Maurizio CROCI

Maurizio Croci is an internationally renowned organist and harpsichordist, Professor at the Haute École de Musique Vaud-Valais-Fribourg (HEMU), and Artistic Director of the Festival International d’Orgue de Fribourg and Milano Arte Musica, an international festival of early music.

A laureate of the “Paul Hofhaimer” International Competition in Innsbruck, he has been invited to perform as a soloist across Europe, Russia, Japan, and South America. In 2000, he performed the complete organ works of J. S. Bach in Bern.
He has released numerous CDs dedicated to composers such as G. Frescobaldi, J. S. Bach, G. F. Kauffmann, A. Soler (in duo with Pieter van Dijk), A. Gabrieli, and C. Monteverdi, leading Il Pegaso, the ensemble he founded in 2012. These recordings have received international critical acclaim. In 2020, he released the CD Milano Spagnola (Arcana Outhere – RSI Rete-Due) in duo with Evangelina Mascardi (vihuela). For his recording Bach Mirrored, dedicated to J. S. Bach, he won the “Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik.”

Since 2005, he has served as Professor of Organ at the Haute École de Musique Vaud-Valais-Fribourg. From 2004 to 2023, he was Professor of Harpsichord at the Civica Scuola di Musica in Milan, where he also served as the Coordinator of the Early Music Department from 2008 to 2013.

He has published articles on musicology and, from 2019 to 2023, directed two research projects for HES-SO (Haute École Spécialisée de Suisse occidentale) on Renaissance music for keyboard and plucked instruments. He is currently leading the research project “Kauffman to Bach” at the same institution. In 2024, he published, together with Evangelina Mascardi, a critical edition of works by Cabezón, Milán, Mudarra, and Werrecore adapted for keyboard instruments and vihuela.

He has been regularly invited to hold masterclasses at leading universities and musical institutions in Europe, Russia, Japan, and South America and has served as a jury member for international competitions, including the St Albans International Organ Competition, the “Xavier Darasse” Organ Competition in Toulouse, the Schnitger Organ Competition in Alkmaar, the “Paul Hofhaimer” Competition in Innsbruck, and others.

He graduated in Organ and Harpsichord from the Conservatories of Milan and Trento and pursued further studies at the Schola Cantorum in Basel with Jean-Claude Zehnder and Andrea Marcon. He earned a degree in Musicology at the University of Fribourg under the guidance of Prof. Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini.

An enthusiastic promoter of historic organs, he has served as a consultant for the restoration of historic Italian instruments and the construction of new organs. In 2024, he was President of the Artistic Directors’ Council of the European Cities of Historical Organs (ECHO), a network of European cities dedicated to the preservation and promotion of historic organs.