Misericordiae Vultus

Alessandro Albenga trained at the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia in Rome and continued his studies at organ academies in Haarlem, Meaux and Pistoia. He was organist of the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran from 1987 to 2002 and subsequently worked with the musical chapel of Santa Maria dell’Anima in Rome.

Alongside his organ recitals, he has maintained an active career in ensemble music. His collaborations include the RAI Symphony Orchestra in Rome and the Orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. He played continuo in Antonio Pappano’s recording of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with Anna Netrebko for Deutsche Grammophon. With the early-music ensemble Festina Lente, he has performed and recorded seventeenth-century Roman and Neapolitan repertoire.

He has taught organ and organ composition at Italian conservatories, including the Licinio Refice Conservatory in Frosinone, and given concerts, lectures and masterclasses on historical keyboards. His recordings include a programme on the historic Luca Blasi organ at the Lateran and music by Gregorio Strozzi.

Angelo Colone: Interpreter of the most significant repertoire for guitar of the main Italian contemporary composers, soloist appreciated by the major international musical institutions, Angelo Colone graduated and perfected with Alirio and Senio Diaz, Bruno Battisti D’Amario, Angelo Gilardino.
Angelo has been Invited to play for cultural institutions such as the National Academy of Santa Cecilia, the House of Goethe in Rome, the Chigiana Academy of Siena, the Trame Sonore Festival in Mantua. Angelo has been performing since the end of the 1980s in Italian theatres and chambers in Rome, including the Teatro Eliseo, the Teatro Olimpico, the Auditorium Parco della Musica, the Regio theater of Parma, the Metropolitan Theater of Catania, the Magliabechiano Salone in the Uffizi and the Luca Giordano Room in Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Florence.
Abroad he was invited by international cultural institutions in China, Holland, Switzerland, Malta, Belgium.
He has frequently participated in radio broadcasts e.g. RAI, RAI Inter-national and Vatican Radio stations. Also he has participated as a guest in literary events on the occasion of the presentation of new literary works by authors such as Sergio Zavoli and Luis Sepùlveda.
During his concert career Angelo took part in original research projects recorded in significant CDs, including: "Sonetterra" with the Sestetto Moderno (1997), "Sintesi" (2002), "Angelo Angelo" (2004) containing the first absolute recording of the concert for guitar and orchestra Leçons de ténèbres, by Angelo Gilardino, "Goffredo Petrassi - Works for guitar" (2007), a monograph on Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco for the series "The Masters of the guitar" for the magazine Seicorde ( 2008) realised on the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of the disappearance of the Florentine composer and followed by a cycle of direct broadcasts curated by himself for Vatican Radio, ”Angelo Colone Plays Angelo Gilardino" (2012) and the most recent for Brilliant Classics “Federico Moreno Torroba, complete works for solo guitar”.

Bibiana Carusi is a soprano whose work encompasses opera, contemporary music, chamber repertoire and music theatre. She made her debut as Rosina in Paisiello’s Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna and appeared as a soloist in Orff’s Carmina Burana in Ferrara.

Her operatic repertoire includes Violetta, Mimì, Musetta, Lauretta and Anna Glavari. She has performed contemporary works by Roberto Becheri and taken part in the premieres of Mario Ruffini’s Notte a Betlemme and Il muro di Berlino. Her collaborations include Flavio Emilio Scogna, Jonathan Webb, Anthony Barrese and Daniele Abbado.

She recorded Misericordiae Vultus for Da Vinci Classics in 2016 and has worked in music-theatre productions with Cosimo Cinieri and Nicola Vicidomini, directed by Irma Immacolata Palazzo. These projects included Dostoevsky’s The Grand Inquisitor and Pessoa’s Ode marittima. Alongside performing, she has developed teaching and seminars exploring the relationship between breathing, posture and vocal production.

Flavio Emilio Scogna received his musical and cultural training in Genoa, Bologna and Rome, studying composition and conducting. He graduated in music from the University of Bologna, studied conducting with Franco Ferrara in 1982–83 and collaborated with Luciano Berio from 1984 to 1988.

