Violinist Francesca Dardani is an acclaimed Italian-Chinese American violinist celebrated for her versatility and dynamic presence allowing her to expand her musical career as an international performing, recording artist and music coordinator.
Currently based in NYC, Francesca has graced some of the world’s most iconic venues and arenas, including Carnegie Hall, The Royal Albert Hall, Madison Square Garden amongst others. She regularly appears alongside prominent artists on national television such as Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show, the Billboard Music Awards, The Grammys Awards, The Latin Grammys, the VMAS awards, the Kelly Clarkson Show, the Daily Show, NPR Tiny Desk, The Met Gala , New Year’s Rockin’ Eve and more.
Francesca’s career highlights include an invitation for Madonna nine month world tour “Madame X” , collaborating with Bruce Springsteen as part of his band and performing on four of Springsteen’s music videos from his new album “Only The Strong Survive” and four performances on The Tonight Show.
Recently Francesca performed on the iconic NPR Tiny Desk with Post Malone and performing with Coldplay on a week promo tour for the new album “ Moon Music”. Francesca in 2023 worked as a string coordinator for Ed Sheeran Subtract Tour, hiring a total of 70 strings for the U.S. leg of the tour.
Her extensive list of collaborations spans a wide range of musical genres and includes performances with legendary artists like Madonna (Madame X Tour) Stevie Wonder , Bruce Springsteen, Coldplay, Ed Sheeran , Post Malone, Shakira, Karol G, Miley Cyrus, Olivia Rodrigo, Benson Boone, Mark Ronson, Halsey, St. Vincent, Lucy Dacus and many more.
Francesca performed solo violin performances for Andrea Bocelli on Good Morning America, Shoshana Bean and Kristin Chenoweth at the Apollo Theater and for director David Lynch at the Festival of Disruption..
Beyond her performances, Francesca is a sought-after session musician, contributing to the soundtracks of notable films and documentaries like The Farewell, Boy Erased, I,Tonya , Expats Amazon series, LA 92, Little Richard: I am everything, Goodnight Mommy and many more. She performed and recorded for two seasons of America’s Got Talent and many commercials like IBM, Apple, Symbicort, Canon , Clorox, Lucky Charms etc.
She had performed for orchestras on and off Broadway since the age of twenty-five in shows like Sweeney Todd, Hamilton: An American Musical, Matilda , Found , & Juliet , Gypsy, The Great Gatsby, Spring Spectacular, Radio City Christmas Spectacular . In addition she performs as concertmaster of the Sinfonietta and as a member of the grammy winning jazz orchestra 8-Bit Big Band.
She was a former member of the orchestra Archi De Sono String Orchestra (Torino), principal second a the Britten Pears Orchestra (England), and former co-principal of the Opera Orchestra Teatro Regio (Parma).
Francesca born and raised in Parma, Italy, and began her violin studies at the age of eight. Following studies at the Conservatorio A. Boito (Parma) after receiving a scholarship from DeSono Associazione (Torino, Italy), she was accepted at the Mannes College of Music in New York to study with Lewis Kaplan. She graduated with a Bachelor of Music and continued her studies with Krzysztof Wegrzyn in Hannover (Germany). Francesca received a Master of Arts degree from the Royal Academy of Music, London, in 2013 under the tutelage of Richard Deakin.
Francesca has been endorsed by REMIC Microphones and Gewa.
