Giovanna Barbati is an Italian cellist and viola da gamba player whose repertoire extends from early to contemporary music and who has a special interest in improvisation. She appears frequently as a soloist and has given the first performance of a number of works for solo cello, many written especially for her. As a principal cellist, she has played at the Teatro Regio in Turin, and with groups such as the Innsbrucker Festwochen Orchestra, Accademia Bizantina, Les Talens Lyriques, Il Complesso Barocco, Real Compañìa Òpera da Càmara, L’Arte del Mondo, Camerata Bern and Concerto de’ Cavalieri. On the viola da gamba she has been the continuo player in several operas, and in Bach’s Sixth Brandenburg Concerto with Andras Schiff and Cappella Barca. For many years she was principal cellist and viola da gamba player with the Academia Montis Regalis (Mondovì, Italy), with which she toured as a soloist in 2014, including performances in Paris, London and St Petersburg.
Giovanna also teaches the cello and viola da gamba and and holds workshops in historical improvisation. As part of her scholarly researches in this field she contributed the chapter ‘Il n’exécute jamais la Basse telle qu’elle est écrite’: The Use of Improvisation in Teaching Low Strings’ to the recent collected volume, edited by Fulvia Morabito, Musical Improvisation in the Baroque Era (Brepols, 2019). As an editor, she has collaborated with Guido Olivieri in the preparation of an 18th-century Neapolitan cello method, Antonio Guida: Metodo per violoncello (forthcoming for the Società Editrice di Musicologia). Together with Alessandro De Marchi she prepared for the Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik critical editions of the operas Merope by Riccardo Broschi and Idalma by Bernardo Pasquini.
A prolific recording artist, Giovanna has won numerous awards and garnered considerable critical acclaim.
“At the cello, Giovanna Barbati moves us and touches us with its almost mystical and powerfully dramatic performance.” Click here to visit Giovanna’s website