His works have been performed at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Teatro Comunale di Firenze, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Auditorium Nacional in Madrid and the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma. They have been recorded for RCA and BMG Ariola and broadcast by major European radio and television networks, including RAI, BBC, RNE, BRT and Radio France. In 1998 he represented RAI at the Prix Italia with the radio work L’arpa magica, on a text by Edoardo Sanguineti. He has given lectures and seminars on his compositions in Europe and at several colleges in the United States. In October 2002 he conducted his opera La memoria perduta, commissioned by the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma and staged by Pier’Alli.

Alongside composition, he has pursued an international conducting career since 1990. His repertoire encompasses classical and operatic works, twentieth-century music and contemporary premieres. He has championed and, in several cases, prepared editions of music by Pergolesi, Boccherini and Rossini. His work in twentieth-century repertoire includes Satie and Nino Rota, whose opera I due timidi he recorded in its world-premiere recording.

He has conducted the Kiev Philharmonic Orchestra, the RAI Symphony Orchestra, the RTVE Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, the Hungarian State Symphony Orchestra, the Ra’anana Symphonette in Israel, the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice, the Orchestre Symphonique et Lyrique de Nancy, I Pomeriggi Musicali in Milan, the Sicilian Symphony Orchestra, the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini and the Orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. His collaborations with ensembles include Alternance in Paris, Accademia Bizantina, Círculo in Madrid and the Ensemble Strumentale Scaligero. In 1995 he conducted the opening concert of the Venice Biennale’s centenary celebrations.

From 1999 he conducted the Cantelli Orchestra and the Orchestra Sinfonica d’Italia in Milan for the NovecentoMusica festival, under the artistic direction of Luigi Pestalozza. His discography includes recordings for BMG/RCA Red Seal, Brilliant Classics, Curci, RicordiMediastore, Fonit Cetra, Dynamic, Tactus and Bongiovanni. His recording of works by Schnittke for Dynamic (S 2030) received Répertoire magazine’s highest rating, 10, in 2000. He conducted the Ensemble Contemporaneo of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia from 2006 to 2009 and became principal conductor of the Bari Symphony Orchestra in 2009. In 2013 he received the Vittorio De Sica Award for Classical Music, whose previous recipients included Claudio Abbado, Luciano Berio and Riccardo Muti.

Salza, Nello (Trumpetist). The Oscar prizes to the composers Ennio Morricone for “The Hateful Eights” and to Nicola Piovani for “La Vita è bella”, appointed Nello Salza as “The trumpet of the Italian Cinema” as critics acclaimed him for his thirty year activity as interpreter of many unforgettable themes, many times composed for him, by the most celebrated composers of Cinema an TV. Since 1984 he recorded over 400 soundtracks as soloist trumpet for the composers E. Morricone, N. Piovani, A. Trovajoli, R. Ortolani, P. Piccioni, L. Bacalov, R. Pregadio, B. Conti, F. De Masi, F. Piersanti, S. Cipriani, A. North, R. Serio, A. Di Pofi, B. Zambrini, F. Carpi in films like “La Vita è Bella”, “L’intervista”, “ La voce della Luna”, “ C’era una volta in America”, “La Leggenda del Pianista sull’ Oceano”,”Nuovo Cinema Paradiso”, “La Famiglia”, “La Piovra”, “IL Postino”,”Cuore”, “Pinocchio”, “Il Caimano”, “La Sindrome di Stendhal”, “Gli Intoccabili”, “Il Marchese del Grillo” and in the Quentin Tarantino’s masterpiece “the hateful eights”.

He had been also principal soloist trumpet for Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, were he worked with conductors likeG.L. Gelmetti, F. Mannino, N. Santi, G. Ferro, G. Patanè, D. Oren, Y. Ahronovitch, G. Kuhn, J. Tate, J. Nelson, B. Bartoletti, G. Bertini, M. Armiliato, Z. Pesko, D. Renzetti, W. Humburg, G.L. Zampieri; He also played in this role for Teatro S.Carlo di Napoli, l’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, l’Orchestra regionale Toscana e l’Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI. With Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia he toured worldwide with conductors like L. Bernstein, L. Maazel, G. Pretre, W. Sawallisch, D. Gatti, G. Sinopoli,C. Thielemann. He also collaborated with numerous important institutions like Gran Teatro “La Fenice” di Venezia, Orchestra da Camere Italiana (Dir. S. Accardo), Orchestra Regionale Toscana, Orchestra “A. Toscanini” di Parma, Solisti Aquilani, Orchestra Sinfonica Abruzzese, Unione Musicisti di Roma, AMIT- Accademia Musicale Italiana, Orchestra G. Cantelli, Orchestra Internazionale d’Italia, Teatro Massimo di Palermo, Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma. Guest in many Italian TV programs, had recorded many CD’s as solist ranging from classical to pop and movies OST. Winner of many competitions, he also won two National competitions for teaching in the Italian Conservatories. Many collaborations with with artists such S. Accardo, U. Ughi, L. Pavarotti, J. Carreras, P. Domingo, K. Ricciarelli, A. Bocelli, D. Modugno, Mina, C. Baglioni, A. Stewart, Zucchero, M. Nava, M.Gazzè.

