The pianist and conductor Marino Formenti, who was born in Italy, has won a reputation for his interpretations of modern and contemporary music above all. His preference for what is new and unconventional is reflected in the very many different projects in which he is involved. He has played in concert at the Salzburg Festival, the festivals at Lucerne, Edinburgh and Schleswig-Holstein as well as in the major concert halls and at the festivals in Berlin, Vienna, Cologne, Paris, Tokyo, Zurich, Moscow, New York, Los Angeles and Rome. In 2004 he made his debut at the Lincoln Center in New York with a recital cycle in "Great Performers" series. He has performed as soloist with the Munich Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Gustav Mahler Chamber Orchestra and the most important European radio orchestras, collaborating with conductors like Franz Welser-Möst, Kent Nagano, Esa Pekka Salonen and Gustavo Dudamel. He has also worked with colleagues like Gidon Kremer, Ulrich Matthes, Lars Vogt and Maurizio Pollini. As a conductor Marino Formenti has stood at the podium at the Vienna Musikverein, the Wiener Festwochen, Vienna Modern and at the Ravenna Festival. He directed the first performance in Austria of Kurt Weill's opera The Protagonist and of the chamber version of Prokofiev's Fiery Angel. He has conducted The Party in Los Angeles, Ravenna and Palermo. He is winner of the 2009 Belmont Prize for contemporary music awarded by the Forberg Schneider Foundation.