With the “Quartetto Italiano di Viole da Gamba”, “Il Suonar Parlante”, and as a soloist, he aims to cultivate a repertoire that encompasses both ancient and modern viol consort music. He has performed works by contemporary composers and jazz artists such as Kenny Wheeler, Uri Caine, Don Byron, Ernst Reijseger, Markus Stockhausen, Vanni Moretto, and Lucio Garau, and performed in the Italian premiere of George Benjamin's Written on Skin with the Orchestra Haydn of Bolzano.
Mr. Contadin has recorded for Sony, EMI Classical, Warner, Universal (Deutsche Grammophon), CPO, Brilliant, Hyperion, Stradivarius, Winter & Winter, Naive, and Artè. His recordings and performances with Opera Prima and other ensembles have been awarded the Diapason d'Or, Choc du Monde de la Musique, Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, Opera Magazine’s “Critic's Choice”, and the prestigious international OPER Award for Best Performance of the Year 2025 with Hotel Metamorphosis at the Salzburg Festival with Les Musiciens du Prince and Cecilia Bartoli.
In addition to his activities as a performer, Mr. Contadin wrote the Italian translation of The Early History of the Viol by Ian Woodfield, published by EDT - Turin. He is also the coordinator of the viola da gamba catalog La Voce Dell'Ambasciatore for the Italian publishing house Musedita.
Mr. Contadin teaches Viola da Gamba at the Conservatory B. Marcello in Venice. He has given lectures and masterclasses at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre of Tallinn, the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Vigo and Salamanca, the Mozarteum of Salzburg, the Longy School of Music of Bard College, Harvard University, and Wellesley College in Boston.
Mr. Contadin plays an anonymous 18th-century Venetian bass viol.
