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A project by Camerata Strumentale di Prato, La Filharmonie – Orchestra Filarmonica di Firenze in collaboration with Tempo Reale

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Camerata Strumentale di Prato

Orchestra Filarmonica di Firenze – La Filharmonie

CONDUCTOR Nima Keshavarzi

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ANDERS HILLBORG | Composer

Anders Hillborg gained his first musical experience singing in choirs and he was also involved in various forms of improvised music. From 1976 to 1982 he studied counterpoint, composition and electronic music at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, where his teachers included Gunnar Bucht, Lars-Erik Rosell, Arne Mellnäs and Pär Lindgren. Brian Ferneyhough, who was a guest lecturer at the College of Music on several occasions, was also an important source of inspiration. Apart from occasional teaching positions, Hillborg has been a full-time freelance composer since 1982. His sphere of activity is extensive, covering orchestral, choral and chamber music as well as music for films and pop music. Anders Hillborg's orchestral music has been performed by many major conductors including Esa-Pekka Salonen, Alan Gilbert, Sakari Oramo, Gustavo Dudamel, David Zinman, Andrew Manze, Andrey Boreyko, Yannick Nézet-Seguin, Michael Gielen, Leif Segerstam, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Susanna Mälkki, Hannu Lintu, John Storgårds, Daniel Harding, and many others. Orchestras that have performed his music include Los Angeles Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, Bayerishe Rundfunk Orchester, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Radio Orchestra,, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Bergen Philharmonie, Helsinki Philharmonic. He has received commissions from leading performing organisations such as Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Berlin Philharmonic, Tonhalle Zürich, New York Philharmonic, Carnegie Hall, Swedish Radio Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and the Gothenburg Symphony among others. Notable musicians he's worked with include Esa-Pekka Salonen, clarinetist Martin Fröst, mezzo soprano Anne Sofie von Otter, soprano Renée Fleming, violinist Lisa Batiashvili, violist Lawrence Power, choir conductor Eric Ericson.

https://www.hillborg.com/

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SILVIA COLASANTI | composer

Silvia Colasanti received several awards, among which the European Composer Award in Berlin and Franco Buitoni Award. In 2017 she was appointed by the President of the Republic Mattarella Ufficiale della Repubblica. Additionally, she teaches at the Conservatorio ‘S. Cecilia’ of Rome. She is present with her compositions in the main international musical institutions and she works with soloists and conductors of international caliber, such as Vladimir Jurowski, Yuri Bashmet, Salvatore Accardo, David Geringas, Nathalie Dessay, Roberto Abbado, Massimo Quarta, Maxime Pascal. Recent engagements included the performance in May 2022 of Oltre l’azzurro drama in music on a text by Maria Grazia Calandrone, commissioned by the Opera del Duomo for the celebration of the 600th anniversary of the construction of Brunelleschi’s Dome, with the reciting voice of Massimo Popolizio. She signed the music for Euripide’s Medea directed by Federico Tiezzi that will be represented at the Greek Theater of Syracuse for the Inda Foundation. With countertenor Raffaele Pe and La lyra di Orfeo she created Frammenti di Lettere amorose, a project for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs named Vivere all’italiana in musica. With Raffaele Pe and Mariangela Gualtieri, she also was present at the Sferisterio di Macerata in summer 2021 with D’un immortale amor, music and verses on Love, Time and Death. In 2018 she inaugurated the Spoleto Festival with the opera Minotauro, based on a text by Réné De Ceccatty and Giorgio Ferrara, directed by Giorgio Ferrara. She owes her development to Maestro Luciano Pelosi at Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome and to Fabio Vacchi, Wolfgang Rihm, Pascal Dusapin and Azio Corghi. In 2020 the CD of String Quartets was released, interpreted by the Nous Quartet for Brilliant Classic. Her first monographic CD is entitled In-Canto (2011), followed by the publication of Requiem (2018), also for Dynamic. Her works are published by Casa Ricordi.

https://www.silviacolasanti.com/?lang=en

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MAURO MONTALBETTI | composer

Mauro Montalbetti began studying composition in 1987 with Antonio Giacometti. He attended the “Giuseppe Verdi” Conservatory in Milan, where he studied with Irlando Danieli, Paolo Rimoldi. His meeting with Gerard Grisey, Marco Stroppa, Franco Donatoni, Magnus Lindberg and Luca Francesconi have been crucial in developing his vocation and talent. Montalbetti’s early recognition as one of the most promising Italian composers, subsequently confirmed when he won several awards including finalist at the Gaudeamus Prize 1999 and the First prize at the 2006 Johan Fux Opera Composition Prize Graz, with the Opera Lies and sorrow. Montalbetti has regularly been commissioned pieces by Filarmonica della Scala, Biennale Musica Venezia, Milano Musica festival, Teatro Massimo di Palermo, Roma Europa Festival, Fondazione Teatro Grande Brescia, Sentieri selvaggi ensemble, Fondazione I Teatri Reggio Emilia, Cantiere di Montepulciano, North/South Consonance New York, Steirische Ebst, Ex novo Musica, Orchestra Regionale Toscana, Netherland flute orchestra, Ex Novo ensemble, Ensemble Suono Giallo, Altrevoci ensemble, Festival GAMO, Festival Playit!, International piano Festival Brescia-Bergamo, Teatro Due, Balletto Civile. In the year 2015 the Foundation I Teatri Reggio Emilia commissioned Corpi eretici opera dedicated to the poet Pier Paolo Pasolini and in the 2017 the opera Haye le parole la notte with libretto by Alessandro Leogrande. In May 2019 his Concerto for clarinet and percussion was premiered in Teatro alla Scala. He composed music for dance performances for Sasha waltz&guest, Michela Lucenti – Balletto civile. In December 2021 his opera Teodora was selected as the best Contemporary Opera Performance of the year for the Wired review. His catalogue includes orchestral pieces and operas, recorded for the Deutsche Grammophon, Stradivarius, Cantaplupe, A simple lunch labels. From 2007 his works are published by RaiCom (Rome), and from 2021 by Edizioni Curci Music and Books (Milan). He was Artistic Director by Cantiere Internazionale d’Arte for 2021-23 seasons and Composer in Residence by Philarmonisches Orchestra Bremerhaven season 2022-2023.

