Paolo Bordignon, harpsichord

Paolo Bordignon is harpsichordist of the New York Philharmonic and has performed with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Camerata Pacifica, Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, the Knights, English Chamber Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s.

As a soloist and chamber musician, he has collaborated with Sir James Galway, Itzhak Perlman, David Robertson, Reinhard Goebel, Paul Hillier, Bobby McFerrin, and Midori, as well as Renee Fleming and Wynton Marsalis in a Juilliard Gala. For the opening of Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall, he gave the east coast première of Philip Glass’s Concerto for Harpsichord and Orchestra. He has also performed for New York Fashion Week.

Paolo Bordignon has worked with composers such as Elliott Carter (performing Double Concerto for Harpsichord and Piano for his 90th birthday celebration), David Conte, Jean Guillou, Stephen Hartke, Christopher Theophanides, and Melinda Wagner. With the Clarion Music Society, he gave the world première of several newly-rediscovered chamber works of Felix Mendelssohn.

At the Curtis Institute of Music, he studied organ with John Weaver and harpsichord with Lionel Party. He earned Master’s and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in harpsichord from the Juilliard School. Doctoral studies brought him to Leipzig and Berlin, where he examined the manuscript and original performance materials of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Cantata Halt im Gedächtnis Jesum Christ.

Paolo is an Associate of the Royal Conservatory of Music and a Fellow of the Royal Canadian College of Organists, having won the major prizes. While an undergraduate, he was on the roster offering twice-daily concerts on Philadelphia's Wanamaker organ, the world’s largest operational pipe organ.

Born in Toronto of Italian heritage, Paolo studied organ with John Tuttle, and attended St. Michael’s Cathedral Choir School, an affiliate of the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music in Rome. At age 17 he was appointed Associate Organist of St. Michael's Cathedral, assuming service-playing responsibilities for the choral services.