GUEST ARTISTS
Violinist capable of capturing the audience’s attention at every concert thanks to her deeply engaging musicality and truly remarkable technical skill. She made her debut at Chicago’s Pritzker Pavilion before ten thousand people at the age of nine. Since then, she has performed solo recitals and concerts throughout North America and Europe. A passionate and enthusiastic student, Clarissa graduated with honors and distinction at the age of sixteen. In 2021, she earned her Master of Music in Violin Performance at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg, where she studied with Pierre Amoyal. Clarissa has a great passion for historic violins. At fourteen, she was selected as the youngest violinist to perform regularly with the precious Stradivari collection of the Violin Museum at the Arvedi Auditorium in Cremona. She now plays a violin by Zosimo Bergonzi, Cremona c.1748, kindly on loan from Guarneri Hall NFP and Darnton & Hersh Fine Violins of Chicago.
Choro Da Ilha is a quartet that exclusively treats CHORO, a refined genre of Brazilian Popular Music (MPB) with some of the typical and fundamental instruments of its tradition. It is considered as the most important Brazilian instrumental music, from which other genres such as samba, bossa nova etc. will later draw.
Initially this music was played in the so-called quintais de tias (aunts’ backyards), usually during or after meals, around the table, where each person would play his or her instrument, initiating the roda de choro (choro circle). What better way to end a meal with friends and relatives than to all play and sing together?
“Our musical/work paths and choices led us to meet and choose each other for this project, of a high technical level, which together we carry on with great enthusiasm, aiming at the sharing and popularization of Choro, dedicated to an audience of good listeners, but not necessarily connoisseurs.”
(Palermo, 1986) is one of the young authors of the new Sicilian painting. His work opens to the eye as a collage of ordinary fragments emerged on a diaphanous skin. These are membranes, liquid bodies domesticated and immersed in a nature told through pale signs and fast chromatics. After finishing her studies between Italy and France, she collaborated as an assistant with artist Aleksandra Mir. His first solo exhibition Deadline, a reflection on portrait and identity, at the independent space Zelle arte Contemporanea, will be followed by group exhibitions, in Italy and abroad. He was creative director of the periodical Post published by Mimesis. Among the founders of Azoto Project & Communication, he has curated projects with artists such as Lovett and Codagnone (Manifesta 12), communication campaigns and workshops on graphic design and printmaking with artists such as Monica Dengo and Max Fish.
He lives and works between Venice and Palermo. He graduated in 2019 from the Academy of Fine Arts in Palermo, in Sculpture, and it is here that he began to experiment with sculpture as a medium through which to adopt an experimental and multidisciplinary approach to probe a certain type of research: that of the funeral ritual in the West and the theme of death. In such investigation he does not limit himself with the use of one formal channel, one specific medium, but these evolve concomitantly with the research following the different expressive needs of the work, resorting mainly to sculpture, then site-specific installation and environment.
The space in which the work resides is conceived as an integral part of the work itself, becoming the medium through which to establish a relationship between different elements present; while the viewer acts and is acted upon by sensory stimuli and his own emotionality.
Together with his brother, Davide Di Liberto, he curated the direction and set design of the play “Sparge Death” (2022), to music by Pomo D’Oro, and madrigals by the Madrigal Company. He also participates in numerous exhibitions; they include: Spazio Gamma (Milan), Galleria Poggiali (Milan), Galleria delle Prigioni (Fondazione Imago Mundi – Treviso), Galleria Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa (Venice), Palazzo Monti (Brescia).
He is currently attending the Master of Visual Arts program at IUAV in Venice, where he co-founded the multidisciplinary collective called FRICHE in 2020.
Graduated from the “F. Venezze” Conservatory of Rovigo in Pianoforte with highest honors, and in Vocal Chamber Music with highest honors, distinction and honorable mention. He graduated with highest honors in the Bachelor’s Degree in Musicology from “Ca’ Foscari” University of Venice. He graduated in the Biennium for Substitute Maestro and Korrepetitor with highest honors from the “S. Cecilia” Conservatory in Rome. He graduated with highest honors in conducting under G. Andretta at the “A. Pedrollo” Conservatory of Music in Vicenza. He studied piano with F. Scala; he attended advanced music courses and master classes held by A. Carcano, L. Howard, I. Gage, E. Battaglia, U. Eisenlohr. He specialized with U. Eisenlohr in the German vocal chamber repertoire at the Hochschule Mannheim (Germany). As a pianist he has performed as a concert pianist and won prizes in National and International piano and chamber music competitions. He is dedicated to the operatic repertoire as a Maestro Collaboratore at the main Lyric Theaters in Veneto; he worked at the Houston Grand Opera in Texas (USA) (2014-2024). He served as Maestro Collaboratore at the Manoel Theatre in Malta from 2017 to 2020. He worked in 2018 at the Arena di Verona (Andrea Bocelli Gala) and in 2019 at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. From 2020 to 2022, he taught at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam (Netherlands) in the Classical Voice and Conducting department and was a coach at the DNOA (Dutch National Opera Academy). He has been Piano Accompanist of singing classes at the Conservatories of Milan, Trento, and Parma and currently teaches at the Conservatory of Trapani.
