Francesco Stefanelli was born in San Marino in 1999. He started studying cello at the age of seven at the Music Institute of San Marino. He graduated with honours in 2015 at the Institute of Higher Education Lettimi, Rimini. In 2012, when he was only twelve, he was permitted to attend the course held by M° Antonio Meneses at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, obtaining the diploma of merit. He continued his studies with Thomas Demenga in Turin, Enrico Dindo at the Pavia Cello Academy and Antonio Menese at the W. Stauffer Academy in Cremona. He attended the Master of Arts in Music Performance at the Lugano Conservatory with Enrico Dindo after he received the Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship for Artists ESKAS. Currently, he is studying with Maestro Giovanni Sollima at the National Academy of Santa Cecilia in Rome.
Francesco has attended masterclasses with Jens-Peter Maintz, W.E. Schmidt, Ivan Monighetti, Frans Helmerson, Asier Polo, Massimo Polidori, Young-Chang Cho, Marianne Chen and Paolo Bonomini. Furthermore, he was a scholarship holder of the International Music Academy in Liechtenstein and took part in the intensive weeks and activities of the academy.
Francesco won 1st prizes in national and international competitions, including the 1st prize at the “11th International Cello Competition Antonio Janigro” in Croatia, whose victory allowed him to perform at Smetana Hall in Prague as a soloist with the North Czech Philarmonic Orchestra, at the “EuroAsia International Music Competition” in Cremona, at the “European Music Competition” in Moncalieri, at the “Città di Giussano Competition” and at the “IX Concorso Nazionale di Riccione”. He has also been awarded the 2nd prize at the “International K. Penderecki Cello Competition” in Krakow 2018, the 3rd prize at “Rahn Music Prize” in Zurich, also in 2018, and at the “Mazzacurati International Cello Competition” in 2016 in Turin.
Francesco has performed as a soloist and in chamber music ensembles in many cities like Prague, Siena, Cremona, Bergamo, Vigevano, Firenze, Turin, Ravenna, Imola, Cesenatico, Rimini, Zurich, Lugano, Lubeck, Edimburgh, Kohln, Porec, Krakow, Jesi, Osimo, Fabriano and Macerata.
He has collaborated with the Filarmonica della Scala under the baton of Daniel Harding, Zubin Mehta and Lorenzo Viotti and he got the suitability for the first cello of the Cherubini Orchestra of Ravenna, conducted by Maestro Riccardo Muti (2019).
In 2019, he recorded David Fontanesi’s Arcadian concert for cello and orchestra with the I Virtuosi Italiani Orchestra.
Francesco won the prestigious scholarship entitled to Maura Giorgetti for the best Italian young cellist under twenty, organized by the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Scala Theatre of Milan and the scholarship of the Yamaha Music Foundation of Europe. Furthermore, he was awarded the scholarship of De Sono Associazione per la Musica.