New York Choral Society Will Embark on a Cultural Ambassadorship to Sicily Next Summer

June 27, 2012 5:00 pm

to

July 8, 2012 5:00 pm

We are very proud to announce that the New York Choral Society will embark on a cultural ambassadorship to Sicily next summer. For the 180 member chorus in it’s 53rd year, this will be its 14th International Tour.

The renowned Maestro Alberto Veronesi, who leads the Sinfonica Siciliana, the Opera Orchestra of New York, the Petruzzelli Orchestra di Bari and more, made his Carnegie Hall debut with the Opera Orchestra of New York and the NYCS in Cavalleria Rusticana and La Navarraise last fall and subsequently invited them to sing in a festival he designed.

The New York Choral Society Music Festival, June 27 to July 8 will take place in Cefalù and Taormina. There will be three concerts in each location including the Cathedral in Cefalù and the Teatro Greco in Taormina. The trip is designed to highlight the cultural and historical aspects of Sicily’s heritage and engage with locals along the way. The program will include material from both the upcoming Joyful Noise concert at Carnegie Hall, December 14 and its special American Reflections concert April 20, 2012, marking the last concert for outgoing Musical Director John Daly Goodwin, after 25 years.

For further information and tickets, go to www.nychoral.org.

Vincenzo Bellini (1801 – 1835), opera composer

Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini (3 November 1801 – 23 September 1835) was an Italian opera composer. His greatest works are I Capuleti ed i Montecchi (1830), La sonnambula (1831), Norma (1831), Beatrice di Tenda (1833), and I puritani (1835). Known for his long-flowing melodic lines, for which he was named “the Swan of Catania,” Bellini was the quintessential composer of bel canto opera.

Born in Catania, Sicily, Bellini was a child prodigy from a highly musical family and legend has it he could sing an aria of Valentino Fioravanti at eighteen months. He began studying music theory at two, the piano at three, and by the age of five could apparently play well. Bellini’s first five pieces were composed when he was just six years old. Regardless of the veracity of these claims, it is certain that Bellini grew up in a musical household and that a career as a musician was never in doubt.

Having learned from his grandfather, Bellini left provincial Catania in June 1819 to study at the conservatory in Naples, with a stipend from the municipal government of Catania. By 1822 he was in the class of the director Nicolò Zingarelli, studying the masters of the Neapolitan school and the orchestral works of Haydn and Mozart. It was the custom at the Conservatory to introduce a promising student to the public with a dramatic work: the result was Bellini’s first opera Adelson e Salvini an opera semiseria that was presented at the Conservatory’s theater. Bellini’s next opera, Bianca e Gernando, met with some success at the Teatro San Carlo, leading to a commission from the impresario Barbaia for an opera at La Scala. Il pirata was a resounding immediate success and began Bellini’s faithful and fruitful collaboration with the librettist and poet Felice Romani, and cemented his friendship with his favored tenor Giovanni Battista Rubini, who had sung in Bianca e Gernando.

Bellini spent the next years, 1827–33 in Milan, where all doors were open to him. Sparking controversy in the press for its new style and its restless harmonic shifts into remote keys, La straniera (1828) was even more successful than Il pirata, and allowed Bellini to support himself solely by his opera commissions. The composer showed the taste for social life and the dandyism that Heinrich Heine emphasized in his literary portrait of Bellini (Florentinische Nächte, 1837). Opening a new theatre in Parma, his Zaira (1829) was a failure at the Teatro Ducale, but Venice welcomed I Capuleti e i Montecchi, which was based on the same Italian source as Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

The next five years were triumphant, with major successes with his greatest works, La sonnambula, Norma and I puritani, cut short by Bellini’s premature death.

Bellini died in Puteaux, near Paris of acute inflammation of the intestine, and was buried in the cemetery of Père Lachaise, Paris; his remains were removed to the cathedral of Catania in 1876. The Museo Belliniano housed in the Gravina Cruyllas Palace, in Catania, preserves memorabilia and scores.

Note: This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article “Metasyntactic variable” and Creative Commons by Commons Deed. This information was accurate when it was posted, but can change without notice.

Alessandro Scarlatti (1660 – 1725), composer

Alessandro Scarlatti (2 May 1660 – 24 October 1725) was an Italian Baroque composer especially famous for his operas and chamber cantatas. He is considered the founder of the Neapolitan school of opera. He was the father of two other composers, Domenico Scarlatti and Pietro Filippo Scarlatti.

Scarlatti was born in Palermo, then part of the Kingdom of Sicily. He is generally said to have been a pupil of Giacomo Carissimi in Rome, and some theorize that he had some connection with northern Italy because his early works seem to show the influence of Stradella and Legrenzi. The production at Rome of his opera Gli Equivoci nell sembiante (1679) gained him the support of Queen Christina of Sweden (who at the time was living in Rome), and he became her Maestro di Cappella. In February 1684 he became ‘Maestro di Cappella to the viceroy of Naples, perhaps through the influence of his sister, an opera singer, who might have been the mistress of an influential Neapolitan noble. Here he produced a long series of operas, remarkable chiefly for their fluency and expressiveness, as well as other music for state occasions.

