After graduating in viola da gamba with R. Gini, since 1986 Paolo Biordi has taught the viola da gamba class at the Conservatory of Vicenza, and from 2002 at the Conservatory of Florence, which he directed from 2006 to 2012.

He has recorded for Dynamic, Teldec, Stradivarius, Winter & Winter, Naxos, Astrée, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi and Challenge Classics. He is the authors of world-renowned publications, such as his Metodo progressivo per Viola da Gamba, (Biordi–Ghielmi) Ed. Ut Orpheus, Bologna; and Viole de Gambe en Italie, (Biordi–Ghielmi), Ed. Fuzeau, Paris. For many years now he has held a summer course in viola da gamba in Gerfalco (near Grosseto).

He is a scholar of viola da gamba in the musical iconography of the 15th to 17th centuries.

Marin Marais, player of the viola da gamba and pupil of Sainte-Colombe, has won much wider modern fame through the cinema (he and his music were strongly featured in the 1991 film Tous les matins du monde). In his own time he was accounted the principal virtuoso of the day on the instrument for which he wrote a number of compositions. He studied with Lully and, as a member of the French royal musical establishment, performed with him.

Instrumental Music

The instrumental music of Marais consists chiefly of his various collections of pieces for one or more viols, which include the now well-known Variations on Les Folies d’Espagne.

Operas

The four operas of Marais were written under the influence of Lully and enjoyed contemporary success.

The Sieur de Sainte-Colombe was a leading player of the viola da gamba, and teacher of Marais, Rousseau and Danoville. There is little precise information about his life, but he is mentioned in Paris in 1678. He gave concerts with his two daughters, and his son seems to have pursued a similar career, which took him also to England.

Music for Viola da Gamba