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Fabio Zanon is recognized as one of the preeminent guitarists of today. His interpretations are admired for their combination of integrity, imagination and a cultivated tone. His varied activities as a conductor, teacher, writer and broadcaster have contributed to placing the guitar in a broader cultural perspective.
As a soloist, he has performed in more than 50 countries, in theatres such as the Royal Festival Hall and Wigmore Hall in London, Philharmonie in Berlin, Weill Hall at Carnegie in New York, Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, Philharmonie in Saint Petersburg, Beaux Arts Center in Brussels, Les Invalides in Paris, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Koerner Hall in Toronto, KKL in Lucerne and Sala Verdi in Milan. He is a regular guest at the largest guitar and chamber music festivals around the world. Among several prestigious engagements, he has performed for Her Majesty the Empress Michiko of Japan.
His repertoire includes more than 40 orchestral concertos - many of them in world premiere - and virtually the entire relevant chamber repertoire. Among the orchestras he has performed with are the London Philharmonic, Russian State Orchestra Evgeny Svetlanov, Ulster Orchestra, RTÉ Symphony in Dublin, Israel Chamber Orchestra, Berliner Camerata and Deutsche Kammerakademie. With OSESP – São Paulo State Symphony – he made the first world recording of Francisco Mignone's guitar concerto; he has recorded Francis Hime's concerto — a Latin Grammy-nominated album — and Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez with the same orchestra. He maintains a long partnership with flutist Marcelo Barboza, but has also played with musicians as diverse as violinists Emmanuele Baldini, Nicholas Koeckert and Elissa Cassini, cellists Antonio Meneses and Viktor Uzur, oboists Alex Klein and Christian Wetzel, guitarists Yamandu Costa and Assad brothers and singers of all styles such as Camila Titinger, Claudia Riccitelli, Carole Farley, Rosana Lamosa, Rodrigo del Pozo, Toquinho, Ney Matogrosso, Ana Luiza and Maria Mulata.
Also recognized as a conductor, he is possibly the only guitarist who regularly performs as a soloist/conductor. He directed the acclaimed South American premiere of Michael Nyman's opera The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.
In 2021 he produced Lira – the IREE music podcast, where he broadcasts a wide variety of music-related topics. He conceived, wrote and presented around 200 programs for Radio Cultura, including the series The Art of Guitar and The Brazilian Guitar, which have been used as teaching materials.
Fabio studied initially with his father and later with professors Antonio Guedes, Henrique Pinto and, at the University of São Paulo, with Edelton Gloeden. He moved to London in 1990, where he studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Michael Lewin, and attended master classes with Julian Bream and John Williams; he obtained his master's degree from the University of London.
In spite of his lack of inclination towards competition, Fabio had exceptional momentum winning the two biggest international guitar competitions in 1996, the Certamen Francisco Tarrega in Spain and the International Guitar Foundation of America (GFA) Competition, as well as the Alessandria International Competition in Italy. In 2022 he received an Honorary Doctorate from the Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Argentina. He is the recipient of a number of distinctions, including the Carlos Gomes Prize and the Bravo! Award. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music, a title reserved for alumni of exceptional relevance on the international stage.
He has been Visiting Professor at the Royal Academy of Music since 2009; he also regularly teaches at the Master Guitarra Alicante (Spain), at the Lisbon-Estoril Festival (Portugal), and was a resident teacher at the Royal Conservatory of Stockholm in 2008. He has given courses and master classes at the biggest conservatories around the globe, from Juilliard in New York to the main conservatories of the Far East.
Fabio has already premiered a considerable number of works, working directly with composers such as Robert Keeley, Nicholas Maw, Benjamin Dwyer, Jan van der Roost, Marlos Nobre, Ronaldo Miranda, Harry Crowl, Alexandre de Faria and Patrick Roux. As of the next seasons, he plans to commission and premiere works by young composers, starting with Rob Laidlow, João Luiz and Rafael Marino Arcaro.
Since 2014 he has been the artistic and educational director of the Campos do Jordão International Winter Festival, where he supervises the activities of hundreds of orchestral students. Fabio Zanon is the author of the book Villa-Lobos. He has to his credit recordings on labels such as Musical Heritage, Decca, BIS, SOMM and Naxos; his solo recordings are now exclusively released by GuitarCoop.