As a Yamaha artist he projected and signatured two trumpets (Bb and C). Nello was born in Sutri (Viterbo) and studied under Leonardo Nicosia and Biagio Bartiloro.

Abbondanza, Roberto (Baritone) was born in Rome, where he studied vocal technique with the soprano Isabel Gentile. He was very young when hired in RAI Choir of Rome and eventually in S. Cecilia’s National Academy. He took part in the opera movie “Rigoletto” directed by Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, a fundamental meeting for his successive artistic career. He then specialized at the Salzburg Mozarteum and the Musikhochschule of Köln with Hartmut Höll, thus pursuing his interest for the Lieder Repertoire. Initially he focused on the study of the Classical Opera Repertoire, though he had been always keeping in great consideration the Ancient Music’s one as well. He is finalist in the “Toti Dal Monte” Competition in Treviso and in the “Sperimentale” in Spoleto, and was the winner of both the “Laboratorio Lirico” Competion in Alessandria and “L’Accademia Barocca” in Rome. In the ancient and Baroque Repertoire he constantly cooperates with Fabio Biondi and EUROPA GALANTE (the recording of Scarlatti’s Caino awarded with Diapason d’or; premiere execution and recording by Virgin of Scarlatti’s SS. Trinità; staging of Scarlatti’s works by Massimo Puppieno; Il trionfo dell’onore (ABBIATI PRIZE 2001); La Principessa fedele e Carlo Re d’Alemagna at the Teatro Massimo of Palermo; execution of Vivaldi’s La Senna festeggiante at the Théatre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, Haendel’s Lucio Silla at S. Cecilia’s National Academy, Cavalli’s Dido at the Fenice in Venice and at the Carignano of Tourin, Haendel’s Messiah in Madrid, Valencia and Barcelona) and with Rinaldo Alessandrini and CONCERTO ITALIANO (ABBIATI PRIZE 2002), Jommelli’s L’isola disabitata at the Rome’s Opera, Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda recorded by Opus 111, awarded with “Choc de l’annee 1999” performed in Paris, Bordeaux, Montpellier, Bruxelles, Madrid, Copenhagen, Köln, Oslo, Tokio, Kyoto, Singapore, at the Colon in Buenos Aires and in S. Paulo do Brasil).

In Italy he has performed at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, at S. Cecilia’s National Academy in Rome, at the Fenice Theatre and Biennale of Venice, at the Regio Theatre of Tourin, at Massimo Theatre in Palermo, at the Filarmonico Theatre in Verona, with the RAI National Orchestra, with the Verdi Orchestra and the Pomeriggi Musicali’s one in Milan, as well as the Toscanini Orchestra, the Orchestra Regionale Toscana and l’Orchestra di Rome e del Lazio. Abroad he has performed in Monte Carlo, Lyon, Niece, Lisbon, Barcelona, Madrid, Bilbao, Vienna, Manchester (BBC Philharmonic), Bruxelles, Budapest, New York, Washington, Toronto, Mexico City, Istanbul, Taipei, Hong Kong, etc.).

Rodolfo Bonucci is a Roman violinist and conductor. He studied violin with Salvatore Accardo, Henryk Szeryng and Arthur Grumiaux, and conducting with Franco Ferrara. At seventeen he performed as a soloist with Renato Fasano’s Virtuosi di Roma and with I Musici.

His international concert career has taken him to Carnegie Hall, the Berlin Philharmonie, the Beethovenhalle in Bonn and the Salle Pleyel and Salle Gaveau in Paris, as well as major Italian venues. His chamber-music partners have included Rodolfo Caporali, Bruno Canino, György Sándor and Jörg Demus. As a conductor, he has led symphonic concerts and opera performances in Europe, South America and Japan.

