Western Ontario.

A dedicated teacher, Andrea has taught and lectured about performance practice and fortepiano performance at the University of Toronto and the University of Western Ontario. She teaches “historically informed pedagogy,” introducing students on all keyboard instruments to aspects of performance such as preluding, embellishments, cadenza-writing, and partimento improvisation. Some of Andrea’s earliest students have been accepted into professional music programs at McGill University, University of Toronto, University of Western Ontario, and Wilfrid Laurier University. A faculty member of the Glenn Gould School and the Phil and Eli Taylor Performance Academy of the Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM) in Toronto, her students have achieved outstanding success, most notably the 2016 and 2015 Canadian Music Competition (CMC) Grand Prizes in the 7-10 year old category, CMC national championships in 2014-2017, as well as making Carnegie Hall, Koerner Hall, and Classical 96.3 FM debuts. Andrea is also a frequent adjudicator and a member of the RCM College of Examiners.

Andrea's historical keyboard research has included visits to collections, museums, and artisans around the world in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Italy, and the United States. She has undertaken extended residencies exploring the historical keyboards at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and Studio Bell of the National Music Centre in Canada. During her doctoral studies in piano at the University of Toronto, Andrea was also an exchange student at McGill University studying performance practice and fortepiano performance. Her dissertation explores the evolution of Beethoven’s piano writing and his treatment of piano sonority in conjunction with his contemporary Viennese, French, and English instruments. Andrea's personal collection of keyboard instruments includes a copy of an early 17th century Venetian harpsichord made by David Jensen, a copy of a 5-octave clavichord by Friederici (1774) made by Renée Geoffrion and an original fortepiano by Conrad Graf (1835) restored by Edwin Beunk.