B i o g r a p h y
The Swiss-Austrian cellist Alessandra Doninelli earned international recognition with her debut at the Berlin Philharmonie giving the premiere of Daniel Pacitti cello concerto. Her radiant personality and expressive musicianship, brought Alessandra on the stages of the world’s leading venues, including the Tokyo Opera City, the Tonhalle in Zurich, the Minato-Mirei hall in Yokohama, the Swiss federal Palace, the Palau de la Musica Catalana in Barcelona and the Auditorio Nacional de Musica in Madrid.
Alessandra recently appeared as a soloist with the "Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana", the “ Basel Sinfonieorchester”, the "Stuttgarter Kammerorchester", the “Camerata dei Castelli” and the “Eurasian Soloists Chamber Orchestra” under the baton of Andrey Boreyko, Kevin Griffiths, Andreas Laake and François Benda.
“Music is capable of moving the mountains and when we share those fleeting episodes of sound with others, the entire planet finds itself in another galaxy” through those words Alessandra expresses the power that chamber music has for her. She worked with inspiring mentors including Günter Pichler (Alban Berg quartet), Eberhard Feltz, Oliver Wille (Kuss Quartet), Rainer Schmidt (Hagen Quaret), Heime Müller (Artemis Quaret), Heinz Holliger and won the prize for the “most outstanding chamber music group with piano” of 2020-2021 academic year at the Escuela Superior de Musica Reina Sofia awarded by the queen of Spain. Alessandra is member of the Trio Michelangeli, prize winner at the 2023 Osaka International Chamber Music Competition in Japan.
Alessandra performed at various festivals including "Herbst in der Helferei", “Pablo Casals Festival”, “Monighetti&Friends, “Musik Miteinander” at the Kronberg Academy, “Musique à Flaine”, “Eggenfelden Klassisch”, “Ceresio Estate” and collaborated with inspiring chamber music partners such as Vilde Frang, Yura Lee, Fabio di Casola and Calogero Palermo.
Alessandra is regularly invited as a guest principal cello with the Camerata Salzburg.
The BBC Radio3 broadcasted multiple times the live-recording of her Saint-Saens cello concerto with the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana. She created a long lasting relationship with the Swiss-Italian Radio-television (RSI) giving a live-concert recital with the pianist Dominic Chamot, appearing in the tv program “Paganini” and in the documentary film “Archi nel Sol Levante”. For the RSI Alessandra also recorded the piano trio of the Dutch composer Elisabeth Kuyper, showing her passion for the discovery of neglected composers and her aim to bring their music to light.
Alessandra studied under the guidance of Ivan Monighetti and Sol Gabetta at the Hochschule für Musik Basel and later at the Escuela Superior de Musica Reina Sofia in Madrid. Furthermore she was part of the 2019 class at the Pavia cello academy with Enrico Dindo and is currently studying with Wen Sinn Yang at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich.
Alessandra plays a 1840 cello by Bernard Simon Fendt II.