http://www.mauromontalbetti.com/

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JOANATHAN WEBB | conductor, Music Director of Camerata Strumentale di Prato

Jonathan Webb made his debut with West Side Story at Manchester Opera House when he was 21. Called by Gary Bertini to Tel Aviv Opera Theater as permanent conductor, he conducted numerous new productions including Der Freischütz, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, Macbeth, Samson et Dalila, La Juive, Faust, Cenerentola, Lucia di Lammermoor, Jenůfa. He worked in numerous opera houses in Europe (São Carlo in Lisbon, Seville, Marseille, Nice, Dublin, Tenerife, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Vienna Volksoper, Cologne), and he collaborates with the major opera houses in Italy such as Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, La Fenice in Venice, Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, Teatro Comunale in Bologna, Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari, and the theaters of Pisa, Livorno and Lucca. Invited by Valery Gergiev, he directed Lady Macbeth by Mtsensk in a co-production between the Kirov Opera and New Israeli Opera. He paid special attention to Benjamin Britten, directing The Rape of Lucretia, The turn of the Screw, Albert Herring, Peter Grimes, Billy Bud, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Curlew River, War Requiem and Noye's Fludde. He has collaborated with important directors including Daniele Abbado, Götz Friedrich, Hugo de Ana, Robert Carsen, Graham Vick, Pier Luigi Pizzi, Denis Krief, David Poutney, David Alden, Chiara Muti, Andrea De Rosa. He conducted Santa Cecilia Orchestra in Rome with the King's Singers, Orchestra of Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, RAI National Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfonica de Galicia, Real Filharmonia de Galicia, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Israel Sinfonietta, Israel Chamber Orchestra. He has collaborated with numerous soloists including Shlomo Mintz, Vadim Repin, Fazil Say, Arabella Steinbacher, Louis Lortie, Alexander Toradze, Shai Wosner, Emmanuel Pahud, Alessio Bax, Daishin Kashimoto. He was invited to the festivals of Caesarea, Coruña, Wexford, Caracalla, September Music, Liturgical Festival in Jerusalem and Saito Kinen Festival in Japan, called by Seiji Ozawa. Since September 2014 he has been Music Director of Camerata Strumentale di Prato, an Orchestra which he has been constantly performing with since 2002.

https://www.cameratastrumentale.org/jonathan-webb/

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PAOLO COGNETTI | composer

Paolo Cognetti is an Italian composer and pianist. With his latest work At Night, Alone, With You (Karma Sounds) for solo piano, focused on the transformative experience of fatherhood, he continues the intimate and personal journey that has defined his previous albums. In 2023, Spring Will Come is released, inspired by the deep need to build a bridge between the inner self and the outer world, written during the first lockdown of 2020—not as traditional music, but as a form of meditation and healing, offering a safe space for listeners to explore their emotions. In 2022, he composes the soundtrack for West of Babylonia, a documentary telling the story of life in Slab City, a community on the edge of the Californian desert, lacking essential infrastructure. Here, Paolo experiments with raw and imperfect sound through analog synthesizers, humorously addressing certain forms of artificial religiosity, as well as unconventional use of the guitar. Also in 2022, he creates a heartfelt arrangement of Bella Ciao for pianist GéNIA, in response to the war in Ukraine, meant to support the Kharkiv Foundation, dedicated to transferring severely ill children to hospitals in Europe. That same year, he performs a chamber orchestra transcription of Rita by G. Donizetti, commissioned by the Fondazione Cantiere Internazionale d’Arte. His solo piano debut, Rinascita (Warner Chappell, 2017), gathers compositions from previous years and marks the beginning of an artistic journey where authenticity is at the heart of his musicmaking. Winner of national and international awards, Paolo has composed, arranged, and performed music for films and theatrical productions. He is one of the founders of La Filharmonie, a symphonic orchestra supported by the Italian government, and curates FilArmonia, a festival dedicated to finding a better harmony within oneself, with others, and with the world around us through music and spirituality, held annually at the Certosa di Firenze.

https://www.paolocognetti.com/it/musica/

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HUGO TICCIATI | direttore, violinista

