Described by critics as “scintillating” and celebrated for her “rich, expressive playing” (Musical America), violinist Francesca dePasquale was the First Prize winner of the 2010 Irving M. Klein International String Competition and recipient of the prestigious 2014-2016 career grant from the Leonore Annenberg Fellowship Fund for the Performing and Visual Arts. Her self-titled debut album, released in March of 2016, encompasses works that span from Bach to a commission from composer Paola Prestini for violin and electronics, and earned her a Classical Recording Foundation Young Artist Award. For the album and accompanying recital tour, Ms. dePasquale was praised for “sincerity, intensity” and “individual voice” (Philadelphia Inquirer), and “immaculate and discreet phrasing” (Strad Magazine). Additionally, she was featured in Strings magazine and on SiriusXM, WNYC, WQXR, WRTI (Philadelphia), and WFMT (Chicago).

2023-2024 season highlights include appearances with Chameleon Arts Ensemble and the Aletheia Piano Trio, the world premiere of Kenji Bunch’s Sketches for Mr. South presented by The Juilliard School, and a performance of the Samuel Adams Chamber Concerto with conductor Timothy Weiss and the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble. Recent performance highlights include recitals presented by Oberlin Conservatory, the Juilliard School, and Boston Conservatory featuring On the Blue Shore of Silence, a multimedia suite for violin, piano, electronics, and visual art by composers Gity Razaz, Gloria Justen, Sayo Kosugi, and artist Johanna Andruchovici (commissioned by Francesca dePasquale and co-commissioned by the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society), a performance of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Violin Concerto with the Oberlin Orchestra, and the release of Gity Razaz’s Duo for Violin and Piano on the composer’s debut album for BIS records, recorded with pianist Scott Cuellar.

Since her debut as soloist at age 9 touring Spain with the Main Line Chamber Orchestra, Ms. dePasquale has appeared as soloist with numerous orchestras, including the Riverside Philharmonic, Gustav Mahler Orchestra, the Bach Festival of Philadelphia, Colburn Orchestra, Galesburg Symphony, Peninsula Symphony, and Santa Cruz Symphony. As a recitalist, she has collaborated with artists Meng-Chieh Liu, Natalie Zhu, John Root, and Reiko Uchida on series such as the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, National Sawdust, Rutgers University, the University of Pennsylvania, California Music Center, and the Perlman Music Program.

An active chamber musician, Ms. dePasquale has performed with renowned artists Adrian Brendel, Paul Coletti, Thomas Cooley, Jennifer Frautschi, Kim Kashkashian, Nicholas Kitchen, Ronald Leonard, Robert Levin, Pavel Nersessian, Merry Peckham, Itzhak Perlman, Jeffrey Sykes, Roger Tapping, Richard Todd, Donald Weilerstein, and Helena Winkelman. She is a member of the artist roster for Manhattan Chamber Players and Noree Chamber soloists, and performs frequently with Marinus Ensemble and Chameleon Arts Ensemble. Additionally, she has performed for the Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth, Open Chamber Music at IMS Prussia Cove, Friends of Chamber Music (Reading, PA), An Appalachian Summer Festival’s Broyhill Chamber Ensemble, Chesapeake Chamber Music, Heifetz International Music Institute, Music at Bunker Hill, 23Arts Initiative, Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, Music in the Vineyards, Olympic Music Festival, Music@Menlo, Colburn Chamber Music Society, and the Perlman Music Program. She has collaborated with dancers Isabella Boylston and James Whiteside for the Fall for Dance Festival alongside composer Stefan Levin, and performed with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, The Knights, and A Far Cry.

Ms. dePasquale is the violinist of the Aletheia Piano Trio along with pianist Fei-Fei and cellist Juliette Herlin. Formed in 2013, the Trio performs widely throughout the United States and abroad. Notable appearances include the Rose Studio and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in New York, the Terrace Theater at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C, the Dame Myra Hess Series in Chicago, and Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach, among many others. They toured China in 2018 and 2019 and were featured at the Busan Maru International Music Festival performing Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with the Gustav Mahler Orchestra and conductor Wilson Ng. Media highlights include a live recital for WFMT Chicago and several broadcasts of Haydn’s “Gypsy” Trio No. 39 in G Major on NPR’s Performance Today. They recently released two videos on YouTube: Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel’s d minor Piano Trio and Robert Schumann’s Phantasiestücke, Op. 88.

Francesca dePasquale is a member of the violin faculty at Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the Juilliard School Pre-College Program. Additionally, she serves as Artistic Advisor and violin faculty at the Heifetz International Music Institute, taught for the Perlman Music Program Israel residency, and was a masterclass artist for the Starling-DeLay Symposium. She served as the Starling Fellow teaching assistant to Itzhak Perlman from 2013-2016 and teaching assistant to Catherine Cho from 2013-2018 at the Juilliard School. A graduate of the Juilliard and Colburn Schools, she studied with Itzhak Perlman, Catherine Cho, and Robert Lipsett. Previous teachers include Hirono Oka, Charles Parker, and William dePasquale, with additional mentorship from Norman Carol and Arnold Steinhardt. Ms. dePasquale performs on a 1968 Sergio Peresson violin.