Fausto Cigarini, born in 1997, began playing the violin at the age of ten, attending courses at the “Vecchi-Tonelli” Conservatory in Modena, under the guidance of Prof. Paola Besutti. He obtained his Diploma in violin in 2018 with the highest grade and honorable mention. In February 2023 he graduated from the Master Course for Master of Arts in Music Performance in the class of Maestro Krzysztof Wegrzyn at the Hochschule für Musik Theater und Medien in Hannover. Since 2018 he has collaborated with national and international orchestras such as the ORT, the Orchestra Leonore, Staatskapelle Weimar. In 2022 he won the audition to join the Akademie of the Staatskapelle Weimar. Since 2019 he has been a founder member of the Quartetto Leonardo, a group that has since then performed at important festivals (Ravenna Festival, Festival Verdi, Radio 3 Suite, Società Aquilana Barattelli) and with which he graduated in 2022 from the Master in Chamber Music at the UDK in Berlin, in the class held by the members of the Artemis Quartet. His chamber music training allows him to attend masterclasses with members of leading groups, such as O. Wille, L. M. Aguera, B. Giuranna, C. Greensmith, Mathieu Herzog, Eberhard Feltz, Johannes Meissl, Jerusalem Quartet. With the Quartetto Leonardo he received the prestigious Piero Farulli Premio Abbiati Award in 2021, awarded by the National Association of Music Critics. Since 2024 he has begun studying Viola in parallel and regularly collaborates as principal viola with the chamber orchestra “l’Appassionata” of Verona.