Violin soloist and orchestra conductor, he is strongly attracted by all possible forms of musical expression: he has performed world premiere compositions in the most prestigious venues in the world, he has improvised with monks in India, he has created unique musical programs for the Orchestra O/Modernt and for the omonimous Festival which he founded in 2011 in Stockholm. In addition to his deep interest in the study of Western and non-Western classical repertoire, Hugo is particularly versed in the interpretation of contemporary music. Today there are more than forty works dedicated to him by notable composers including Erkki-Sven Tüür, Pēteris Vasks, Victoria Borisova-Ollas, Albert Schnelzer and Dobrinka Tabakova. Artistic director of the O/Modernt Orchestra, Hugo frequently collaborates with Kremerata Baltica, Manchester Camerata, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra Tallinn and Camerata strumentale di Prato. Recently, he has also been invited as a guest artist by Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Kammerakademie Potsdam, Tapiola Sinfonietta and Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra. His programming, created in collaboration with London's Wigmore Hall and Kings Place, is always characterized by a unique and innovative stylistic feature. Cultivating a genuine passion for chamber music, Hugo creates special projects with the members of his group “O/Modernt Soloists” and with other internationally renowned soloists such as Evelyn Glennie, Anne Sofie von Otter, Nils Landgren, Steven Isserlis, Angela Hewitt and Olli Mustonen. Hugo is a masterclass teacher at Lilla Akademien, Scandinavia's leading music school, of which he is deputy artistic director, and he is frequently invited by numerous educational institutions throughout the world.

https://omodernt.com/hugoticciati

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ALBERTO BATISTI | music historian and Artistic Director of Camerata Strumentale di Prato

Born in Prato in 1961, he lives and works in Florence. He studied Literature and History of Music at the University of Florence and graduated in piano. In 1986 he was the music critic of «Paese sera» and, since 1988, of «La Repubblica». After having taught History of Music at the Fiesole School of Music, at the «Gesualdo da Venosa» Conservatory in Potenza and at the «Giuseppe Verdi» Conservatory in Como, he now holds the same chair at the «Giuseppe Verdi» Conservatory in Milan. He was also a professor at the Department of Arts, Music and Entertainment at the University of Florence. After having directed the musical programming at the Metastasio Theater in Prato and the Sesto Fiorentino Music School, he assumed the artistic direction of the Orchestra Camerata Strumentale of Prato since its foundation and from 1997 to 2009 he was artistic director of the Teatro Verdi in Pisa. In 2002 he was appointed by the Tuscany Region to found and direct a new radio station offering only classical music and cultural information, «Rete Toscana Classica», awarded in 2007 with the prestigious «Abbiati» Award from the National Association of Music Critics. From 2005 to 2018 he was artistic director of Amici della Musica di Perugia, Fondazione Perugia Musica Classica, and from 2008 to 2018 also of Sagra Musicale Umbra, one of the oldest Italian festivals. He edited the translation of La Musica nel Rinascimento by Gustave Reese for the «Le Lettere» publishing house, and for Einaudi an unpublished work by Massimo Mila, Brahms and Wagner. He is the author of important entries in the Dictionary of opera published by Baldini and Castoldi. Very active as a lecturer, in 1998 he held a series of lectures on Luigi Dallapiccola at the Meadows School of Arts of the Southern Methodist University in Dallas, USA and currently holds the chair of History of Music at the Florence branch of Sarah Lawrence College in New York.

https://www.cameratastrumentale.org/alberto-batisti/

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Raquel García-Tomás | composer

Raquel García-Tomás is a composer specializing in interdisciplinary creation who completed her Doctorate at the Royal College of Music. Highlights of her career include collaborations with the English National Ballet, the Royal Academy of Arts and the Dresdner Musikfestspiele.

She received the National Award of Music 2020 (Spain) “for the interdisciplinary and innovative character of her personal musical language”. Raquel was awarded El Ojo Crítico Música Clásica 2017 granted by RTVE (Spanish Radio and Television Corporation) “for the originality of her artistic approaches and the use and combination of her musical language with new technologies and video creation”.

Raquel’s music has been premiered all around Spain in venues such as the Palau de la Música Catalana, L’Auditori de Barcelona, Teatre Lliure, Zaragoza’s Concert Hall, Teatros del Canal, Teatro Español, el Teatro de la Zarzuela and Auditorio 400 at the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid. Her works have also been performed in Berlin, Dresden, Karlsruhe, Stuttgart, Huddersfield, Amsterdam, Luxemburg, Budapest, Vienna, Orléans, Lyon, Basel, Lausanne, Oporto, Edinburgh, Nagoya, Cairo, Buenos Aires, Rosario and especially in London (St. Martin in the Fields, Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall, the National Portrait Gallery, the Royal British Society of Sculptors, the Royal Academy of Arts and The Place). Raquel has received commissions and worked with the London Sinfonietta, the Oslo Sinfonietta, the Phace Ensemble, the Orquestra de Cadaqués Contemporary Ensemble, the National Youth Orchestra of Spain, the Madrid Symphony Orchestra, the Càmera Musicae Orchestra, the SIGMA Project, Experimental Funktion, CrossingLines Ensemble, Ensemble Sonido Extremo, Cosmos Quartet, Barcelona Clarinet Players, Barcelona Reed Quintet, BCN216 and PluralEnsemble among others.