In 2010, at the age of 19, he won the “Premio Venezia” and in the years that followed he began to accumulate prizes and awards in international competitions of the highest profile (Montreal, Viotti, Mottram, YCAT, Rubinstein and others) that opened the doors of some of the most important concert halls in the world to him in addition to the awarding of prestigious scholarships offered by the Verbier Festival and the KlavierFestival Ruhr. Guarrera is active, almost by vocation, in the dimension of the solo recital as the expressive form most congenial to him within which to present a performing style marked by a personal search for the beauty of sound in its wide range of timbral resources, combined with a thorough control of musical thought and narrative. Among the most important halls and festivals in which he has performed are London’s Wigmore Hall, the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris, the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, the Dvorak Festival in Prague, the National Auditorium in Bordeaux, the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, and the “Scherzo” series in Madrid. Among the orchestras and conductors with whom he has collaborated as a soloist, particularly significant encounters have been those with Barenboim. Kjtaenko, Floor, Petrenko, and with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre de la Maison Symphonique de Montréal, the Ensemble of Contemporary Music Pierre Boulez in Berlin, and the Orchestra of the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. As a chamber musician, he collaborates in duo with violinist Mayumi Kanagawa and cornist Ben Goldscheider, with whom he has given concerts in Europe and Japan. Upcoming engagements include: a tour of China and Canada, new recital programs some of them with a specific focus on Italian composers of the historical 20th century, celebrating the centenary of Ferruccio Busoni’s death (2024) and the 150th anniversary of Guido Alberto Fano’s birth (2025), a recital on the occasion of the opening in the new concert hall La Cité Bleue in Geneva. Passionate about didactics, jazz, Western and Eastern philosophy, Giuseppe Guarrera is a professor of principal piano at the Barenboim-Said Akademie in Berlin, a music university that promotes and supports collaboration and dialogue among young musicians from conflict zones in the Middle East.
Born in 1979, Jérémy Jouve began his concert career at the age of 11 when he performed Vivaldi’s Guitar Concerto in Chambéry Cathedral. Always open to new musical experiences, including Indian music and jazz, he has performed many contemporary works for electric guitar. He is very active in chamber music performance and regularly performs in duos with violinists, flutists and singers. Jérémy Jouve’s international awards include first prize at the 2002 Jan Edmund Jurkowski Competition in Tychy, Poland, and the 2003 Guitar Foundation of America Competition.
She began studying piano at age 5 with V. Adamo at the Palermo Conservatory where, since 2015, she has been attending the pre-academic course under the guidance of Donatella Sollima. First Prize at the 2015 “A. Trombone” Competition, in December of the same year she performed at the Teatro Massimo Bellini in Catania as overall winner of the “G. Campochiaro” International Competition. In 2016 she won Second Prize at the Steinway Competition in Verona and made her debut at Teatro Paisiello in Lecce with the Conservatory Orchestra conducted by F. Libetta. She performed in the United States in 2016 with the Greenwich Symphony Orchestra conducted by T. Simoncic, and in 2019 for the Key Biscayne Piano Festival and the Miami International Piano Festival, where she made her debut recital. Since 2017 he has been attending the Special Piano Course taught by A. Lucchesini at the Fiesole School of Music.
First cello of the Orchestra of Teatro alla Scala.
Born in Turin, he began his studies with Brancaleon at the conservatory in his city, graduating in cello with top marks. He later perfected his skills with Janigro, Brunello, and Shafran, winning the first prize for virtuosity in 1996 at the Conservatory of Geneva under the guidance of Daniel Gronsgurin. From 1995 and for the following five years, he held the position of principal solo cello of the “Camerata Bern,” a group with which he toured worldwide with esteemed musicians such as Andras Schiff, Holliger, Peter Serkin, Chumachenco, and Zehetmair, recording for Decca, Berlin Classic, and Philips. In February 2000, he was chosen by Riccardo Muti to be the first cello of the Orchestra of Teatro alla Scala. Always committed to deepening chamber repertoire, he is the founder of the Trio Johannes. He is a professor at the Advanced Academy for Orchestra Professors of the Teatro alla Scala.
An ethnomusicologist, he holds a PhD in Byzantine musicology (University of Copenhagen, 2017). He has taught Ethnomusicology at the University of Copenhagen and the University of Corfu; since 2020, he has been a lecturer in the introductory seminar on Ethnomusicology at the University of Catania.
Giovanni Sollima is an out-of-the-ordinary performer, but above all he is a Independent and boundless composer.
The visceral bond with his Sicilian origins but especially with his cello has marked and characterized both his artistic career and his musical composition, contaminated by the Mediterranean stylistic language or to diametrically opposed musical genres such as rock and pop.
Giusi Sferruggia (born 1992) lives and works in Palermo. She is currently attending the two-year specialist course in Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Palermo. Her research is rooted in a meticulous analysis of the ordinary, the ways of being in the world and the materials that define its contours. While maintaining a deep connection with the idea of painting, his work expands in space, guided by his interest in heterogeneous materials and techniques.
Reflection on existence is intertwined with reflection on the body-the first and most immediate form of being-as the materials used articulate in the environment following the vital rhythm of things, until they become organs of a non-human body.
