Biography

A passion for passing on musical knowledge is the common thread linking Andrea Massimo Grassi’s work as a performer, researcher and teacher.

Born in Milan, he graduated in clarinet from the ‘G. Verdi’ Conservatory under Primo Borali. He went on to study with Vittorio Luna, and chamber music with Masha Yanouchevsky, Maureen Jones and Dario De Rosa. In 1995 he received the prestigious Diploma d’onore of the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, and in 1996 the advanced diploma of the Accademia Internazionale di Musica in Biella as a pupil of Antony Pay.

He has performed as a chamber musician in major Italian cities and abroad, in the USA, Russia, the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, France, Portugal, Serbia and Switzerland, playing for the University of Chicago, the University of Leeds, Minnesota State University (Moorhead, USA), the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Université de Rouen, RAI Radiotelevisione Italiana, the Gnessins College in Moscow, the Accademia Musicale Chigiana, the Portuguese festival ‘Sete Sóis Sete Luas’, the Musikhochschule Mannheim, Northeastern Illinois University, Southeast Missouri State University and the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste.

He completed his musical studies with a degree cum laude in Modern Literature from the University of Parma, and earned a PhD in Musical Philology at the Faculty of Musicology in Cremona.

He has published studies on W. A. Mozart, C. M. von Weber and J. Brahms, in particular the book ‘Fräulein Klarinette’. La genesi e il testo delle opere per clarinetto di J. Brahms (ETS, Pisa 2006) and the Urtext edition of Brahms’s Quintet for clarinet and strings for G. Henle Verlag (Munich, 2000).

He has given lecture-recitals and master classes in the USA, Russia, the United Kingdom, Serbia and Switzerland, and at dozens of Italian conservatories and universities.

He works in training and teaching in music and theatre, in particular, since 2002, as a teacher at the Accademia Teatro alla Scala.