Within the framework of operatic creation, she has taken part in DIDO Reloaded (2013), produced by Òpera de Butxaca i Nova Creació Barcelona and, thanks to the opera Go, ÆNEAS, go!, has been awarded the Neuköllner Oper’s Berliner Opernpreis’14. In 2015, she premiered her chamber opera disPLACE – Història d’una casa (text by H. Tornero and stage direction by P. Pawlik), at the MusikTheaterTage Wien Festival, with further performances in Teatros del Canal within the season 2016/17 of the Teatro Real in Madrid. In 2018, she premiered the monodrama Balena Blava (text by V. Szpunberg) for one actress, large orchestra, choir and electronics at the National Theatre of Catalonia. In 2019, she premiered the opera buffa Je Suis Narcissiste (libretto by H. Tornero and stage direction by M. Pazos), within the seasons of the Teatro Real de Madrid, Teatro Español, and the Teatre Lliure de Barcelona. The International Opera Awards nominated this opera for Best World Premiere.

Together with Irène Gayraud and Marta Pazos, Raquel is creating her new opera, Alexina B. (granted with the Beca Leonardo of the BBVA Foundation), which will be premiered in the 2022/23 season of the Gran Teatre del Liceu.

https://www.raquelgarciatomas.com /

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Pedro Halffter | conductor

Pedro Halffter, born in Madrid, has conducted on many stages of great prestige, such as the Vienna Musikverein, the Philharmonie and the Konzerthaus in Berlin, the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, the Théâtre du Chatelet in Paris, the Teatro Real in Madrid, the Tchaikovsky Hall of Moscow and the Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall, and has stood on the podium of important orchestras, such as the Philharmonia Orchestra, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Dresdner Philharmonie, New Japan Philharmonic, Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Staatskapelle Berlin, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Dresdner Philharmonie, Rotterdams Philharmonisch, Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, New Japan Philharmonic, San Antonio Symphony Orchestra Texas, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra and Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre National Montpellier, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, the San Antonio Symphony Orchestra in Texas in addition to the important symphonic orchestras of Spain.

One artistic focus of this versatile artist is on his efforts to get Spanish audience inspired by German and Austrian music repertoire for example by Wagner, Strauss, Schreker and Zemlinksky.

He has premiered many operas in Spain, such as Dr. Faust by Busoni, Die Schweigsame Frau by Richard Strauss and Der ferne Klang by Schreker – in a production of the Berlin Staatsoper unter den Linden Berlin staged by Peter Mussbach.

In 2009 Pedro Halffter had made his debut with Salome at the Berlin Staatsoper and had come back later that season to conduct Der ferne Klang. The 2014/15 season saw Pedro Halffter conducting Die Schweigsame Frau at the Bavarian State Opera as well as at Munich’s Opera Festival. He also made his debut at National Center for the Performing Arts in Peking (NCPA) with Verdi‘s Rigoletto. In the 2016/17 season Maestro Hallfter conducted Tannhäuser, Zauberflöte and La Boheme a.o. at the Teatro de la Maestranza in Sevilla and Pique Dame at the Hungarian State Opera. His stepping in at the Opera in Essen for a performance of Die schweigsame Frau led to an immediate reinvitation to conduct concerts with the Essen Philharmonic.

As a composer, Pedro Halffter has also gained much international respect. His works have been performed in such important halls as the Auditorio Nacional de Madrid, the Philharmonie of Dortmund and Carnegie Hall of New York and were played by acclaimed orchestras such as Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra, Deutsche Kammerakademie, Kammerorchester Stuttgart and Ensemble intercontemporain. Among his noteworthy works are symphonic arrangements of Richard Wagner’s: Tannhäuser, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung. In 2011 Pedro Halffter received the prestigious Juno award for best classical music album of the year, for Fire and Blood, which was recorded with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, and he has also recorded an album devoted to Ginastera, with the label Deutsche Grammophon. In 2018/19 Pedro Halffter has put a major focus on him being a sought after composer, devoting a major part of time to writing a number of commissioned works. But he has also appeared as conductor e.g. at the Opera of Bilbao with La Bohème and with Kaiser von Atlantis (Emperor of Atlantis), Il Travatore and Andrea Chénier at the Opera in Sevilla. The highlights of the 2019/2020 season include the opera productions The Dictator by Ernst Krenek and Viktor Ullmann’s The Emperor of Atlantis on Tenerife, The Flying Dutchman with Bryn Terfel at the Bilbao Opera House as well as an invitation to the Munich National Theater, where he conduct several performances of Die schweigsame Frau. In 2020 – as part of the celebration of the Beethoven anniversary – Pedro Halffter will conduct a set of concerts at the Villa Musica where he will also be presenting new compositions. Pedro Halffter has been invited to join the jury of the singing competition „Concorso Lirico Ottevio Zino“ in Rome and is a member of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de Santa Isabel de Hungría of Seville.

https://www.pedro-halffter.com/

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Jaume Santonja | conductor

Jaume Santonja has been appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano starting from the 2022/23 season. Former associate conductor of the Euskadiko Orkestra – Basque National Orchestra – he is a regular guest of the main orchestras in his native Spain: Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España – OCNE, Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana – OCV, Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife – OST, Orquesta Filarmónica de Málaga, Real Filharmonía de Galicia, Orquesta Sinfónica de Bilbao, Oviedo Filarmonía.

Former Assistant Conductor of the world-renown City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in the UK, Santonja conducts the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Stavanger Symphony, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Phion Orkest, Philharmonie Zuidnederland, Belgrade Philharmonic, among many others.

In June 2020 he was selected among the four most promising young conductors to participate in the exclusive masterclasses with Iván Fischer and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam.

Jaume Santonja is the founder of the AbbatiaViva music collective and enjoys the activity of music arranger and orchestrator, as well as a passionate composer for chamber music works.

