“What should one praise more: the incredible dexterity with which he executes thunderous rolls on the drums, tom-toms and bongos, makes the claves clang or dances along the xylophone? Or the sensitivity with which the gongs, chimes and cymbals blend with the high strings and delicate woodwinds?
— Isabel Herzfeld, Der Tagesspiegel

Percussionist Simone Rubino began the 2016/2017 season with a highlight of his young career: he made his debut with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra during the Lucerne Festival, at the close of which he received the Credit Suisse Young Artist Award. He also made his debut at Carnegie Hall in New York on October 2016. Further high points include his appearances with the Munich Philharmonic and the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, as well as the world premiere of Adriano Gaglianello’s percussion concerto at the Conservatorio Statale di Musica “Giuseppe Verdi” in Torino, Italy in Spring 2017.

Simone Rubino recorded his first solo album in Fall 2016 with the program “Immortal Bach” (works by Bach, Nystedt, Xenakis and other composers), which he presented live in several concerts. Other engagements take him to Florence with the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino under Zubin Mehta and the Whitsun Festival in Baden-Baden. He will appear for the first time with such conductors as Gustavo Gimeno with the Munich Philharmonic, Manfred Honeck with the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and Tugan Sokhiev with the Vienna Philharmonic at the Lucerne Festival.

Following in the footsteps of Peter Sadlo and Martin Grubinger, the young Italian, who won the ARD Music Competition with a brilliant performance in 2014, marks a new era of percussionists who have established themselves on the classical music scene. He has played concerts with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester and Radio RAI Turin. He made his US debut with the Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra in 2016. Along with his appearances as a soloist, chamber music is also an important facet of his musical activity, as demonstrated by his concerts with the Out of Time Percussion Quartet and the ESEGESI Percussion Quartet.

Simone Rubino has won numerous competitions, including the Universal Marimba Competition (Belgium), the ARD International Music Competition, the Credit Suisse Young Artist Award and the Luigi Nono International Music Competition (Italy). He is a welcome guest at prestigious festivals, among them the Rheingau Music Festival, the Schwetzingen Festival, Musicus Olympus (Russia), the Schwarzwald Music Festival, the Bremen Music Festival and the Young Euro Classic Festival. Born in Turin in 1993, he began his studies at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in his native city before continuing his work with Peter Sadlo in Munich.