Michele Pasotti is founder and director of the Early Music ensemble La fonte musica, the centre of his musical life.
As a lute player he has a great experience in Basso Continuo practice with the best European Early Music ensembles like Il Giardino Armonico, Collegium Vocale Gent, Les Talens Lyriques, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Arcangelo, Les Musiciens du Prince, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and others. He loves playing chamber music with singers like Alena Dantcheva and Giuseppina Bridelli, and with Il Ricercar Continuo (Giulia Genini, Alessandro Palmeri, Margret Koell).
With La fonte musica he received the ‘Premio Abbiati’ of the Italian critics as the best ensemble of the year 2022. Among their other prizes: 2 Diapason d’Or (Diapason), Editor’s Choice by Gramophone, Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, Disc of the Month by Toccata, finalist at the ICMA (International classical music awards), Le Choix de Radio France, 5 stars of Music, Pizzicato Supersonic Award. They have performed in the major Early Music Festival throughout Europe, USA and Canada.
Beyond the activity with la fonte musica, he is called to conduct other ensembles like Capella Cracoviensis and Harmonia Cordis and as assistant to conductor Giovanni Antonini at Theater an der Wien and Teatro alla Scala.
He was guested by the most eminent musical seasons and concert halls in Europe, United States and Asia and was directed by Claudio Abbado, John Eliot Gardiner, Giovanni Antonini, Philippe Herreweghe, Thomas Hengelbrock, Diego Fasolis, Christophe Rousset, Andrea Marcon, Monica Huggett, Nathalie Stutzmann, Barthold Kujiken.
As a soloist (lutes, theorbo, baroque guitar), his repertoire spans from the Middle Ages to the late Eighteenth century. He recorded a cd devoted to the great 17th century guitarist Francesco Corbetta (Dynamic).
Michele played in more than 80 recordings (beyond those for Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, EMI/Virgin Classics, Naïve, Warner, Sony/Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, SWR, Glossa, ORF, Ricercar, Avie, The Classic Voice, Amadeus) and took part in several live broadcasts (BBC, ORF, WDR, Radio Polskie, Rai Radio 3, Rete 2 of Rsi, France 2, France Musique, Mezzo).
He is currently professor of Lute at the Conservatorio ‘Bruno Maderna’ in Cesena e al Koninklijk Conservatorium van Brussel (Conservatorio Reale di Bruxelles) and has taught at the Civica Scuola di Musica di Milano and at Conservatorio ‘Franco Vittadini’ in Pavia. He regularly gives lectures, either on musicological subjects, or to introduce and spread the knowledge of lutes and early music, also with Radio Broadcasts (Rai Radio 3).
He also received a first class degree in Theoretical Philosophy with a dissertation on Martin Heidegger.