Santonja holds a Master of Music (Conducting) from the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp (Belgium) and a Master of Music (Percussion) from Amsterdam Conservatorium (Holland). He studied for his Bachelor’s degree at Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya in Barcelona (ESMuC).

Prior to focusing his activity on orchestra conducting Jaume Santonja was principal percussionist at the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra for seven seasons, and as a student was a member of the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester and the Verbier Festival Orchestra where he had the privilege to play under conductors such as Mariss Jansons, Daniele Gatti, Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Valery Gergiev, Pierre Boulez, Andris Nelsons, Zubin Mehta, James Levine, Charles Dutoit, Essa-Pekka Salonen.

https://en.jaumesantonja.com

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Francesco Filidei | organist and composer

Francesco Filidei was born in Pisa. He graduated from the Luigi Cherubini Conservatory in Florence, and from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris. As an organist and composer, he has been invited to participate in major contemporary music festivals internationally.

He has been played with a number of world-class orchestras, including WDR, SWR, RSO Wien, ORT, RAI, the Tokyo Philharmonic, Bayerischen Rundfunk, LaVerdi, the Philharmonic Orchestras of Monte Carlo, Nice, Picardie, Helsinki, Vilnius and Warsaw, the Orchestre Symphonique de Bretagne and the OPL, the Orchestre of Mexique; and with most of the world’s the leading specialized ensembles at venues such as the Philharmonie in Berlin, Köln, Essen, Hamburg, Cité de la Musique in Paris, Suntory Hall and the Tokyo Opera House, Theaterhaus in Vienna, Herkulessaal in Munich, Tonhalle in Zurich, Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.

In 2005 Filidei received a commission from Comité de Lecture Ircam. He has received awards including the 2006 Salzburg Music Förderpreisträger, the 2007 Prix Takefu, the 2009 Siemens Förderpreisträger, the 2011 International Rostrum of Composers UNESCO Picasso-Miro Medal, the 2015 Abbiati Award, the 2016 Les Grands Prix Internationaux du Disque from the Académie Charles Cros for his album Forse, the Simone and Cino Del Duca Foundation’s 2018 Commande awarded by the Académie des Beaux-Arts. In 2005 Filidei received a grant from the Akademie Schloss Solitude; in 2006 and 2007 he was a member of the Casa de Velàzquez; in 2012 he was a Pensionnaire at Villa Medici; he received a grant from the DAAD in Berlin. Filidei has also been composer-in-residence for numerous ensembles and music festivals.

Filidei is also active in teaching and has taught composition at the Royaumont Foundation’s Voix Nouvelles program, the University of Iowa, Takefu (Tokyo), the International Academy in Tchaikovsky City (Russia), Darmstädter Ferienkurse (Germany), and at numerous institutions and universities throughout the world (Ircam, Cnsmdp, Esmuc, Musikene, The conservatory of Strasbourg and Moskow, the university of Berlin, Hannover, Stuttgart, Graz, San Diego, Tokyo amongst many others). In 2019 he will give masterclasses with portrait concerts in Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong. In 2016 he was named Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture. Filidei joined the I Teatri Foundation of Reggio Emilia (Italy) as music consultant in 2018 and the Villa Medici in Rome as Artistic Director of the Controtempo festival of contemporary music. Filidei’s first opera, Giordano Bruno, made its world premiere in 2015 in Porto (Portugal), and has been performed in theaters throughout Europe since then. His latest opera, L’inondation, with book by Joel Pommerat, was composed for the 2019 season at Opéra Comique in Paris. Filidei’s works are published by Rai Com and Ricordi.

https://francescofilidei.wordpress.com/

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Virginia Guastella | composer

Virginia Guastella (1979) has been working professionally for twenty years. Born in Palermo, with academic studies (Diplomas in Piano, Composition, Master’s degree cum laude in Aesthetics of Music at University of Bologna, Accademia Chigiana), she works as composer, pianist, producer and conductor in different fields: contemporary classical, crossover, opera/music theatre, improvisation and soundtracks to silent and sound movies.

Her music is performed at major international festivals, venues and broadcast on main radio and television stations: MITO Festival, Turin/Milan; National Gallery of Art, Washington DC; BARD College, New York during her USA Tour in 2016; Eastman School of Music (University of Rochester – USA); Ferrara Musica (under the direction of Claudio Abbado); Musique à l’Emperi, invited by Emmanuel Pahud and Paul Meyer, Salon de Provence (France); Teatro Massimo (Palermo); Voll Damm Jazz Festival, Barcelona (Spain); I Pomeriggi Musicali, Milano; Sentieri Selvaggi, Milano; Sofia Union of Bulgarian Composers, Sofia (Bulgaria); Mittelfest, Cividale del Friuli (UD); Orchestra Haydn of Trento and Bolzano; Puccini Festival, Torre del lago; Società aquilana dei concerti Barattelli, L’Aquila; Nuova Consonanza, Rome; Fondazione ORT, Florence; Ravenna Festival; Elba Festival; Stresa Festival; Huset Theatre (Copenhagen); Fondazione Cantiere Internazionale d’Arte of Montepulciano (founded by H. W. Henze); Cineteca di Bologna; ORF Radio Wien; Rai Radio3; Rai3; SKY Classica HD; Bayerischer Rundfunk; Deutschlandfunk Kultur; France Musique.

