Markus Placci

Markus Placci joined the Conservatory in 2007 and is a professor of violin.

Praised for having “a magnificent personality, a superb energy, a total command and an extremely convincing taste” (La Libre Belgique), Placci is enjoying a growing international reputation that has already earned him solo appearances throughout Europe, South America, Asia, and the United States at renowned venues such as the Great Philharmonic Hall (Shostakovich Hall) and Glinka Philharmonic Hall in St. Petersburg, the Kursaal in Baden-Baden, the Teatro Monumental in Madrid, the Auditori in Barcelona, the Teatro Comunale and Mozart Hall in Bologna, the Teatro Dal Verme in Milan, the Auditori Usina del Arte in Buenos Aires, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Sanders Theatre in Cambridge, and the Richardson Auditorium in Princeton.

Winner of the prestigious XXVI Vittorio Veneto Competition on a unanimous vote of the jury presided over by Maestro Bruno Giuranna, Placci is the recipient of numerous other international awards and prizes, such as the Brahms-Preis and Baden-Baden Philharmonie Foundation Carl Flesch Preis in Germany and the Jules C. Reiner Violin Prize at Tanglewood. He was a top prize winner at the 2006 Washington International Competition.

Markus Placci joined the Conservatory in 2007 and is a professor of violin. Since his solo debut at the age of 13 with the Bologna Symphony, Placci has appeared in solo performances with major symphony orchestras such as the Barcelona Symphony, the Radio Television Orchestra of Spain (RTVE), the Philharmonie Baden-Baden, the Annapolis Symphony, the Bologna Symphony, Milan’s Pomeriggi Musicali Orchestra, Teatro di San Carlo of Napoli Symphony, the Haydn Orchestra of Bolzano, the St. Petersburg State Philharmonic, the Padova e del Veneto Orchestra, the Teatro Argentino La Plata Symphony Orchestra, the Orquesta Filarmonica de Guayaquil, and I Virtuosi Italiani, among others. He has collaborated with renowned conductors such as Hansjörg Schellenberger, Gunter Pichler, Franco Petracchi, José Luis Novo, Arthur Fagen, Marco Boni, Carlo Boccadoro. 

In September 2005, collaborating with conductor Uwe Mund and Spain’s Radio Television Orchestra (RTVE), Placci world-premiered to great acclaim the Violin Concerto written by Catalan composer Jordi Cervelló. The concert was broadcast live from Teatro Monumental in Madrid on the radio and national television. In 2007, Cervelló composed and dedicated to Placci his Tre Pensieri for violin and piano, and in 2018 his 9 Capricci Profili Umani,  both of which premiered that same year in Barcelona.Other notable composers such as Thomas Oboe Lee, Mischa Salkind Pearl, Young Lee, and Ady Cohen have also composed concertos and violin pieces for him.

Placci is also an avid chamber musician and has performed with artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Gil Shaham, Robert Levin, Toby Hoffmann, and Marcus Thompson. His recital performances range from duo recitals in prominent concert seasons (such as Musica Insieme and Accademia Filarmonica Mozart in Bologna, Società del Quartetto di Vicenza, Asolo Musica, and Steinway Hall Boston) to trio appearances as a founding member of the Fortuna Piano Trio with Kyung-Mi Lee and Michelangelo Carbonara, which won the 2007 Emanuel Ax–Villecroze Academy Award in France and toured South America and Italy. The ensemble’s Brahms and Schubert trios recording was published by Nascor Recordings. In other chamber music settings, he has been invited to perform in seasons such as the Boston Chamber Music Society.  Over the years, Placci has been broadcast live on prominent radio stations such as BBC Radio, RTVE (Spain), Bartok Radio (Hungary), WGBH Boston, and RaiRadio in Italy. 

At age 26, Placci was the youngest-ever faculty to have been appointed at Boston Conservatory at Berklee; and in 2016, he was presented with both the Boston Conservatory Outstanding Faculty of the Year award and the Massachusetts American Strings Teachers Association (ASTA) Best Studio Teacher of 2016 award. He has given master classes in top international universities and institutions across the world, and has been guest faculty at the Modena Conservatory, where he has had regular residencies since the 2021–2022 academic year.

Placci makes his home between Boston and Bologna, Italy. He plays on an 1871 J. B. Vuillaume violin, a copy of the “Alard” Stradivarius