Biography
Eleonora Testa, born in June 2004, began studying the cello at the age of 5. At the age of 10, she began her studies with Francesco Pepicelli. At 14, she was the youngest student selected by Antonio Meneses at the Stauffer Academy in Cremona, where she was awarded a scholarship by the Rotary Club of Cremona. In the same year, she was also admitted to his class at the Chigiana Academy in Siena, where she later also joined the class of David Geringas. She is regularly invited to perform in the Academy’s concert season.
Eleonora is currently attending her Master in the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf with Professor Pieter Wispelwey, where she won an annual scholarship awarded by the Rotary Club Düsseldorf. Since 2025, she is also attending the Master in Chamber Music for Piano Trio as a member of Trio Fenice at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg under Enrico Bronzi.
From June 2026, she is the recipient of a one-year scholarship from the Horst und Gretl Will Stiftung in Cologne, supporting her artistic development.
At the age of 12, as part of the Ravenna Festival, she was invited by Giovanni Sollima to perform Haydn Concerto in C Major in the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna. On many other occasions she performed with orchestra in festivals, concert seasons and academy projects, including Haydn Concertos in C and D Major, Saint-Saëns Concerto No. 1, Boccherini Concerto No. 7 in G Major, Tchaikovsky Rococo Variations, Pezzo Capriccioso, Schubert Arpeggione Sonata in A Minor (in transcription for cello and chamber orchestra) and Une Larme by Rossini. In July 2023, she performed Schumann Concerto in A minor with Budweis
Orchestra in Biel, Switzerland.
In September 2019 Eleonora inaugurated the XIV edition of the prestigious Alfredo Piatti International Cello Festival in Bergamo in recital with piano. In February 2020 she opened the concert of the Trio di Parma with a short recital in a project promoted by the Filarmonica Umbra at the Secci Theatre in Terni. She has been invited to perform in recital by AGIMUS (Perugia and Rome), the William Walton Foundation (Ischia), and Bastia Classica Association. In June 2021 Eleonora was invited to inaugurate, with a recital for solo cello, the first edition of the Antonio Janigro Festival in Montagano. The festival was closed by Antonio Meneses. She has also performed for the Società Amici della Musica “Guido Michelli” of Ancona, selected by Mario Brunello as the best student of the masterclass he held in San
Ginesio. In 2023 she performed in “Omaggio a Cremona” together with Franco Petracchi.
In the summer of 2024, Eleonora performed on the Stradivari cello “Chigiano” from 1672 on the occasion of the 140th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Italy and the Republic of Korea at the Chigiana Academy in Siena.
In January 2024 she held a recital at the Italian Cultural Institute in Cairo (Egypt), in 2025 in Ankara (Turkey) and in 2026 in Fes (Morocco), invited by CIDIM and the Chigiana Academy.
She is a prizewinner of numerous national and international competitions. Most notably, the first prize at the Antonio Janigro International Junior Competition in Croatia (2020), with a special prize from the International Cultural Center HGM in Grožnjan. Among other first and absolute first prizes: Dinu Lipatti, Luigi Zanuccoli, Città di Latina (with special prize “Gianni Proietti”), Crescendo Prize “Città di Firenze”, Marco dall’Aquila, Chroma, Anemos, Riviera Etrusca, Melos, and Città di Isola del Liri.
From a very young age, she attended masterclasses held by David Geringas, Mischa Maisky, Mario Brunello, Nicolas Altstaedt, Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt, Giovanni Sollima, Enrico Bronzi, Giovanni Gnocchi, Umberto Clerici, Luigi Piovano, and Enrico Dindo, Sol Gabetta.
Eleonora plays a cello from the Ventapane school, previously owned by Arturo Bonucci Senior and Arturo Bonucci Junior.