KOBALT
Irenè Fiorito
Graduated with honors and honorable mention from the Conservatory of Music S. Cecilia in Rome, she continued her studies at the Accademia Stauffer in Cremona with S. Accardo and obtained three Masters at the Conservatory of Italian Switzerland with P. Berman. She participated in prestigious masterclasses including those at the Kronberg Academy and the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Awarded in numerous international competitions, including the 26th Postacchini International Violin Competition and the Rodolfo Lipizer Prize International Competition; she regularly performs in important concert halls including the Mozarteum in Salzburg, the Palazzo del Quirinale and the Teatro Verdi in Trieste. She plays as a soloist with prestigious orchestras including the Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra Filarmonica Italiana and the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana .
www.irenefiorito.com
Lorenzo Guida
He graduated at the age of sixteen with honors and honorable mention in Turin with Dario Destefano. He continued his studies with Natalia Gutman, Johannes Goritzki and Asier Polo. He attended masterclasses held by David Geringas, Mischa Maisky, Asier Polo, Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt, Jens Peter Maintz, Thomas Demenga, Peter Bruns. Winner of national and international competitions, including the New York International Cello Competition, the Vittorio Veneto Competition, the Concurso Soncello , he performed in prestigious halls including the Carnegie Hall in New York. He plays as a soloist with prestigious orchestras including the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia , the Orquesta Sinfónica de Xalapa, the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana (OSI), Chursächsiche Philarmonie, collaborating with conductors such as José Trigueros, Arturo Tamayo, Johannes Goritzki, Marc Kissoczy, Florian Merz, his father Guido Maria Guida. He was a De Sono and Lyra Stiftung scholarship holder.
Riccardo Ronda
He studied at the Conservatory of Parma with Roberto Cappello and Francesco Guideri. He graduated with honors at the Conservatory of Italian Switzerland in the class of Anna Kravtchenko. He studied also with Leonid Margarius at the Academy of Imola and with Alberto Miodini in Parma. He won the first prize at the Giovannini Competition in Reggio Emilia and the Prix du Jeune Jury (Lausanne) at the CIML in Lausanne. He has an intense concert activity with particular attention to chamber music. He has performed in important concert institutions in Italy and abroad such as the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, the Misano Piano Festival, in duo with Roberto Cappello (Busoni Prize 1976), the Trimontiada Festival, Amici della Musica in Padua, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, the Hall del Lac in Lugano and others.
The Kobalt Trio, formed by Irenè Fiorito (violin), Lorenzo Guida (cello), and Riccardo Ronda (piano), was founded in 2021 at the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano, studying chamber music with Pavel Berman. From 2022 to 2024, they attended the Accademia Perosi in Biella in the class of the Trio di Parma, winning two scholarships. The Trio is currently studying at the École Normale in Paris under the guidance of the Trio Wanderer. The Kobalt Trio has completed masterclasses with Misha Maisky, Olivier Charlier, Emmanuel Strosser, Claire Désert, Lise Berthaud, Simone Gramaglia, Eckart Runge, Antonio Valentino, and Oliver Wille, receiving unanimous acclaim.
The Kobalt Trio has won numerous awards in national and international competitions: it won the First Prize and the Audience Award at the European Chamber Music Competition “Gasparo da Salò” in Brescia (2023); the AMUR Competition for New Talents (2024), the Renzo Giubergia Award (2024), the Filippo Nicosia Chamber Music Award, winning a recording with the DaVinci Classics label (2024).
The Trio was also invited as Ensemble in Residence, the first Italian group, at the prestigious Festival International de Piano de La Roque d'Anthéron, France (2024). It performs regularly in Italy and abroad: in particular it has performed at the Auditorium of the Parc du Château de Florans in La Roque d'Anthéron, the Musica Insieme Festival in Bologna, the Società dei Concerti of Trieste, the Società del Quartetto of Milan, the Musèe Bourdelle in Paris, the Unione Musicale of Turin, the Società Filarmonica of Trento, the Casalmaggiore International Festival, Forlì Musica, the Sala Verdi of Turin, the Teatro all'Antica in Sabbioneta and other national and international festivals. In 2025, the Trio Kobalt was invited by the famous "Premio Paganini" violin competition in Genoa to perform with the competitors in the semi-final rounds alongside violist Danusha Waskiewicz.
The Trio is a member of the “Dimore del Quartetto”.
IRENÈ FIORITO plays a Joseph Ceruti violin from 1848 kindly loaned by the ProCanale Foundation of Milan.
LORENZO GUIDA plays a cello attributed to the English luthier Wulme-Hudson from the late 1800s.