Francesco Spendolini is a clarinetist specializing in historically informed performance practice. He collaborates with
leading period-instrument orchestras and ensembles, including Les Musiciens du Prince, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Il
Pomo d’Oro, Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, I Barocchisti, Kammerorchester Basel, La Cetra Baroque Orchestra,
Venice Baroque Orchestra, La Scintilla, Freiburger Barockorchester, Le Cercle de l’Harmonie, Warsaw Chamber Opera,
{OH!} Orkiestra Historyczna, Hofkapelle Stuttgart and Capriccio Basel.
He has worked under the direction of distinguished conductors including Ton Koopman, Christopher Hogwood,
Emmanuel Krivine, Andrea Marcon, Marc Minkowski, Giovanni Antonini, Gianluca Capuano, Riccardo Minasi, Diego
Fasolis, Alan Curtis, Martin Gester, Leonardo García Alarcón, Frieder Bernius and Antonio Florio.
Since 2018, he has collaborated with Les Musiciens du Prince – Monaco, the orchestra founded by Cecilia Bartoli and
conducted by Gianluca Capuano, where he serves as principal clarinet and soloist. Since 2019, he has also had the
privilege of working continuously as principal clarinet and soloist with Le Concert des Nations under its founder and
director Jordi Savall, with whom he maintains an extensive international concert and recording activity.
His training and professional experience also include collaborations with modern-instrument orchestras, among them
the Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto, the Orchestra of the Teatro Giuseppe Verdi in Trieste and the Orchestra Regionale
delle Marche.
He has been invited to prestigious international festivals as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral player,
performing in Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Portugal, Turkey and Argentina.
Particularly committed to rediscovering rarely performed repertoire and expanding the historical clarinet repertoire, he
also works on transcriptions and adaptations of works from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries,
collaborating regularly with Ensemble Delfico.
His recordings and broadcasts have appeared on labels and media platforms including Naïve, DECCA, Gold&Lebert,
Paragon, Delphin Alard, Radio France, France 2, Arte and Vatican Radio. Since 2018, he has recorded regularly with Le
Concert des Nations for Alia Vox under the artistic direction of Jordi Savall.
After completing his studies in modern clarinet at the “Gioacchino Rossini” Conservatory in Pesaro in 2000, he pursued
a specialization in historical clarinet, first in Italy with Luca Lucchetta at the “Arrigo Pedrollo” Conservatory in
Vicenza, and subsequently in Switzerland at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis under the guidance of Pierre-André
Taillard. There he earned two Master of Arts degrees in Specialized Musical Performance – Early Music, focusing
respectively on Baroque/Classical and late Classical/Romantic clarinet, both centred on historically informed
performance practice.
Deeply committed to teaching and to the education of new generations of musicians, Spendolini regularly gives
masterclasses and has collaborated with institutions including the Royal Conservatoire The Hague, the Mozartstiftung
Salzburg, the National Academy of Music in Sofia and numerous Italian conservatories. From 2014 to 2021, he co-
supervised the Harmoniemusik Laboratory together with Donna Agrell at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis.
Since 2021, he has taught historical clarinet at the “Luca Marenzio” Conservatory in Brescia. Since September 2025, he
has also served as Professor of Historical Clarinet at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de
Paris (CNSMDP).