Group and solo exhibitions: Der Natur entommen 31, Haus der Kunst, Palermo, 2015; The Island Is What the Sea Surrounds, curated by Maren Richter, St. Elmo Examination Centre, Valletta, Malta, 2018;
Qanat 2 Project, Studio Mascal, Palermo, 2018; Polizzi Generosa Arte Contemporanea, Project by ABA Palermo, Palazzo della Cultura, Polizzi Generosa, 2021; Sospensione Orizzontale, solo exhibition curated by Alessia Coppolino, La Siringe, Palermo, 2022; Zones of Free Inflection, group exhibition curated by Carlo Corona, Osservatorio Futura, Turin, 2024; Macchia Mediterranea, solo exhibition curated by Marcello Carriero, showcase space, Riso – Regional Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Palazzo Belmonte Riso, Palermo, 2025.
After earning first prize from the Conservatoire National Region de Paris in Jean-Claude Jaboulay’s class in 1996, Fabien Thouand studied with Jacques Tys and Jean-Louis Capezzali at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris where he won first prize unanimously in 2000. He has been taking Maurice Bourgue’s master class at the CNSM in Paris since 2001. He received second prize in the same year at the Prague Spring International Competition and third prize at the Giuseppe Tomassini International Competition in Petritoli. Finally in May 2002 the third prize at the Toulon International Wind Instrument Competition. His career developed in France and throughout Europe in orchestras and chamber ensembles.
The duo “Zero Hour” consists of Giulio Potenza on piano and Fernando Mangifesta on bandoneon. It was born from the desire of the two musicians to explore and fuse the rhythmic and timbral potentials of their instruments by reinterpreting the most significant works of the literature of the symbol instrument of tango, embracing various musical styles and genres. Through the iconic compositions of the musical genius Astor Piazzolla, “Sueños de Tango” is an immersion into the world of tango, thanks to the enveloping sounds, passionate rhythms, and the deep emotional connection that this music manages to create.
He lives and works in Palermo. Graduated in 1998 from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Palermo in Decoration, with a thesis on Graffitism. Since 2005, he has held the chair of Painting Disciplines at the Liceo Artistico Catalano di Palermo.
An active artist since 1996, his works have been presented in solo and group exhibitions in Italy and abroad, including at the Mart – Museo di arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, Riso – Museo d’Arte Contemporanea della Sicilia, Galleria Regionale Palazzo Bellomo di Siracusa, Stadtgalerie in Kiel, Museum Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf, Venice Biennale, and others. In 2017, he designed and created the triumphal float for the 393rd Festino di S. Rosalia. Since 2018, with the aim of conveying social messages such as the fight against the mafia and respect for the environment to a broader and more diverse audience, he has been active in the urban regeneration of neighborhoods and at-risk areas through individual and collective artistic interventions in public art and Street Art, sometimes covering multiple facades of the same building. Among these, the mural “Fides” for the exhibition “Cartoline da Ballarò” in Palermo, of which he is also the curator, and “La porta dei Giganti” near the bunker courtroom of the carcere Ucciardone in Palermo, for which he won the prestigious international recognition “Best of May 2021” according to the authoritative Street Art Cities portal.
A classical pianist and well known as an interpreter of contemporary music and avant-garde performer, Giusy Caruso has chosen a truly unpredictable path for an Italian musician, that of artistic musical research. At the heart of rigorous approaches to analyzing and creating musical performance, Giusy Caruso transforms the latest neuroscience studies on performative movement, biomechanics, human-machine interaction and artificial intelligence into synaesthetic poetry, becoming herself an artistic body, crumbling every barrier, defying every convention and ultimately creating a new kind of figital performance, the latter word of a present that is already future in which the physical world meets the digital one, which today is definable only as authentic contemporaneity to our daily experience sublimated into art. In her live concerts that have touched prestigious halls on different continents (Europe, Asia, South America, USA) she ranges from classical repertoires to the most contemporary electroacoustic experimentation, remotely manipulating the sound of the grand piano with instruments unthinkable in normal concert practice, such as sensors that pick up the movement and electrical impulses of muscles and virtual and augmented reality systems that project her to duet with her avatar in the Metaverse. Among her numerous awards, including the IBLA Special Grand Prize for her interpretation of Olivier Messiaen’s Preludes, is the recent prestigious S+T+ARTS PRIZE 2023 Honorary Mention awarded annually by the European Commission to pioneering research projects that interface art, technology and science, received in synergy with her technology partner LWT3 Srl of Milan. With the profile of a pianist and post-doctoral artist-researcher (PhD in Arts: Music Performance), Giusy Caruso is now head of the CREATION research group at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp [BE], where she holds the MIRRORING CREATIVE LAB workshop on the analysis, preparation and creation of musical performance, as in other leading Northern European institutions dedicated to cross-experimentation between performing arts, science, technology and ultimately to the dialogue between new ‘realities’. A field that smacks of the unknown, while she, from the heart of Europe, is making it a pioneering discipline of artistic and scientific research, and an overwhelming immersive and synaesthetic concert experience, also aimed at the participatory and interactive involvement of spectators, with pedagogical and social impact actions intended to improve the quality of life of the socially fragile and against gender violence. An enlightening experience that certainly opens up new aesthetic horizons as expressed in his latest book La Ricerca Artistica Musicale. Languages and Methods, the first Italian-language text on the subject published by Libreria Musicale Italiana in 2022.