He was elected an academician of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in 2004 and appointed to its advanced violin teaching programme in 2006. He directed and performed with I Filarmonici di Bologna and I Solisti di Bologna, and served as second conductor of I Solisti Aquilani from 2000 to 2002. In 2000 he was appointed an Officer of the Italian Republic for his artistic achievements.

Arvo Pärt (b Paide, 11 Sept 1935). Estonian composer. He studied at the music middle school in Tallinn under Harri Otsa and Tormis and then at the Tallinn Conservatory under Eller, from whose class he graduated in 1963. While still a student he found work as a recording engineer with Estonian radio, and as a composer of film and theatre music. He continued to support himself with such work during much of his early career.

Cristian Carrara (Pordenone, 1977) is considered one of the most original composers of his generation. He writes mainly symphonic and chamber music, but also works for the musical theater and television. The criticism acknowledges its productions as “highly focused and balanced, and full of gently harmonic texture,” but “big in the creative intent for which the whole context is manifested very solid and clear,” able to reveal, beyond the curtain of a music apparently ‘simple’, the terrible question on adverse outcomes of what is proclaimed well, that is what the war, any war, entails” (Claudio Strinati). “His music is close to the heart, it is clear but not simple, is straightforward but speak a language full of mystery: that of poetry.” (Elena Formica)

His music is performed in prestigious halls, the Academy of Santa Cecilia in Rome, the Berliner Hall, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino up to the Auditorium Binyanei Hauma of Jerusalem.

“It’s an author who has a great ease of writing” (Giorgio Battistelli). His happy relationship with the public is well described by the American critic Rob Haskins: “I know it’s the music I want to share and listen to over and over again”. “Unlike so much today music, his crypticism is not in writing, but in the difficulty to organize and to make the most possible clear his compositional thought, as happens in the Verdi’s music, that has a minimum semiotic charge, but an extremely violent semantic charge”. (Flavio Emilio Scogna).

He join works with important Italian and international artists, including: Flavio Emilio Scogna, Omer Meir Wellber, Paolo Olmi, Nicola Paszkowski, Michalis Economou, Jan Latham Koenig, Lior Shambadal, Alda Caiello, Roberto Abbondanza, Roberto Prosseda, Floraleda Sacchi, Francesco D’Orazio, Francesca Dego, et al., and his music are performed by renowned ensembles and orchestras, including: the Filarmonica Toscanini di Parma, Orchestra Regionale della Toscana, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, L’Orchestra del Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, Qatar Symphony Orchestra, Berliner Symphoniker, the Ra’anana Symphonet, etc.

Among his plays are the works: La piccola vedetta lombarda [The small lookout Lombard], Oliver Twist, Alto sui pedali [High on the pedals] and Il giocatore. Canzone dei luoghi comuni [The player. Song of the commons]. In the catalog symphonic: Magnificat, Meditation for pedal piano and orchestra (commissioned by Emilia Romagna Festival), Destinazione del sangue [Destination of blood], Liber Mundi, Tales from the underground, Ondanomala (commission Teatro Lirico di Trieste), Vivaldi In memoriam (commission Maggio Musicale Fiorentino). As for the chamber music among the most frequently performed work must be reported: Luce [Light], Pater, Bianco [White], Ludus and the collection of piano pieces A piano diary.

In the rich discography, published in monographic CDs with labels like Tactus, Amadeus Art, Arts/Tosca, Incipit, New Stradivarius, Curci, he reflects the focus on a compositional inspiration fueled by multiple levels of cultural investigation, able to explore both the great themes of man’s path (Liber Mundi, 2012) as the miniature of self-gift (A piano diary, 2011) how much the commingling o genres (Ludus, 2013).

Author and presenter of television broadcasts of divulging music, he is founder and artistic director of the series of recordings of “Arts Solidarity” promoted by Curci, Feltrinelli / Ricordi Media Store and by the ACLI National.

Cristian Carrara graduated from the Conservatory of Udine. Already artistic consultant to the superintendent at Teatro Lirico di Trieste, is Chairman of the Culture Committee of the Regione Lazio.

Flavio Emilio Scogna received his musical and cultural training in Genoa, Bologna and Rome, studying composition and conducting. He graduated in music from the University of Bologna, studied conducting with Franco Ferrara in 1982–83 and collaborated with Luciano Berio from 1984 to 1988.

