Since winning the ARD competition in 2014 and receiving the Crédit Suisse Young Artist Award in 2016, Simone Rubino has been winning enthusiastic audiences both as a soloist (with the Wiener Philharmoniker and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, among other orchestras) under the baton of maestros such as Zubin Mehta, Manfred Honeck and Tan Dun, and in his outstanding collaborations (with the Labèque sisters and Beatrice Rana, among others).

A regular guest at festivals such as the Lucerne Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival and La folle Journée (both in France and Japan), he has taken percussion from the periphery to the centre of the classical, contemporary and even baroque scene. The idea of building a bridge – between generations, styles, ideas – is central to Simone’s creative process.

A quick glance at his discography is enough to understand how the process of juxtaposition (of the old and the new, the sacred and the profane, the ‘popular’ and the ‘refined’) underlies his diverse and daring experiments: from Bach, to Piazzolla, to John Cage, not to mention fascinating jeux d’eau and children’s choirs.

In particular, encounters and clashes between generations are the artist’s theme of choice today: namely the value and challenges posed by the dialogue between ancient and modern, fathers and sons, classical and contemporary. Furthermore, he challenges himself to bring today’s generations closer to concert halls.

A Fellow, as of February 2020, of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust, Simone has decided to dedicate the prize entirely to experimenting in this direction and to commissioning original works.