Emmanuel Pahud, Paul Meyer, Les Vents Français, Hervé Joulain, Yura Lee, Isaac Rodriguez, Olivier Doise, Anna Garzuly- Wahlgren, Novus String Quartet, Roberto Abbondanza, Yves Abel, El Cimarròn Ensemble, Carlo Boccadoro, Quartetto Prometeo, Quartetto Tetraktis, Orchestra Haydn of Trento and Bolzano, Sentieri Selvaggi Ensemble, Icarus Ensemble, AltreVoci Ensemble, Francesco Bossaglia, Eva Maria Melbye, Gabriele Bonolis, Chiara Osella, Cristian Taraborrelli, Fabio Massimo Iaquone, Maria Eleonora Caminada, Danilo Pastore, Orazio Sciortino, Ensemble of the Orchestra regionale della Toscana (ORT), ContempoArtEnsemble, Gillian B. Anderson, Paolo Fresu, I Pomeriggi Musicali Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, Roberto Prosseda, Stefania Sandrelli, are some of the artists that perform her works.

Her catalogue includes pieces for various instrumental and vocal combinations, and many publications among which there is her monographic cd So far so good. The album includes pieces written between 2006 and 2015 for string quartet, orchestra, piano, trio (alto sax, flute and piano), solo sax, viola d’amore and guitar, ensemble.

She is artistic director of Urban Opera Festival (UOF), a new festival of music theatre organized for the first edition in Bologna (City of Music Unesco) in collaboration with DAR – Department of Arts, Music, Theatre, Cinema and Fashion of the University of Bologna as main partner, with the support of DumBo, Robot Festival, the Municipality of Bologna and Emilia Romagna region.

In 2024 she worked as a composer and a music consultant to the soundtrack of the TV series Giacomo Leopardi – Vita e amori del poeta directed by Sergio Rubini and produced by IBC Movie, Rai Fiction, RaiCom. In the next months the series will be broadcast on RaiUno.

In 2023 she was composer, producer and pianist in residence at My site | in space Xenon Residency, produced and curated by Copenhagen Platform in collaboration with Huset Theatre (Copenhagen, Denmark). That same year she premiered at Cineteca of Bologna her original project of live soundtrack to the silent film Dornröschen (1917) by Paul Leni with her reduction of the music from the opera La bella dormiente nel bosco by Ottorino Respighi with the support of Ricordi and Fondazione “G. Cini”. In that occasion she conducted the Dub’s Step Dialettica Ensemble (DSDE), that she founded two years ago and involves also in projects of Improvisation and music theatre.

In 2022 she was composer and pianist in residence in Milan at the Festival Mappe sonore of the Sentieri Selvaggi Ensemble. In July 2022 was the premiere of her chamber opera for soprano, countertenor and ensemble L’ombra di un meriggio lontano, commissioned by Fondazione Cantiere of Montepulciano with the artistic direction of Mauro Montalbetti. She is also the author of the libretto in Italian, French and English based on texts by Amelia Rosselli, Franz Kafka, Pier Paolo Pasolini and Dante Alighieri.

In 2021 it was a great success the premiere of her monodrama Angelica cunta for mezzo soprano and ensemble, commissioned by Nuova Consonanza Festival in Rome, freely inspired by Orlando furioso by Ludovico Ariosto and the book Storia dei paladini di Francia da Carlo Magno Imperatore fino alla sua morte, compresavi la battaglia di Roncisvalle by an anonymous author. In 2021 she was composer in residence at “I Concerti della Normale” of Pisa invited by the artistic director Carlo Boccadoro.

In 2020 her duodrama Floria, sì, sono io, with Stefania Sandrelli as reciting voice, was performed at Puccini Festival of Torre del Lago, commissioned by Giorgio Battistelli, artistic director of the Festival.

In that year she was invited by Ravenna Festival to perform her original music for a show in duo with Massimo Gramellini.

In 2018 she was composer and pianist in residence at the “CLASSIX” Festival in Kempten (Germany) where her music was performed by soloists also coming from the most renowned orchestras of the world such as Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Concertgebouw of Amsterdam and Leipzig, Philarmonique de Radio France, National de France, Lucerne Festival.

In June 2017 she was in residence at the Academy of the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence taking part in the “Women Opera Makers Workshop” for professionals in the field of contemporary opera between Aix and the Royal Court Theatre of London in collaboration with the english director Katie Mitchell. There was the second time for her in residence at the Academy. In 2015, in fact, she had been invited by the composer Fabio Vacchi to the “Opera Creation Atelier”.

In September 2016 she was on tour in US for five concerts performing her original music (piano solo and live soundtrack to silent movies). The tour started in Washington, DC, at the National Gallery of Arts that invited her for two performances, and then continued at BARD College in the State of New York, at Spectrum (in NYC) and in Paducah, UNESCO Creative City (Kentucky).

In 2008 with the score Pax virginis for solo voice (baritone) and orchestra she won the International Composition Contest “Strumenti di pace” (Rovereto) with Giorgio Battistelli as Commission chairman. The piece has been premiered by Roberto Abbondanza, Orchestra Haydn of Trento and Bolzano conducted by Gustav Kuhn and broadcast live on Rai Radio3. Then performed twice in the season of the orchestra conducted by Yves Abel.