First Cello of the Teatro Regio Orchestra in Turin.
He graduated with highest honors from the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome in both Chamber Music and Cello under Rocco Filippini and Giovanni Sollima. He continued his studies with Antonio Meneses at the Hochschule der Kunste in Bern and with Enrico Dindo in the Pavia Cello Academy. Winner of the prestigious “Premio Giuseppe Sinopoli”, he was chosen by Riccardo Muti as the first cello of the Orchestra Cherubini, he performed, also as soloist, in many Italian and foreign Theaters for prestigious Institutions conducted not only by R. Muti, but also by C. Abbado, F. Luisi, P. Jaarvi, D. Gatti C. Eschenbach, L. Shani, Tan Dun. He has performed as soloist with the National Orchestra of Santa Cecilia, Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, China Youth Symphony Orchestra, Shenzen Symphony Orchestra, MDR Leipzig, Budapest MAV, at important halls in Asia and Europe such as the Grand Theater in Shanghai, Sala Santa Cecilia of Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, Leipzig Arena, Beethoven Saal in Stuttgart to name a few. He made his debut at the prestigious Suntory Hall in Tokyo accompanied by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra along with the likes of Yundi Li and Ryu Goto in celebration of the 25th year anniversary of the historic Japanese Hall. Chosen by M. Gianandrea Noseda, since 2016 he has been First Cello stable at the Orchestra del Teatro Regio in Turin and collaborates, always as first cello, with the Filarmonica della Scala in Milan, the Camerata Salzburg, the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, and the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. He plays an Annibale Fagnola 1904 cello.
He lives and works between Rome and Sant’Ambrogio, Cefalù (PA). He graduated from the Brera Academy of Fine Arts, Milan, in Visual Arts, school of sculpture. From 2012 to 2015 he attended the class of Gianni Caravaggio, Fabrizio Gazzarri. Recent solo exhibitions include in 2022 “The Dark Continent” with Natalia Trejbalova at the MACA – Museum of Contemporary Art in Alcamo (TP), curated by Landscape; in 2020 “Two years of Tears will not be enough” made at the online Prokrub Space, curated by Jiri Prochazka and Eulalie Polne; in 2019 “You will never understand what your caresses leave on me” made with the nomadic contemporary art gallery Final Hot desert at the Bonneville Salt Desert in Utah (U.S.A), curated by Ben Sang. He also participates in numerous bi-personal and group exhibitions, and has been a guest of two residency programs, Kaoz Residency Program and Spazio Speciale Residency Program, both in Palermo. His recent experiences and collaborations are linked to the figure of Alessandro Piangiamore in Rome.
Angela Gennaro and Pedro Robert met during their conservatory training years and discovered a special artistic connection and common interest in four-hand piano. Just over a year after forming the duo, the musicians have made numerous presentations in Italy and abroad, conveying to the listener the beauty of this interpretive format through the richness and variety of its repertoire.
Cristina Delogu Flauto
Emanuela Zanghi Cello
Gioacchino Tubiolo Piano
Daniele Pisanelli Double bass
Fausto Alimeni Drums
The Kairos project was born from the artistic need of a group of musicians from the orchestra of the Teatro Massimo of Palermo to create an ensemble with which to promote concert activities using different musical languages.
The creative need to express their artistic experiences in a wide variety of musical genres by the members of the group creates the meeting place precisely in Kairos: a musical laboratory in which all the musicians involved, contribute to create a common expressive channel through continuous personal and artistic research.
A Palermo native with a diploma in piano, opera singing, vocal chamber music and a degree in philosophy, after making his debut in Palermo thanks to Operalaboratorio, he began an intense artistic activity on stages all over Europe thanks to his frequentation of the bel canto repertoire, as well as the Baroque. Admired for his elegant singing, richly timbral voice, and protean acting abilities, he has won numerous public and critical acclaim, especially as a Rossini specialist, earning praise for his interpretations of Mozart, Bellini, Donizetti, and early music. He has performed in the major theaters of the world with conductors such as Gelmetti, Bartoletti, Mariotti, Minkowski, Biondi, Zedda, Pidò, Sardelli, Fasolis, and alongside such great performers as Cecilia Bartoli, Michele Pertusi, Mariella Devia, J.D.Florez, both in belcanto and early music, recording for Decca, Naxos, Bongiovanni, Sony, Rai, RSI, Dynamic. Intense concert activity, including in the sacred music repertoire. He combines his artistic career with that of teaching opera singing at the A. Scontrino Conservatory of Trapani, where he also coordinates doctoral projects. He recently completed a Master’s degree on Artistic Vocology at the Ravenna Phoniatric Pole, directed by Prof. Fussi, for the University of Bologna.
Described by the Dutch newspaper Het Parool as “the miracle of the keyboard,” Anna Kravtchenko rose to prominence on the international piano scene after winning unanimous first prize at the prestigious “Ferruccio Busoni” International Competition in 1992, when she was only 16 years old.
The New York Times writes of her, “Her luminous sound and poetic interpretations can sometimes bring listeners to tears.”
During his career, he has performed for major European musical institutions such as the Philharmonie in Berlin, the Goldener Saal of the Musikverein in Vienna, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam in the “Meesterpianisten series,” the Tonhalle in Zurich, the Sala Verdi in Milan for the “Serate musicali,” the Herkulessaal in Munich, the Ruhr Klavier-Festival, the Salle Gaveau in Paris, the Festival La Roque D’Anthéron, the Wigmore Hall in London, the Victoria Hall in Geneva, the “Piano Aux Jacobins” Festival in Toulouse, the Bergen Festival, the Brescia and Bergamo Festival, among others. He has also performed in Japan, South Africa, the United States, and Canada.
Anna Kravtchenko, after having taught for 15 years at the Accademia Pianistica of Imola, has been a piano professor at the Conservatory of Italian Switzerland in Lugano since 2013..
Known to orchestras and audiences as one of the greatest clarinetists of our time, he became First Clarinet of the Orchestre National de France in 2003. A frequent soloist with orchestras, he is now a professor at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris – Alfred Cortot
Chiarastella Onorati began her music career as a pianist, performing extensively both as a soloist and in chamber ensembles. She is a mezzosoprano with a dark timbre, graduated in singing in 1993, and further refined her skills with Corinna Vozza and Margherita Rinaldi.. She ranked among the top positions in national and international competitions and has performed leading roles in numerous theaters in Italy and abroad. In addition to the operatic repertoire, she is a respected interpreter of the vocal chamber repertoire, ranging from German lieder to Russian, French, Italian, and Spanish works, as well as sacred, symphonic, and oratorio repertoire. She has collaborated with important conductors including P. Maag, R. Giovaninetti, Lu Ja, E. Morricone, M. Panni, K. Martin, W. Humburg, and directors such as P.L. Pizzi, P. Degli Esposti, M. Rutelli, F. Valeri, M. Mirabella, and S. Romano. She has been teaching singing for over twenty years, also conducting masterclasses on vocal chamber music and seminars on the relationship between pronunciation and singing. She is an expert in Artistic Vocology, having attended the Advanced Course in Artistic Vocology at the Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna, Scientific Director Prof. Franco Fussi. She has several recordings to her credit for Foné, Raitrade, Brilliant Classics, the complete vocal chamber music of G. Martucci (for which she also prepared the edition for Ricordi), and Italia Sogno d’amore, dedicated to F. Liszt, both for Tactus.
Born into a family of musicians, he began piano studies at the age of eight with Nunzia Luisa Di Leo. He graduated very young with top honors and praise, subsequently earning a second-level academic diploma – soloist pathway – with highest marks, honors, and mention at the “Tito Schipa” Conservatory of Music in Lecce under the guidance of Carlo Scorrano. His early experiences in numerous competitions launched him into a brilliant concert career both in Italy and abroad, receiving wide acclaim from audiences and critics alike as a “pianist of passionate musicality with outstanding technical and interpretative skills,” qualities highlighted and developed thanks also to the school of distinguished masters such as Aldo Ciccolini, Michele Marvulli, Rolf-Dieter Arens, Roberto Cappello, Andrej Gavrilov, and Homero Francesch. In Geneva, as a scholarship winner offered by the Société Frédéric Chopin, he refined his skills with Aldona Budrewicz-Jacobson and, during the Chopin Festival, with Eugen Indjic. He performs extensively in Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Belgium, Serbia, and Great Britain, playing in prestigious theaters such as the Musikverein, Royal Albert Hall, and Teatro La Fenice. His performances are recorded by Village Records. In 2016, he was selected by the Swiss Confederation as the best Italian artist for the ESKAS Excellence Scholarship. In 2018, he won the Kiefer Hablitzel Göhner Music Prize in Bern, which awarded him the prestigious “Prix Collard” for the best interpretation of a French composer’s piece. That same year, under the guidance of Nora Doallo, he earned a Master of Arts in Music Performance with highest honors at the Conservatory of Italian Switzerland in Lugano. Also in Lugano, in 2022, he received a Master of Advanced Studies in Music Performance and Interpretation with top marks and honors. He currently works between Italy and Switzerland. In Lecce, he is a piano teacher at the “Tito Schipa” Conservatory of Music and is the artistic director of the Association of Young Italian Musicians and the Festival “Music and Medicine, Concerts of Information and Prevention.” In Lugano, he is assistant professor to Nora Doallo at the Conservatory of Italian Switzerland.
Benedictine monk, musician
(music theory, piano, organ) and theologian (monastic spiritual theology), professor at the Pontifical Athenaeum of Sant’Anselmo and the Pontifical Institute of Teresian Spirituality.
Alessia Sparacio graduated in singing in 1998 at the V. Bellini Conservatory of Palermo and subsequently refined her repertoire with Ms. Margaret Baker Genovesi and Maestro Paolo Vaglieri. A coloratura mezzo-soprano with a warm tone, she has won several international competitions, including the Giuseppe Di Stefano in Trapani. (1998) and l’A.sli.co in Milano (2001). She made her debut as Isabella in L’Italiana in Algeri at the Circuito Lirico Lombardo and subsequently performed all the major Rossini roles, as well as those by Verdi, Cimarosa, Scarlatti, Puccini, Bizet, and De Falla. She has sung in the most important theaters in Italy and abroad, working with conductors such as P. Maag, B. Campanella, J. L. Koenig, A. Veronesi, J. Neschling, G. Noseda, F. Biondi, O. D’Antone, E. Mazzola, Y. David and directors such as P. L. Pizzi, F. Crivelli, R. De Simone, G. Agostinucci, L. Cantini, E. Dara, and S. Vizioli. She combines her artistic activity with over twenty years of singing teaching experience and is an expert in Artistic Vocology, having attended, in 2017, the Advanced Course in Artistic Vocology at the Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna, Ravenna campus, Scientific Director Prof. Franco Fussi. She has live recordings of titles such as L’Italiana in Algeri (Isabella), released by the Ente Luglio Musicale Trapanese, and La finta Parigina (Donna Armida) for Bongiovanni.
The Laertes Trio (from the Greek Λαέρτης, Laertes: “he who gathers the people,” “who unites the people”) aims as a de facto goal to bring the public together under a common musical idea. It was born out of the need of three young musicians from Palermo to put their artistic experiences to good use, choosing to face the chamber music scene with one of the most intimate and beloved formations ever: the piano trio. Building on their knowledge of the traditional repertoire, Trio Laerte pays special attention to the emerging music of contemporary composers, enhancing their writing.
Trio Laerte consists of Mattia Arculeo on violin (1998), Sara D’Amato on cello, (2001) and Gioacchino Tubiolo on piano (1994).
Artist and photographer, she has experimented since the beginning of her career with new languages that allow her to delve into themes related to memory, identity, and the very language of photography. Her research is characterized by the reappropriation and reinterpretation of archival materials through ancient off-camera printing techniques. Her works have been exhibited in prestigious international exhibitions and festivals, including: Contemporary Day at the Italian Cultural Institute in Madrid; Circulation(s) Festival of Young European Photography (Paris); Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie en Gaspésie (Canada); Ras Al Khaimah Fine Arts Festival (United Arab Emirates). In 2015, her project Secret Garden won the COMBAT PRIZE – International Contemporary Art Award – as the best installation project capable of merging the history of photography with contemporary literature. Books and publications play a foundational role in her artistic practice. In 2019, Secret Garden (Danilo Montanari Editore) received a special mention at the Bastianelli Prize as the best Italian book published in 2018. Some of her works have been published in specialized magazines and acquired by private collections, foundations, and museums such as: Maramotti Collection, Civic Museums (Reggio Emilia), Palazzo Florio Museum (Favignana) in Italy; Artphilein Foundation in Switzerland; Italian Cultural Institute (Montreal) in Canada; MoMA and The Met Museum New York. www.alessandracalo.it
Clelia Catalano (born 1985) is an illustrator, costume designer and video maker specializing in 2D animation.
After attending the illustration course at the “International School of Comics” in Florence, during which she approached the world of pictorial art, in 2011 she exhibited her works at the “Finibus Terrae” Film Festival. In the same year, she was chosen as costume designer for the theater company “I Giovani del Teatro Vascello” by Maurizio Lombardi, founder of the company.
From 2019 he began a collaboration with visual artist Rä Di Martino, for whom he made costumes for the art video Afterall (produced by the Museo Mattatoio in Rome), for the video aaa! (produced by Macri – Museum of Environmental Crimes in Rome) and for Moon Bird (a work by the Merz Foundation in Turin).
In 2020, his illustrations from the Lockmouth collection are
selected and published by the digital magazine Flewid Book.
During the lockdown, Clelia further specialized in 2D animation, posting short videos on social media. Her first official project in this field is the music video clip for the song Mammoth by Roman singer-songwriter Gimbo, in which she takes care of drawings, animation and direction.
In 2021, he produced subject, drawings, direction and 2D animation for the music video clip Feed Your Head by artist Roots in Heaven.
In 2022, he collaborated with the production companies Neutra Production and Masi Film on the short film Spring Waltz, taking care of the drawings and working on the direction together with Stefano Lorenzi.
He was born in July 1966 in Palermo and graduated as a “Master of Painting” from the Academy of Fine Arts of Palermo in 1989. His activity as a painter has been accompanied by work as a set designer and cabinetmaker, creating scenes for theater, television, and advertising sets in collaboration with Teatro Vagante and Il Laboratorio Spazio Scenico. On the occasion of the Festino di Santa Rosalia in 1994, she created the Santa for the float, which is now on display at the Museo Pitrè collection in Palermo. She has conducted painting and musical instrument-making workshops for the Solidarietà Cooperative aimed at the reintegration of people with psychiatric disabilities into the workforce. From 2004 to 2008, he moved his studio to Bern, where he held a series of exhibitions. His works are present in private collections in Italy and abroad.
Andrea Cavuoto, from Rome, graduated in 1992 under Alfredo Stengel. He continued his training with Marco Scano, Michael Flaksman and at the St. Petersburg Conservatory.
At a very young age, he began collaborating with orchestras such as the Accademia di S. Cecilia, to land in 1993 at the Orchestra Sinfonica “Verdi” of Milan, where he was first cello for 6 years. He then continued his activity at the Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala and its Philharmonic, the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana and the R.A.I. He then held the position of guest first cello at the Teatro Regio in Turin, the Teatro “Verdi” in Trieste, Regio di Parma and many other institutions. In 2000 he was invited as first part at the São Paulo State Orchestra in Brazil and spent an entire season there, representing Italy at the International Cello Encounter in Rio de Janeiro (Chairman, Bernard Greenhouse).
He has always been active in chamber music, in duo with Lorena Portalupi and Enrico Meyer, in trio with Trio Pierre Louys. He has been a permanent member of the Divertimento Ensemble for many years, currently he plays with the Icarus Ensemble.
He has been teaching in Italian conservatories for many years, currently teaching at the Conservatorio “Ghedini” in Cuneo. He also gives masterclasses that are in great demand both in Italy and abroad.
His performing activity has always been flanked by his publishing activity, which is expressed in numerous musicological interventions, research and publication activities, critical editions and elaborations.
His works are published by Ricordi, Rugginenti, Carisch, Sonzogno, Zecchini and, recently, by Ricercare Editions
“I have always looked at instruments as magical objects: the union of aesthetics and the ability to generate sound.”
Anna Corona has made her passion for music the centre of her career. First through studies: a degree in Music Disciplines and then a specialization in Musicology. Then through violin making: the study of the tradition of violin making down to its most extreme elements, experimentation in materials and electronics. In business for 10 years, he opened his workshop in Palermo in 2019 where he makes instruments entirely by hand.
The duo Sherazade is a project of Graziano Lo Presti and Nicola Antonio Staffieri and features the clarinet and guitar. The path of fusion and exploration between clarinet and guitar was born during working meetings in the same middle school, where Maestros Lo Presti and Staffieri teach musical instrument. Thus, among the school desks originates the idea of designing a common sound path, which unites clarinet and guitar: these instruments, which at first glance might appear very distant from each other regarding tonal, dynamic and attack characteristics, actually present a whole series of affinities and possibilities of stylistic, technical and timbral blending. The Sherazade duo starts from the latter point, through reinterpretation of the original repertoire for flute and guitar to original compositions for duo. The clear sound of the flute is replaced by the dark and ethereal timbre of the clarinet or sometimes even the harsh or deep character of the bass clarinet. The delicacy of the guitar, on the other hand, completes the harmonious picture of the performance, offering heterogeneous rhythms and melodies. Together, clarinet and guitar make an unprecedented unicum that amazes, intrigues and, finally, enamors the audience.
Professor at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin and Musical Director of the OSPB, the Basque Country Symphony Orchestra.
Professor at the Hochschule “Hans Eisler” in Berlin and Professor at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague.
Benoît Fromanger studied flute at the CNR of Versailles and then at the CNSM of Paris with eminent teachers such as Roger Bourdin, Alain Marion, and Jean-Pierre Rampal.
After ten years as Principal Flutist of the Orchestre National de l’Opéra de Paris, his interest in the orchestra and curiosity led him to Germany, where he was appointed principal flute of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (conducted by Lorin Maazel) and was invited to play with the Berlin Philharmonic and the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra.
This career allowed Benoît Fromanger to enrich his musical knowledge and to be conducted by conductors such as L. Bernstein, B. Haitink, Z. Mehta, C.M. Giulini, P. Boulez, C. Davis, G. Solti, C. Kleiber, R. Muti, and M. Jansons.
Parallel to this, he pursues an international solo career, creating numerous works dedicated to him.
He has performed at numerous festivals and in major concert halls, accompanied by orchestras such as the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France, Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse, Munich Baroque Soloists, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Prague Chamber Orchestra, American Chamber Orchestra, KBS Orchestra of Seoul, NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo, and others.
Benoît Fromanger has diversified his experiences by participating in numerous performances, concerts, and chamber music ensembles with artists such as Jessye Norman, Carolyn Carlson, Sylvie Guillem, Katia and Marielle Labèque, Maxim Vengerov, András Schiff, Misha Maïski, Alessandro Baricco, Viktoria Mullova, Gérard Depardieu, and others.
His discography includes numerous recordings for various labels.
His discography, which includes numerous recordings for various labels (EMI, Forlane, Verany, Tudor, Sony…), has received a large number of awards including the “Grand Prix du Disque,” the “Diapason d’Or,” and many others.
“Benoît Fromanger is not only a wonderful flutist but also an accomplished musician who honors the French flute school.”
(Jean-Pierre Rampal)
Matteo Mastromarino began to develop his musical
talent at a young age; after graduating in 2012, he
perfected his skills by studying with Alessandro Carbonare at the Accademia
Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and with Romain Guyot at the Haute
École de Musique in Geneva. His talent allowed him to
win various international competitions, including the Accademia Musicale
Pescarese, the Ciro Scarponi, the Saverio Mercadante, the Marco Fiorindo,
the Malta Woodwind Competition and the Lisbon International Clarinet
Competition. As of 2020, Mastromarino holds the position of First
Clarinet Soloist with the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra and teaches
clarinet at Turku University of the Arts. In 2023, he was awarded the
position of First Clarinet in the Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana.