In 1702 Scarlatti left Naples and did not return until the Spanish domination had been superseded by that of the Austrians. In the interval he enjoyed the patronage of Ferdinando de’ Medici, for whose private theatre near Florence he composed operas, and of Cardinal Ottoboni, who made him his maestro di cappella, and procured him a similar post at the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome in 1703.

After visiting Venice and Urbino in 1707, Scarlatti took up his duties in Naples again in 1708, and remained there until 1717. By this time Naples seems to have become tired of his music; the Romans, however, appreciated it better, and it was at the Teatro Capranica in Rome that he produced some of his finest operas (Telemaco, 1718; Marco Attilio Regolò, 1719; La Griselda, 1721), as well as some noble specimens of church music, including a mass for chorus and orchestra, composed in honor of Saint Cecilia for Cardinal Acquaviva in 1721. His last work on a large scale appears to have been the unfinished serenata for the marriage of the prince of Stigliano in 1723. He died in Naples in 1725.

Note: This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article “Metasyntactic variable” and Creative Commons by Commons Deed. This information was accurate when it was posted, but can change without notice.

Sigismondo D’India (1582 – 1629), composer

Sigismondo d’India (c. 1582 – before 19 April 1629) was an Italian composer of the late Renaissance and early Baroque eras. He was one of the most accomplished contemporaries of Monteverdi, and wrote music in many of the same forms as the more famous composer.

D’India was probably born in Palermo, Sicily in 1582, though details of his life are lacking until around 1600. During the first decade of the 17th century he probably traveled widely in Italy, meeting composers, acquiring patrons at various aristocratic courts, and absorbing the musical styles at each locale. This was a time of transition in music history, as the polyphonic style of the late Renaissance was giving way to the widely diverse practices of the early Baroque, and d’India seems to have acquired an unusually broad grasp of the total stylistic practice in Italy: the expressive madrigal style of Marenzio, the grand polychoral work of the Venetian School, the conservative polyphonic tradition of the Roman School, the attempts to recover the music of the ancient world in monody and its larger vehicle, the newly developing opera, as well as the mannered, emotionally intense chromatic style of Carlo Gesualdo in Naples. D’India is known to have been in Florence, the birthplace of opera, as well as Mantua, where Monteverdi was working. In Naples he probably met Gesualdo, and by 1610 he was in Parma and Piacenza. The next year, 1611, he was hired by the Duke of Savoy to direct music in Turin, where he remained until 1623; these were the most productive years of his life, during which he amalgamated the disparate types of music he had heard and absorbed during the years 1600-1610 into a unified style.

After leaving Turin – apparently forced out by political intrigues – he went to Modena, and later to Rome; he seems to have died in Modena, although details on the end of his life are as sparse as they were for its beginning. A record exists of his being granted an appointment in Bavaria at the court of Maximilian I, although there is no evidence he went there; he may have died first.

Note: This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article “Metasyntactic variable” and Creative Commons by Commons Deed. This information was accurate when it was posted, but can change without notice.

Malanova in Concert

July 10, 2011
6:00 pm	to	10:00 pm

Malanova will be playing at the Parco Museo Jalari in Barcellona (ME) on July 10 at 6PM. This group is committed t preserving the traditional music of Sicily but they write all new songs.  They are a group of professionals in their working life – doctors, lawyers, in finance, but their hearts are in the richness of Sicily.

 

Smith Alumnae Chorus in Sicily

June 23, 2011
9:00 pm	to	11:00 pm
June 24, 2011
9:00 pm	to	11:00 pm
June 25, 2011
9:00 pm	to	11:00 pm

Smith Alumnae Chorus will be visiting Sicily and perform Mozart’s Requiem. The Alumnae Chorus comprises alumnae and current students from the class of ’47 to the class of ’12, as well as their guests. The chorus is directed by Jonathan Hirsh, current conductor of the Smith Glee Club and Orchestra. They will be singing three concerts.

The dates are as follows, and all concerts are at 9pm:

Thursday, June 23rd in the Cathedral of Acireale;
Friday, June 24th in the Cathedral of Siracusa (Ortigia);
Saturday, June 25th in the Cathedral of Catania.

No reservations are necessary.

More about Smith College
Smith College is a private, independent women’s liberal arts college located in Northampton, Massachusetts. It is the largest member of the Seven Sisters. Smith is also a member of the Five Colleges consortium, which allows its students to attend classes at four other Pioneer Valley institutions: Mount Holyoke College, Amherst College, Hampshire College, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. In 2010, U.S. News & World Report ranked it 14th in Best Liberal Arts Colleges. Notable Alumnae include: Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush, Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, Julia Child, Madeleine L’Engle, Margaret Mitchell, Sylvia Plath, and Yolanda King. The first ever Women’s Basketball game was played at Smith College in 1892. [Wikipedia]

Web site: www.smith.edu

Sicilian Folk Singer Alfio Antico

Alfio Antico is a Sicilian folk singer coming from Lentini (Sr). He plays the tamorra, a big tambourine, and sings in Sicilian dialect. He was a shepard and developed his interest for music and this instrument since he was a child. Eugenio Bennato, a popular Italian singer, discovered him in Florence. He has recorded five CDs. Here is a video of 5 minutes!

He plays with Musicanova and also has collaborated with well known Italian bands and artists, among them also: Peppe Barra, Tullio De Piscopo, Edoardo Bennato, Lucio Dalla, Fabrizio De André, Roberto Carnevale, Renzo Arbore and Orchestra Italiana. He has also participated in theatrical performances by Giorgio Albertazzi, Ottavia Piccolo, Maurizio Scaparro, Jerome Savary, Roberto de Simone and Amedeo Amodio.

Michela Musolino in Concert

Peter Covino, PEN America prizewinning poet, and U of Rhode Island Assistant Professor of English summed up Musolino’s appeal on both sides of the Atlantic:: “Can you imagine the wild soulfulness of Tina Tuner and the earthy yet ethereal voice of Neapolitan songstress Teresa De Sio combined? Well imagine that; then think even more vibrancy, more urbanity, in songs that somehow also feel impossibly intimate…. No wonder Michela Musolino has such a devoted underground following; full divahood seems scarily within reach.” For more information about Michela Musolino, visit her Website at www.michelamusolino.com.

MAY 5

SUNY Farmingdale
2350 Broadhollow Road
Farmindgale, NY 11735
Roosevelt Hall,
Little Theater

6:00PM – 9:00PM
FREE ADMISSION

MAY 12

Recoup Lounge
210 Rivington Street
New York, NY 10002
recouploungenyc.com

8:00PM
Tickets: $10

JUNE 1

Shrine World Music Venue
2271 Adam Clayton Powell Jr Bl
New York, NY 10030
shrinenyc.com

8:00PM – 9:00PM

VIDEO

The Ibla Grand Prize International Music Competition

April 5, 2011
6:00 pm	to	10:00 pm

The Ibla Grand Prize International Music Competition, celebrating 20th anniversary this year, has become one of the world’s cultural treasures. Held each summer in the magnificent southeastern corner of Sicily, in the quietly beautiful and charming Baroque city of Ragusa-Ibla, this competition has proven to be a consistent and world-class showcase for musical talent of the highest order.

The competition’s founder, Dr. Salvatore Moltisanti, himself one of the great pianists of our time, has created an atmosphere that encourages openness to any and all forms of music, allowing presentations of all musical styles and instruments (including several types of jazz ensembles, domra virtuosos, accordionists, folk singers and many others from outside the classical
mainstream, as well as instrumental and vocal performers of standard and contemporary repertoire), creating a place where the ideas of wonderfully talented people could be nurtured in the spirit of international respect.

This year’s Gala concert on April 5 at Carnegie Weill Recital Hall, as we have come to expect, will surely be the best possible evidence of this success, presenting musicianship of the highest order.

With:

Salvatore Moltisanti, Artistic Director and piano, ITALY – USA
Ana Karina Alamo D’Alessandro, piano, VENEZUELA
Michael Barimo, whistler, USA
David Cieri, piano -composer USA
Anna Caterina Cornacchini, soprano, ITALY
Christoph Croise, cello, SWITZERLAND (IBLA Arezzo certificate)
Sabrina De Carlo, piano duo Keira, ITALY
Michela Chiara Borghese, piano duo Keira, ITALY
Umi Garret, piano, JAPAN / USA (IBLA Hartford certificate)
Kai Han, piano, USA – CHINA
Elena Kawazu, violin, USA
Ivan Lin, piano, TAIWAN / NORWAY (IBLA Oslo certificate)
Rafal Luc, accordion, POLAND
Maria Manniko, piano, FINLAND (IBLA Arezzo certificate)
Sergei Nazarov, violin RUSSIA
Jacek Pazola, tenor, POLAND
Alexander Panfilov, piano, RUSSIA (IBLA Rotary certificate)
Alessio Quaresima, piano, ITALY
David Rogers, drums, USA
Chie Sato Roden, piano, USA
Zuzana Simurdova, piano, CANADA / CZECH REPUBLIC
Alan Storeygard, piano, USA
Maria Tomassi, soprano, ITALY
Brian Wolverton, bass, USA
Michael Yasenak, Choreographer / Stage director, USA

Palermo’s Teatro Massimo Season 2010-2011

July 19, 2010

9:00 pm

Antonio Cognata, superintendent of the Teatro Massimo of Palermo, presents the 2010-2011 season.

The new season entitled “All the colors of music” is one of Italy’s richest program, with more than 130 performances scheduled. This year’s particularity is the variety of exhibitions that range from Donizetti, Verdi and Puccini to different expressions of contemporary music.

The grand opera Senso by Marco Tutino, the first exhibition in schedule, is dedicated to the celebration of the 150th anniversary of Italy’s unification.

Madame Butterfly Video

Other shows include La Gioconda, The Greek Passion, Lucia di Lammermoor, Turandot, Tosca, Il Trovatore and Carmen, ballets as Cinderella, The Nutcracker Suite and a wide range of concerts.
For more details and full schedule please visit:
www.teatromassimo.it

Calendar
2010

2011

By Maria Lina Bommarito

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