Since 2007 she has worked as a music consultant and a composer on the original soundtracks for the episodes of the documentary series La Grande Storia and Correva l’anno broadcast in prime time on RAI3. Since that year with her Duo Improbabile, together with the drummer Claudio Trotta, she has performed her original music in very important venues and festivals such as Ferrara Musica in collaboration with Il Torrione Jazz Club, Voll Damm Jazz Festival of Barcelona (Spain) and for Bologna Jazz Festival, among others. In 2009 their first album Slancio moderato was published by RaiCom Music Edition.

In 2002 she won the International Piazzolla Music Award performing her original versions for piano of the pieces written by the famous Argentine composer and performer.

Winner at a very young age of national piano competitions, also with international juries, around the age of 20 she has performed with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra conducted by Alexander Lonquich, with the Orchestra of Teatro Comunale di Bologna conducted by Daniele Gatti, and collaborated with Orchestra Mozart conducted by Claudio Abbado. In the same years she worked for Cineteca of Bologna as pianist in ensembles playing soundtracks for silent movies, as korrepetitor in Die Zauberflöte by W. A. Mozart, directed by Daniele Abbado, with Mahler Chamber Orchestra conducted by Claudio Abbado, and in Ariadne auf Naxos by R. Strauss, directed by Toni Servillo, with the National Symphonic Orchestra of Portugal conducted by Zoltán Peskó.

She is tenured Professor in Harmony and Analysis for the Italian Ministry of University and Research working at Conservatory of music “G. Puccini” of Gallarate for over a decade and at Conservatory “G. B. Martini” of Bologna. Furthermore, she offers masterclasses and is guest of meetings and conferences in European and International conservatories and institutions among them: ESMUC (University of Music) and Conservatory of Music in Barcelona (Spain); DAR – Department of the Arts and Department of Foreign Languages and Literature of the University of Bologna; Center for Moving Images at BARD College (NY – USA); Accademia Filarmonica (Bologna).

At the age of 17 she received her MA in Piano in her native city with Enza Vernuccio, then in Composition at 22 under the guidance of Adriano Guarnieri in Bologna, where she took also her MA in Aesthetics of Music with Maurizio Giani at DAMS (Disciplines of Art, Music and Drama), Faculty of Literature and Philosophy at the University of Bologna, graduating magna cum laude.

In 2001 she took part in the course on Use of Live Electronics in Music Composition with A. Guarnieri and Alvise Vidolin organized by the Conservatory “G. B. Martini” of Bologna. During the years of her training she studied conducting with Piero Bellugi, then she went on for advanced studies in Piano with Aquiles Delle Vigne, Boris Petrushansky and in Composition with Salvatore Sciarrino at the Accademia musicale Chigiana in Siena. She studied privately conducting with Gillian B. Anderson.

In 1999 and 1994 she attended the Berklee School of Boston Clinics at the Umbria Jazz Festival (Perugia) in Jazz playing and Composition and received a prize “in recognition of her outstanding musicianship”.

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Frédéric Chaslin | composer and conductor

Frédéric Chaslin, a multifaceted artist hailing from Paris, boasts a rich resume encompassing roles as a conductor, composer, pianist, and author. Trained at the prestigious Paris Conservatoire and Salzburg Mozarteum, he apprenticed under luminaries like Daniel Barenboim and Pierre Boulez. His conducting career spans prestigious venues worldwide, including the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the Vienna State Opera. Chaslin’s repertoire is expansive, covering both operatic and symphonic works, with notable appearances at major orchestras and festivals globally. Beyond the podium, he is an accomplished composer with a diverse catalog and an insightful author, exploring music’s profound impact. Recent highlights include acclaimed productions at renowned venues such as Teatro alla Scala in Milan and engagements with esteemed opera houses and orchestras around the world, showcasing his enduring artistry and versatility.

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Marcello Panni | composer and conductor

Born in Rome in 1940, Marcello Panni began to study piano and composition at a very young age. He attended Franco Ferrara’s conducting courses and perfected himself as a composer with Goffredo Petrassi at the Accademia Santa Cecilia in Rome, thereafter joining Manuel Rosenthal’s class at the Paris’ Conservatoire where he had his « premier prix » in 1968. His conducting debut took place the following year in Venice at the Biennale Music Festival.

As a very open-minded conductor Marcello Panni commands a broad repertoire. He has conducted and recorded rare works, not only of the 18^th Century such as Pergolesi’s Il Flaminio and Adriano in Siria, Paisiello’s La Nina Pazza per Amore, Handel’s  Giulio Cesare but also of the 20^th Century composers such as Morton Feldman’s Neither (world premiere, Teatro dell’Opera, Rome 1976), Berio’s Passaggio, Laborintus II and Opera (at the Paris’ Festival d’Automne in 1979), Bussotti’s  Passion selon Sade and Cristallo di Rocca (world premiere,- La Scala, Milan 1982), Philip Glass’s Civil Wars  (world premiere – Rome 1984) ,and The Fall of the House of Usher (italian premiere – Maggio Musicale Fiorentino 1992), Petrassi’s Il Cordovano (Rome, Teatro dell’Opera, 2003).

Marcello Panni conducts the traditional lyric repertoire with the same ease: Rigoletto in Vienna and Bilbao, L’Elisir d’Amore in Paris, London , Berlin, New York and Barcelona, Il Trittico and L’Heure Espagnole at the Paris Opera, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Lucia di Lammermoor, Elisir d’amore  in Vienna, Macbeth, La Fille du Régiment and Tosca in Zurich. In 1988, he made his Metropolitan Opera debut conducting L’Elisir d’Amore starring Luciano Pavarotti. The Met brought him back twice, in 1989 to lead Rigoletto and in 1992 for Lucia di Lammermoor. He made his début at the Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow, in 2003 with Verdi’ìs Macbeth, directed by Eimuntas Nekrosius .

In September of 1994, he was appointed Musical Director of the “Pomeriggi Musicali” Orchestra in Milan. In the same year, Maestro Panni was appointed Musical Director of the Bonn Opera, where he has conducted new productions of Trittico, Manon Lescaut, Fidelio, Romeo and Juliet and  Barbiere di Siviglia.

As a composer, Marcello Panni wrote a large number of symphonic and chamber works, published by Ricordi, Suvini Zerboni, Peters, and RaiCom In 1994 his first opera, Hanjo, based on a Nō play by Yukio Mishima and staged by Robert Wilson, was premiered at Maggio Musicale Florentino ; recently revised for Rome Nuova Consonanza Festival, 2016, Hanjo is now published on DVD by EmaVinci Records . His second opera, Il Giudizio di Paride staged by Gian-Carlo del Monaco, was premiered in 1996 at the Bonn Opera. In June 1998, the Bremen Opera staged his third lyric work, The Banquet, with an english libretto by Kenneth Koch, conducted by Günter Neuhold. It was restaged for an Italian tour in 2001-2002, conducted by the composer himself, comprising Genoa, Rome, and Florence .

His fourth opera, Garibaldi en Sicile, libretto in french by Kenneth Koch, freely derived from Alexander Dumas narration about Garibaldi conquest of Sicily in 1860, was performed at the Teatro San Carlo, Naples, 2005.

His Missa Brevis for Children Chorus, Winds, Tenor and Percussions was premiered au Festival de Musique Sacrée de Nice en 2001 and after that in many others Europeans Festivals (Rome, Torino, Palermo, Paris, Beja etc).

In July 2009 he premiered at the Spoleto Festival a large Oratorio Apokàlypsis ,for chorus, children chorus, two narrators , wind orchestra and percussion, based on St.John’s text. The Oratorio was also performed in Monza’s Cathedral, 2011, and in Milano, San Marco Church, May 2015. A revival of Apokàlypsis with an introduction of cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi is forecast at the Santa Cecilia Academy in Rome, May 2018.

In 1997, Marcello Panni was appointed Musical Director of the Nice Opera. He left this position in 2001 to move to Naples as Artistic Director of the San Carlo Opera Theater. He hold the post of Artistic Director of the Accademia Filarmonica Romana, from 2000 to 2004, and from 2007 to 2009. From 2008 to 2012 he was also Musical and Artistic Director of Lecce’s Orchestra Sinfonica Tito Schipa, in South Italy.

In 2003 was nominated Member of the National Academy of Santa Cecilia.

https://www.nuovaconsonanza.it/panni-marcello.html

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Andrea Rebaudengo | Pianist

Born in Pesaro, Italy, he is the winner of the International Piano Competition in Pescara (1998) and he was tributed the third prize at the Robert Schumann International Piano Competition in Zwickau in 2000. He took part into several Italian music seasons such as Serate Musicali in Milan, Unione Musicale in Turin; Teatro Ponchielli in Cremona, Amici della Musica in Verona. As a soloist, he was invited by the Orchestra I Pomeriggi Musicali in Milan, Philarmonic Orchestra in Pescara, Symphony Orchestra “G. Verdi” in Milan and Accademia Filarmonica Urbinate. He performs regularly with the ensemble Sentieri Selvaggi in contemporary music festivals and seasons (Accademia Filarmonica Romana, Rome; Settembre Musica, Turin; Teatro alla Scala, Milan; Biennale Musica, Venice). He studied piano with Paolo Bordoni, Andrzej Jasinski and Lazar Berman.

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Reza Vali | Composer

Born in Iran, he started his studies at the Tehran Conservatory and attended the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna, where he studied composition. He later attended the University of Pittsburgh where he received his PhD in composition and theory. Since 1988 he has been on the faculty at Carnegie Mellon University. He received the honor prize of the Austrian Ministry of Arts and Sciences and two Andrew W. Mellon Fellowships. Vali's orchestral works have been performed by the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Seattle Symphony, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the Baltimore Symphony, the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, and Orchestra 2001. His chamber music has been performed by the Cuarteto Latinoamericano, the Del Sol Quartet, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Kronos Quartet.

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Giovanni Sollima | Composer

Giovanni Sollima è un vero virtuoso del violoncello. Suonare per lui non è un fine, ma un mezzo per comunicare con il mondo. È un compositore fuori dal comune, che grazie all’empatia che instaura con lo strumento e con le sue emozioni e sensazioni, comunica attraverso una musica unica nel suo genere. Nasce a Palermo il 24 ottobre 1962 da una famiglia di musicisti. Studia a Palermo, Salisburgo e Stoccarda, e ancora adolescente intraprende una brillante carriera internazionale di violoncellista, collaborando con Claudio Abbado, Martha Argerich, Jorg Demus e Giuseppe Sinopoli. Parallelamente all’attività di solista, la sua curiosità creativa lo spinge ad esplorare nuove frontiere nel campo della Composizione, attraverso contaminazioni fra generi diversi: rock, jazz, electronic, minimalismo anglosassone e musica etnica di tutta l’area mediterranea.

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