Born in Bolzano, Gemma Bertagnolli began her career after winning the As.Li.Co competition in Milan and the Francesco Viñas competition in Barcelona, where she received a special prize for the best Mozart interpretation.

 

Early in her career, she quickly rose to perform at major theaters and festivals in Italy and abroad, including La Scala in Milan, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Opera di Roma, Teatro Regio di Torino, Zurich Opera, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, Bunka Kaikan Theatre in Tokyo, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Salzburg Festival, Rossini Opera Festival, Festival Mozart in La Coruña, and Festival Radio France Montpellier.

 

She has collaborated with prominent conductors such as Umberto Benedetti Michelangeli, Semyon Bychkov, Daniele Gatti, Gianandrea Gavazzeni, Fabio Luisi, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Ennio Morricone, Riccardo Muti, and Wolfgang Sawallisch.

 

Bertagnolli is considered one of the leading interpreters and teachers of her generation in the baroque repertoire. She has worked with major specialists in the field, including Rinaldo Alessandrini (Concerto Italiano), Giovanni Antonini (Giardino Armonico), Fabio Biondi (Europa Galante), Alan Curtis (Il Complesso Barocco), René Jacobs, Trevor Pinnock, the Freiburger Barockorchester, and the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin.

 

Her extensive concert repertoire includes sacred music by Mozart, Telemann, Bach, Handel, Pergolesi, and Vivaldi, as well as works by Mendelssohn, Beethoven, and Mahler.

 

She has had an intense recital activity, particularly in a thirty-year collaboration with pianist Antonio Ballista, and more recently with Alessandro Stella.

 

The baroque repertoire occupies the main place in her vast discography, which has earned her critical acclaim, including the Gramophone Award, Choc du Monde de la Musique, and Timbre de Platine d'Opéra International, especially for her contributions to the Vivaldi Edition by Naïve.

 

She participated in the production of Franz Joseph Haydn's ‘Filemone e Bauci' which was awarded the Premio Abbiati in 2008.

 

She is regularly invited to give seminars and courses, particularly on baroque vocality. She has taught at the Hochschule für Künste in Bremen and the International Music Academy in Kusatsu, Japan.

She is one of the founders of the Vivaldi Academy at the Vivaldi Institute of the Cini Foundation in Venice, where she has been giving seminars on Vivaldi's vocal repertoire since 2017.

 

Bertagnolli wrote the preface for the three volumes of Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari's Canzoniere Op. 17, published by Ricordi in 2023.

 

English musicologist Michael Talbot dedicated the critical edition of Girolamo Polani's cantatas for soprano and basso continuo to her, published by A-R Editions, Inc. Middleton, Wisconsin.

 

Italian writer Tiziano Scarpa mentioned her among the best Vivaldi interpreters in his book "Stabat Mater," which won the Strega Prize in 2009.

 

In August 2015, she performed accompanied by Her Imperial Majesty Empress Michiko of Japan, an event covered by Japanese national press and television.

 

Since 2003, she has been a UNICEF ambassador.

 

Gemma Bertagnolli teaches Baroque Singing at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan.