Piano and piano section 4 hands

GIUSEPPE BINASCO, President of the Jury, pianist

Giuseppe Binasco completed his musical training under the guidance of Lodovico Lessona, graduating with full marks, honors and special mention. He later attended master classes with Guido Agosti at the Accademia Chigiana, with Renzo Silvestri at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, with Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli in Arezzo. A pupil of Alfred Cortot for many years at the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris and at the Accademia Chigiana, he was invited by the Maestro to inaugurate his courses.

In 1974, for a National Competition held in Rome, he won the Chair of Principal Piano at the "Giuseppe Verdi" Conservatory in Turin, later moving to the "Antonio Vivaldi" Conservatory in Alessandria, where he held the position of Director for more than ten years.

For many years he was also Director of the "C. Soliva ”of Casale Monferrato and of the Civic School of Music“ Lorenzo Perosi ”of Tortona.

Regularly invited to be part of the juries of the most important National and International Competitions (Tradate, Albenga Macugnaga, Osimo, Tortona, Alessandria, Capri, Stresa etc.), he was organizer and Artistic Director at the Amici della Musica di Casale Monferrato of the International Competition of music for young people.

Awarded in numerous competitions, he has performed concerts in Italy and abroad both as a soloist and in Chamber ensemble. He played on Rai and Swiss Radio in Lugano.

SIMONE GRAGNANI, pianist

Simone Gragnani was born in Pisa. He established himself at a very young age among the winners of important international competitions in Italy (2nd prize at "W.M. Massaza", 1st prize at "F. Liszt", 1st prize at "Paul Harris"), but especially in France where, in three years, he won the 3rd prize at the “Rubinstein” in Paris, the 3rd prize at the “Concours d'Epinal France-Federation Mondiale des Concours Genève” and the 1st prize at the Concours Musical de France in Paris.
Since then he has played repeatedly throughout Europe, in Italy for Amici della Musica, the Concerts Society, Bergamo and Brescia International Festival, Empoli Busoni Center, Viersen Festival (Dusseldorf), Palazzo del Quirinale in Rome with the concert broadcast live by Radio Tre in Eurodiffusion, Reims Festival in France, Gasteig in München, St. Moritz Piano Festival, International Schleswig-Holstein Festival in Lubeck, Neckar Festival Heidelberg, RSI in Lugano. In the studio and live he has recorded music by Busoni, Clementi, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Ravel, Chopin, Strawinsky, Liszt and Brahms. He has played for the Italian Radio and Television and recorded, always live, for the Radio of Italian Switzerland, for Vatican Radio, for Radio Eins in Cologne; he has been a soloist with numerous orchestras in the concerts of Mozart, Beethoven, Rachmaninov, Sostakovic, Brahms (1st and 2nd). He participates in contemporary music reviews (works by Castiglioni, Dallapiccola, Sani and Vacchi…) and, in the Grosser Saal of Zuerich's Hochschule, he performed the Second Sonata by P. Boulez.
His musical training linked to Antonio Bacchelli and Paolo Bordoni, ends at the "G. Verdi" State Conservatory of Turin and deepens with Homero Francesch in whose Masterklasse at the Musikhochschule of Zuerich he obtains the Masterdiplom and the Solistendiplom (PhD) with the maximum of marks, praise and mention.
He regularly holds Masters and Advanced Courses.
He holds the chair of principal piano at the "A. Vivaldi ”of Alessandria.

GIORGIO VERCILLO, pianist

Born in Alessandria on November 15, 1954. He graduated in piano at the “A. Vivaldi ”in Alessandria with full marks and honors under the guidance of Maestro Giuseppe Binasco, former student of Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli and Alfred Cortot. He studied composition with M ° Carlo Mosso and graduated in Music Didactics with the musicologist Lidia Palomba. He deepened his studies of Chamber Music in Italy with M ° Carlo Pozzi and M ° Alfonso Mosesti (formerly viola and violin shoulder RAI symphony orchestra of Turin) and in Yugoslavia with M ° Mario Ferraris (former violin shoulder La Scala Theater in Milan). Awarded in piano competitions, he began his concert activity at a very young age (the first concert was in 1974 in a duo with the American violinist C. Anderson) which saw him protagonist, over a period of twenty-five years, in countless recitals in Italy and at abroad between soloists, chamber music and soloist with orchestra, at prestigious organizations and institutions, often flanked by internationally renowned artists. Particularly committed to contemporary music, many are the works dedicated to him and entrusted in the first performance by composers who now belong to the historical-musical tradition, ("The Piano in the Twentieth Century"), even if he has never neglected the traditional repertoire as demonstrate his concert programs and his record production ranging from Bach to the avant-garde. Alongside his concert activity he has always been teaching, and he was one of the youngest Italian teachers of the Conservatory as holder of the main piano chair, a role he has held continuously since 1977. He holds courses and master classes in Italy and abroad and is regularly invited as a member of the jury in national and international piano competitions. In 1988 he was awarded the "COMMENDA PALESTRINA", the only Italian concert performer to have received this recognition, from the Brazilian Ministry of Education for his work. In 1994 the Ass. "Montefortiana" of Verona awarded him a "special award for artistic career". In 2003 he was awarded the "Marengo Musica Prize" by the Ass. dei Francesisti in collaboration with the Municipality of Alessandria for artistic merits and concert activity.

Opera Singing Section

SILVANO SANTAGATA, President of the Jury, tenor

Graduated in Flute at the Conservatory “N. Paganini ”of Genoa, he subsequently studied singing with the Baritone Paolo Ancarani and perfected himself under the guidance of Maestro Rosetta Noli. He took part in important musical events such as: Villa Imperiale Festival in Genoa – Musical evenings in Milan – September music in Turin and others. He performed in France - Germany - Switzerland and Sweden where he performed the Petite messe solennelle by G. Rossini. He performed the ode Columbus by the composer Angelo Canepa for the first time at the Carlo Felice Theater in Genoa and the opera Moro per amore by Alessandro Stradella. He sang under the direction of world-renowned maestros such as: D. Sthall – H. Handt – F. Molinari Pradelli – G. Gavazzeni – D. Oren G. Morelli. C. Mandeal. Interpreter of the lyrical repertoire, he dedicated himself to operetta as a protagonist, performing with success among the public and critics The Merry Widow – The Land of Smiles – Frasquita – Dream of a Waltz The Count of Luxembourg and other titles. He has recorded: Mozart's Requiem – Moro per amore by Stradella Valentino Bucchi's double bass – Rossini's Stabat Mater Rossini's Petite solennelle – Mozart's Requiem and the complete CD series of Canto l'opera. He recently performed Cavalleria rusticana (Turiddu), Tosca (Mario Cavaradossi) and Verdi's Requiem. – Puccini's Messa di Gloria and Mascagni's Messa di Gloria – Simon Boccanegra (Gabriele Adorno) La Traviata (Alfredo) Pagliacci (Canio) For several years he has collaborated as a maestro with the Claudio Monteverdi opera choir of Genoa and dedicated himself to orchestral conducting.

SARA NASTOS, mezzosoprano

Sara Nastos, mezzo-soprano of Greek origins, is the creator and director of the Scuola della Voce in Chiavari: since 1999 she has trained numerous professionals of various vocal genres, has students introduced to the Accademia della Scala and graduated under her guidance in Singing and Scenic Art at Conservatories Italians.

Talent scout with twenty years of experience, she is one of the first Italian teachers to have perfected herself with Yva Barthelemy, creator of the “La Voce Liberata” method of which she became a qualified Trainer in 2012. You hold internships in prestigious musical realities such as the FIM (Music Fair) and the DISFOR of Genoa (Faculty of Education), Music Institutes, in Primary and Secondary schools. Since she was a child she started studying piano at the Athens State Conservatory and the Athenaeum International Center, she won numerous scholarships, graduated in Piano and Lyric Singing under the guidance of internationally renowned interpreters such as the Greek bass Nicola Zaccaria and the baritone. Kostas Paskalis, and made her debut at a very young age in the role of Hansel in Hansel and Gretel at the Athens Opera (1996). Since then she has sung at Italian and foreign Opera Festivals and Foundations: the Carlo Felice Theater in Genoa, the Theaters of the Tuscan Circuit (Lucca, Pisa, Livorno, Massa, Carrara), the Marruccino Theater of Chieti, the Comunale of Bologna, the Piccolo Regio of Turin (Puccini), the Sperimentale of Spoleto, the Opera Giocosa of Savona, the Festival of the Valle d'Istria 2013 (world premiere live on Radio3), the Festival of the island of Aegina (Gr).

His repertoire ranges from baroque to contemporary music, but specializes in the roles of the Italian Belcanto, in the French repertoire and in the sacred Oratorio.

NANA MIRIANI, soprano

Born in Tbilisi (Georgia), she graduated in Singing at the Conservatory of her city.

In Italy, he attended the Chigiana Academy of Siena and the Training and Advanced Training Course of the "Arturo Toscanini" Academy of Singing in Parma, in Busseto, under the guidance of Carlo Bergonzi, obtaining merit diplomas and scholarships, and the Specialization Course and Vocal Interpretation "Verdi Opera Studio", of the "Verdi Festival Foundation" of the Teatro Regio di Parma, under the guidance of Renata Scotto. Currently she is perfecting herself with the soprano Aprile Millo. You made your debut in 1998 in Busseto, playing Abigaille in Nabucco, under the direction of Maestro Romano Gandolfi. You participate in the "Radio France" Festival at the Berlioz Opera in Montpellier in the Cavalleria Rusticana by D. Monleone and in the Resurrection by F. Alfano. During her career, she plays her roles: Tosca at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the National Theater in Bratislava, the State Opera House Z. Paliashvili in Tbilisi. Abigaille in Nabucco, in Busseto, Lyric Theater of Cagliari, Elefeld Theater, Wielki Theater of Poznan, State Opera Theater Z. Paliashvili of Tbilisi, Steinbruch Rohrdorf Festival of Munich, National State Opera Theater A. Dvorak of Ostrava, Prague State Opera House. Lady Macbeth in Macbeth at the Teatro Regio in Parma, the Wielki Theater in Poznan, the National Theater in Prague, the National Theater in Bratislava, and engaged at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence, for the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Banska Bystrica State Opera Theater. Santuzza in the Cavalleria Rusticana at the Z. Paliashvili State Opera in Tbilisi, at the Prague State Opera House. Amelia in A Masked Ball at the Regio Theater in Parma, in the theaters of the Lombard Lyric Circuit, A. Ponchielli Theater in Cremona, Teatro Grande in Brescia, Teatro Sociale in Como, Teatro G. Fraschini in Pavia, and at the Opera Theater in State Z. Paliashvili of Tbilisi. Odabella in Attila at the Paliashvili State Opera in Tbilisi. Aksinja in the opera Lady Macbeth of the Mzensk District by D. Shostakovic at the Teatro Comunale in Florence, for the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. Leonora in Il Trovatore at the Toscana Opera Festival. Aida at the Z. Paliashvili State Opera in Tbilisi. Leonora in La Forza del Destino at the Griboedov Theater in Tbilisi. Fedora at the A. Dvorak State Opera House in Ostrava. Gioconda at the Batumi Opera House (Georgia) Turandot at the Z. Paliashvili State Opera House in Tbilisi. Mass of Glory by G. Donizetti, in the role of solo soprano, at the Festival of Sacred Music in Olomouc. Requiem Mass by G. Verdi, in the role of Soprano soloist, at the Festival of Sacred Music in Olomouc. Symphony No. 9 by L. v. Beethoven, as solo Mezzosoprano, at the Rossini Theater in Pesaro, under the direction of Maestro Hideaki Hirai (2019). Gala concerts, "Verdi Gala", "Puccini Gala", Recitals in various locations in Italy and abroad, in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, at the Teatro Perez Galdòs in Las Palmas in Gran Canaria, at the Liederhalle in Stuttgart, at the Salle Pleyel in Paris, which sees her interpret arias from works by Italian and foreign authors, and Richard Wagner, from the roles of Brunnhilde and Isolde, at the Tbilisi Philharmonic Theater in 2015, presented by the famous actor Alain Delon, alongside other famous artists opera of international level. You have sung in operas and concerts with various colleagues, including Dolora Zajick, Elisabetta Fiorillo, Nicola Martinucci, Salvatore Licitra, Franco Vassallo, Leo Nucci, Ambrogio Maestri, Lorenzo Saccomani, Lado Ataneli, Paata Burchuladze, Alberto Rinaldi, Carlo Guelfi . You have worked with numerous conductors, including Romano Gandolfi, James Conlon, Lorin Maazel, Tiziano Severini, Antonello Allemandi, Valery Gergiev, Alberto Veronesi, and directors, including Daniele Abbado, Jean Louis Grinda, Luca Ronconi, Lev Dodin, Andrey Konchalovsky, Alfonso Signorini, Giancarlo del Monaco. In 2018 he followed a course of lectures by Maestro Riccardo Muti on Giuseppe Verdi's opera Macbeth at the "Riccardo Muti Italian Opera Academy" in Ravenna.

ROBERTO MUSSI – theatrical agent

GUNTHER OBWEXER  – managing director – Opera Agency "Aliopera"

www.aliopera.com

Chamber Music and Soloists Section

MAURIZIO CADOSSI, President of the Jury, violinist

Brilliantly graduated in violin and viola at the “A. Boito ”in Parma, in 1984 he attended the high-level specialization courses held by H. Szeryng at the Geneva Conservatory, to subsequently improve with Renato Zanettovich (School of Music in Fiesole), Gigino Maestri and Franco Claudio Ferrari.

He also graduated in baroque violin at the “C. Abbado ”in Milan in 2000.

In the chamber sector he owes his training to Elisa Pegreffi and Franco Rossi (string quartet) members of the famous Quartetto Italiano, to Dario De Rosa and Giuliano Carmignola (Chamber Music). He carries out a fervent artistic activity, both as a soloist and as a chamber musician, with the "Trio Brahms" and other important groups, throughout Italy in the context of important festivals and reviews (Teatro Regio di Parma, Teatro Verdi of Trieste, Roman Philharmonic, Baroque Festival of Viterbo, Teatro Massimo of Palermo, Ravenna Festival, Monteverdi Festival of Cremona, Musical Weeks of Stresa, Lodoviciano Festival of Viadana, MITO Festival, Friends of Music of Florence, Concerts of the Quirinale, Voxonus Festival, Antiqua, etc.), throughout Europe (Paris, Lisbon, Porto, Vienna, Prague, Munich, Santander, Amsterdam, Brussels, Nice, Lugano, Dusseldorf, Linz, etc.),

in the United States of America (New York, UN Building, Washington, Baltimore, Athens, etc.), in Canada, Mexico (Cervantino Festival, etc.), South America (Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires) and Japan (performance of Four Seasons by A. Vivaldi at the Kyoto Concert Hall, etc.).

With the Accademia Strumentale Italiana, a formation that saw him as a shoulder violin and a founding member, he was the protagonist of an important musical activity that also materialized at the record level with the Symphonies of L. Boccherini, the Concerts of G. Tartini, Works of Cherubini with Giorgio Bernasconi. The attention to Baroque music led him to deepen the repertoire of the Sixth - Eighteenth century according to the dictates of historically informed performance practice, founding specialized ensembles such as Orfei Farnesiani and Trigono Armonico, collaborating with well-known musical groups such as the Academy of Research, Academy of the Astrusi, Baroque Orchestra of Cremona, etc., performing in important reviews and recording various instrumental works (always as a soloist and concertmaster) such as the Idee per Camera by B. Laurenti, the Sonatas for two violins and bass Opera Postuma by F. Manfredini , sonatas, duets and trios by G. Demachi, the Sonatas for violin and bass by M. D'Alay, the Idee per Camera by G. Valentini, various compositions by A. Luchesi for Tactus, music by Scarlatti for Velut Luna, the Cantate by A. Scarlatti for Elegia.

He is the shoulder of the Savona Symphony Orchestra where he appears among the creators and animators of the Ensemble Voxonus, a team born within the orchestra itself and whose artistic experience is aimed at both philology and contamination, where he is first violin of the Voxonus Quartet , aimed at the classical quartet repertoire, and member of the Voxonus Duo (violin and viola) with C. Gilio. An artistic affinity emerged with the harpsichordist and organist Valentino Ermacora, in a multifaceted executive and didactic dimension, with baroque violin and classical violin together with harpsichord, organ and historical keyboards. This multifaceted situation was also highlighted in the aesthetic proximity to the pianist Eleonora Carapella,

in a musical vision with a nineteenth-century violin and historic piano on one side and a modern violin and piano on the other. The chamber music study is further developed in the collaboration with the pianists Roberto Beltrami, with a careful investigation, as well as on the great repertoire, on the nineteenth-twentieth-century musical literature (of particular interest is the recording version of the opera for violin and piano by L. Senigaglia for

 the Classical Movement label) - Lucio Cuomo, with a deep and passionate exploration of the Italian historical twentieth century - and Giorgio Vercillo, with a proposal that ranges from Beethoven to the twentieth century.

He collaborated with G. Carmignola, M. Brunello, U.B. Michelangeli, P. Borgonovo, S. Accardo, U. Ughi, G. Garbarino, G. Bernasconi, F.M. Bressan, P. Stein, M. Crippa, C. Bartoli, K. Ricciarelli, S. Montanari and others. He holds the chair of Ensemble Music for stringed instruments at the "A. Boito" Conservatory in Parma. He was a guest professor of violin and baroque violin at the University of Georgia, Athens (Atlanta U.S.A.).

He regularly holds violin and chamber music courses and seminars.

LUCA SOLERIO, organist pianist

He studied piano under the guidance of Maestro Giuseppe Binasco (former student of Maestro A.B. Michelangeli and A. Cortot) with whom he achieved flattering acclaim in international piano competitions, ranking first in competitions such as Stresa, Albenga, Macugnaga, Rozzano .

He then continued his piano and organ studies with Maestro Sergio Marcianò (a leading figure in teaching and especially in organ composition at European level). Under the guidance of M ° Marcianò he graduated brilliantly in organ, organ composition and Gregorian chant at the Conservatory of Alessandria and in piano at the Conservatory of Turin.

In numerous concerts, also in Germany and Switzerland, he proposed a repertoire ranging from the music of J.S. Bach to the contemporary one; with particular regard to organ music of the European romantic period.

He performed the three major works of F. Liszt, for organ, on the occasion of the bicentenary of his birth and another particular importance deserves the performance of the complete work of the Concertos for Organ and Orchestra by G.F. Haendel. In addition to these also the complete performance of the Church Sonatas by W.A. Mozart, again for organ and orchestra.

The experience gained with the collaboration with orchestral groups has made it possible to carry out, as conductor of a symphonic orchestra, the performance of the prestigious work of the Villanovan musician Domenico Mombelli, on the occasion of the publication of the studies on this character.

He founded the polyphonic choir of the Valentino of Casale Monferrato, realizing with it more than forty concerts for choir and orchestra, since 1996 in which he has also proposed his own creations and transcriptions from the traditional repertoire.

He is currently director of the polyphonic choir Santa Cecilia di Galliate (NO) civic choir which boasts one of the oldest traditions of Piedmont previously conducted from 2011 to 2014.

He is a self-employed piano and organ teacher and in 1995 founded his own Music Courses in Casale Monferrato;

In 2013 Luca Solerio and Maria Giulia Pavese set up the cultural association "Maestro Luca Solerio" to promote the initiatives and concerts organized by both the teacher and his students.

In 2015 the Maestro Luca Solerio cultural association joined, by merit, part of the "Network for Musical Training" convention of the Conservatory of Alessandria which provides a series of information and services dedicated to music schools, as well as the possibility of exchanges among the various schools rooted in the territory.

MARIO CARBOTTA, flutist

A soloist appreciated by the public and international critics, he has given concerts in some of the most prestigious locations in the world including the

Musikverein in Vienna, the Rudolfinum in Prague, the Tonhalle in Zurich, Bulgaria Hall in Sofia, the Cairo Opera House, Glenn Gould Hall of the CBC

in Toronto, Seoul Arts Center and also in New York, Montreal, Tokyo, London, Beijing, Geneva, Sao Paulo, Istanbul, Bucharest and at the festivals of Santander, Perelada, Ljubliana, Varna, Zagreb.

Among the few contemporary flutists to have performed a large part of the solo repertoire accompanied by over 80 symphonic and chamber orchestras of international standing including: European Union Chamber Orchestra, Tonkü nstlerorchester Nieder österreich Wien, Sofia Sinfonietta, Slovak Sinfonietta, Cairo Symphony Orchestra, lstanbul State Symphony Orchestra, Mexico State Symphony Orchestra, Israel Sinfonietta, Archi della Scala and also in Italy with the I.C.O. of Milan (Pomeriggi Musicali), Bari, Parma, Sanremo, Palermo, L'Aquila, Ancona, in Germany with the orchestras of Mainz, Mannheim, Frankfurt (Deutsches Kammerorchester), Oldenburg, Sondershausen (Loh-Orchester), Konstanz (Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie ), in Poland with the philharmonics of Bydgoszcz, Kraków, Rszezòw, Szezcin, Katowice, in the Czech Republic with the philharmonics of Ceske Budejovice, Teplice and Zlin.

The musicians who conducted his performances are authoritative: Stefan Asbury, Massimiliano Caldi, Alvaro Cassuto, Philippe Bernold, Elio Boncompagni, Diego Fasolis, Piero Gamba, Angelo Persichilli, Jan Talich, Johnatan Webb to name a few. He has edited critical editions of Briccialdi's pieces. Ciardi, Fioroni, Nardini, Lichtenthal, Mercadante, Rolla, Veginy for the Suvini Zerboni, Carisch, Rugginenti, Vigormusic editions. Numerous certifications from the specialized press for his 21 CDs with the labels Dynamic, Tactus, Brilliant classics, Nuova Era, Veermer, including in co-production with RSI the Masonic Songs by C. Fürstenau with the RTSI choir under the direction of Diego Fasolis and the duets of A. Rolla for flute and violin with the violinist Mario Hossen of which he recently appeared in Lugano, Cult - cultural monthly of the Swiss radio signed by Giovanni Conti: The flutist Mario Carbotta gives an extremely convincing reading, confirming himself as not only a musician of the highest caliber but also a researcher capable of

bring the results of his musicological experience into practice.

Mario Carbotta teaches flute at the "Luigi Boccherini" Higher Institute of Music Studies in Lucca and in the summer courses of the International Music Academy Orpheus in Vienna.