His works have been performed at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Teatro Comunale di Firenze, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Auditorium Nacional in Madrid and the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma. They have been recorded for RCA and BMG Ariola and broadcast by major European radio and television networks, including RAI, BBC, RNE, BRT and Radio France. In 1998 he represented RAI at the Prix Italia with the radio work L’arpa magica, on a text by Edoardo Sanguineti. He has given lectures and seminars on his compositions in Europe and at several colleges in the United States. In October 2002 he conducted his opera La memoria perduta, commissioned by the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma and staged by Pier’Alli.

Alongside composition, he has pursued an international conducting career since 1990. His repertoire encompasses classical and operatic works, twentieth-century music and contemporary premieres. He has championed and, in several cases, prepared editions of music by Pergolesi, Boccherini and Rossini. His work in twentieth-century repertoire includes Satie and Nino Rota, whose opera I due timidi he recorded in its world-premiere recording.

He has conducted the Kiev Philharmonic Orchestra, the RAI Symphony Orchestra, the RTVE Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, the Hungarian State Symphony Orchestra, the Ra’anana Symphonette in Israel, the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice, the Orchestre Symphonique et Lyrique de Nancy, I Pomeriggi Musicali in Milan, the Sicilian Symphony Orchestra, the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini and the Orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. His collaborations with ensembles include Alternance in Paris, Accademia Bizantina, Círculo in Madrid and the Ensemble Strumentale Scaligero. In 1995 he conducted the opening concert of the Venice Biennale’s centenary celebrations.

From 1999 he conducted the Cantelli Orchestra and the Orchestra Sinfonica d’Italia in Milan for the NovecentoMusica festival, under the artistic direction of Luigi Pestalozza. His discography includes recordings for BMG/RCA Red Seal, Brilliant Classics, Curci, RicordiMediastore, Fonit Cetra, Dynamic, Tactus and Bongiovanni. His recording of works by Schnittke for Dynamic (S 2030) received Répertoire magazine’s highest rating, 10, in 2000. He conducted the Ensemble Contemporaneo of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia from 2006 to 2009 and became principal conductor of the Bari Symphony Orchestra in 2009. In 2013 he received the Vittorio De Sica Award for Classical Music, whose previous recipients included Claudio Abbado, Luciano Berio and Riccardo Muti.

Guitarist, composer, conductor. He studied as pianist and composer. He graduated in classical guitar (1988). Since 1990 he has expanded his repertoire, studying renaissance and baroque lute, vocal technique and choral and orchestral conducting. He completed his studies of orchestral conducting at the Accademia Musicale Pescarese with Gilberto Serembe and Donato Renzetti. As guitarist, conductor, composer, producer and lutenist he made several recordings for the labels Brilliant Classics, Piano Classics, Da Vinci, Tactus, Stradivarius, Melba Records, Arcophon and for Italian Radio Rai. Giovanni founded several choral and instrumental ensembles. He directs the Vocal Ensemble ‘Flos florum’, with repertoire ranging from Flemish polyphony to contemporary. He was awarded first prize in classical guitar at the April Spring Festival in Pyongyang (North Corea) and the P.Taraffo Competition in Genoa. Giovanni wrote music for various film productions (cinema and television), for commercials, for ancient and modern instruments, for choir and orchestra. He was recently awarded the ‘Premio Musica Jean Coste’ as a Roman talented musician.

Marco Frisina is an Italian composer, conductor and priest. He graduated in composition from the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia and obtained a licentiate in Sacred Scripture at the Pontifical Biblical Institute. Ordained in 1982, he serves in the Diocese of Rome. In 1984 he founded the Coro della Diocesi di Roma, which performs at major liturgical celebrations, including papal services.

His music ranges from liturgical songs and sacred oratorios to stage works and film scores. In 1991 he began collaborating on RAI’s international Bible film project as both biblical adviser and composer. His stage works include La Divina Commedia, In hoc signo, Passio Caeciliae and Passio Christi. He has coordinated international choral gatherings at the Vatican and directed the Concerto con i Poveri. His later sacred works include a Mass for the Holy Year of Saint James at Santiago de Compostela and a Mass marking the 1,700th anniversary of the Lateran Basilica.