Paganini Competition Appoints New Artistic Director—35-year-old Nicola Bruzzo

The Paganini Competition has announced a new artistic director: 35-year-old Nicola Bruzzo.

A native of Ferrara, Bruzzo is an alumnus of the Conservatory of Bologna. He continued his studies under Friedemann Eihchhorn at the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar, and Natalia Prishepenko, then the first violin of the Artemis Quartet, in Berlin. He has performed with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and is joint artistic director of Ferrara Musica alongside Enzo Restagno.

His appointment to the Paganini Competition came as a surprise due to his relative youth. Bruzzo also expressed a desire to help younger musicians with more than just musical technicality: "What I would like is for those young talents to also know how to interact with the public. The classical audience is thinning because music education is lacking in Italy. The generation between 40 and 60 has become lost in the depths of Youtube and Spotify, but twenty-year-olds are more flexible. If instead of throwing them into listening without a net, you tell them what they are going to hear, there is hope that they will become curious." 

Founded in 1954, the Paganini Competition is one of the most important violin competitions in the world, and happens every two years from September to October at the Carlo Fenice theater in Genoa.

Bruzzo succeeds pianist Nazzareno Caruso, under whose tenure the competition saw the highest number of entrants.

His appointment is not without controversy: disagreeing with the decision, Salvatore Accardo resigned his post as president of the jury, stating that he doubted the sufficiency of Bruzzo's education and experience for such a prestigious competition. Accardo will be succeeded by Uto Ughi. The latter remarked: "I am particularly pleased to work in a competition aimed at young people and to be able to pass on to them a lifetime of experiences and skills. This is a great responsibility, above all a cultural one, in which I believe strongly: young people are the future, even in the world of the violin."

Bruzzo and Ughi will work together in the 58th iteration of the competition, happening October 2025.