Francesco Leineri graduated in Composition at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome under the guidance of Maestro Matteo D’Amico.. During his training years, he deepened his study of orchestra conducting with Gianluigi Zampieri and Francesco Lanzillotta and participated in various workshops (Mark Andre, Silvia Colasanti, Pawel Mykyetin, Darius Przybylski, Alessandro Sbordoni, Franco Piersanti). His language is connected to storytelling, drawing from hyper-traditional musical forms then renewed within the current and heterogeneous realm of performing arts; his research is received in theatrical spaces, concert halls, museums, and unconventional urban places, expressing itself in scores but also in visual arts, field recording, site-specific works, songwriting, soundtracks, and installations. Musician inclined to teamwork and multidisciplinary collaboration, in various ensembles and cultural projects, he has worked for organizations and institutions such as RAI, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Fondazione Nicola Trussardi, Ikon Gallery, Culture Roma, Infinito Produzioni, Sardegna Teatro, ANAD Silvio d’Amico, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, and many others. His works have been performed in Italy, France, Germany, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, California, Mexico, India, and Ecuador; his scores are published by Ermes404 editions.
Lorenzo Micheli trained with Paola Coppi, Oscar Ghiglia and Frédéric Zigante in Milan, Lausanne and Basel, and – after winning first prize in the “M. Pittaluga – City of Alessandria” and “Guitar Foundation of America” competitions – embarked on an intense artistic activity that in twenty years has taken him to 25 European countries, three hundred cities in the United States and Canada, Africa, Asia and Latin America, as a soloist, in chamber ensembles and with orchestra. As “SoloDuo,” together with Matteo Mela, Lorenzo has played in concert halls around the world, from New York’s Carnegie Hall to Vienna’s Schubertsaal, from Kiev’s Hall of Columns to Sejong Hall in Seoul: the “Washington Post” called SoloDuo “extraordinarily sensitive – nothing less than rapturous.”
She graduated from the State Institute of Art and in 2009 earned her degree from the Academy of Fine Arts of Palermo, where she studied painting and photography. Since 2014, she has dedicated herself to the new project of artisanal art and design, Studio Kepha, for which she creates concrete objects for interior design, participating in various exhibitions and fairs in Italy. Since 2020, she has been conducting art workshops at some schools in her city. Studio Kepha is included in the “Homofaber” guide promoted by the Michelangelo Foundation. She has participated in several exhibitions in Italy and abroad, presenting her “Reliefs” and “Transfers” made of concrete. In 2021, she was selected for the exhibition project “5 years of artistic twinning Düsseldorf Palermo.” In 2022, she created the award for the XXVI Deutsch-Italienisch Kulturbörse. In 2023, she exhibited her works at the Kunstmuseum in Düsseldorf in the “Kleinformat” section of the exhibition “Die Grosse 2023.” Her idea of art is based on the belief that both the objects around us and images hide a potential and a story that cannot be reduced to the object itself or the image we see. In her work, she tries to represent at least a part of this potential by seeking it in the form and material of which the form is composed. Form and matter compose an aesthetic dialogue made of contrasts and harmonies, which she tries to express in her works through the use of concrete, a building material that, once deprived of its ordinary use, becomes a means of artistic research. She puts this in dialogue with natural forms, plants, vegetation, landscapes where she finds archetypal images of lines, geometries, and compositions that she transfers into new concrete objects. The transfer technique is, in fact, the basis of her works, whether they are bas-reliefs, analog transfers, or cyanotypes. In the transfer, she seeks a sort of condensation of the different languages of art: sculpture in the object, photography in the composition of the image, and painting in the idea of representation.
Member of the Kinari Ensemble and leads a research project regarding the discovery of the chamber repertoire of Sicilian composer Eliodoro Sollima.
The project was crowned by the realization and publication of a CD produced by the Dutch label Brilliant Classics.
The Sensation Transmitted Group (STG) was born from an idea by Domenico Nicitra with the purpose of proposing and creating original compositions. Thanks to the diverse experiences of the musicians and the various personalities expressed in their music, an intimate, profound, and spontaneous style emerges—a meltin pot di stili that blend in an original way, managing, as the name itself suggests, to convey sensations and emotions to the listener.
Francesco Riela, chitarrista, enriches the repertoire of piano compositions created by Domenico Nicitra with his works in the style of Metheny. Giampiero La Malfa on bass contributes to creating the right atmospheres for each individual piece, and together with Filippo Pasta on drums, they provide the rhythmic drive with colors typical of Afro-American music and beyond.
Born in Palermo in 1980, where he lives and works. In 2006 he graduated in painting from the Academy of Fine Arts in Palermo. Since 2002 he has participated in several group exhibitions in Italy and abroad.His most recent production is mainly characterized by small and medium-sized works of a metaphysical nature, in which rarefied, gaseous images seem to evade painting, staging a disappearance to re-emerge on the surface through the intervention of graphic signs.
Tullio Visioli, choir director, singer and recorder player, is a lecturer in Musicology and Music Didactics at Lumsa University in Rome, and in Pedagogy of Children’s Vocality in Ravenna, Italy, at the Master’s Degree Program in Artistic Vocology (University of Bologna). Since ’90 he has directed the Children’s Choir and taught recorder in Rome, at the Scuola Popolare di Musica di Testaccio.
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