Data: 28-29-30 | Luogo: BAGHERIA |
Palazzo Butera – BAGHERIA (PA)
MASTERCLASS del M° Marco BALDERI
“Il Gloria di Vivaldi: alla scoperta della Musica sacra del ‘700”
MARCO BALDERI
Born in Seravezza Italy, Marco Balderi he studied music in Lucca Italy, graduating with honors in piano at the Istituto Musicale Boccherini. Later, he graduated from the Cherubini Conservatory in Florence in choral conducting, harpsichord, and organ. He continued his studies in Cremona at the School of Musical Paleography and Philology and obtained a diploma in conducting at the Conservatorio Santa Cecilia in Rome.
From 1984 to 1989 he was assistant to renowned conductors such as C. Abbado, S. Bychkov, R. Chailly, M. W. Chung, V. Delman, C. M. Giulini, H. Von Karajan, J. Levine, Z. Mehta, R. Muti, G. Patane, W. Sawallisch, and worked for major European theaters including the Teatro Comunale in Florence, the Salzburg Festival, and the Teatro alla Scala in Milan.
From 1992 to 1996 he was Choral Director of the Teatro Comunale in Florence with which he directed more than 60 productions, including the first Italian performance of Schoenberg’s Moses und Aaron under the leadership of Z. Metha, Lady Macbeth in the Mtsensk District, D. Shostakovich, and Schubert’s Fierrabras under the direction of S. Bychkov.
His career as a conductor flourished as he was named overall winner of international competitions in Salzburg and Alexandria, beginning an intense period of activity that would take him to Austria, Belgium, China, Cyprus, South Korea, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Japan, Kazakisthan, Louisiana, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Hungary, and the U.S.A., directing more than 90 orchestras.
As well as the most important symphonies, (over 200 titles performed, among which the complete cycles of the symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Mozart, and Schumann), he has performed a vast sacred, secular, solo and choral repertoire (over 600 titles recorded), and furthermore his operatic repertoire includes the conduction of 60 operas. Marco Balderi pays particular attention to his 20th century repertoire and contemporary works, executing premieres of Berio, D’Amico, Donatoni, Ferrero, Glass, Ligeti, Sciarrino, Testoni, Xenakis, recordings (Box sets Casella La Giara, Respighi Christus) and rare pieces (Mascagni Satanic Rhapsody in Livorno and Bologna; Menotti the Wedding Day live in Seoul for the inauguration of the 1988 Olympic Games, Malipiero-Petrassi-Vlad Leopardi, directed at the Lingotto, Turin, with the Orchestra Sinfonica della Radiotelevisione Italiana di Torino).
As pianist/conductor, he completed a tour of concerts in Spain, Taiwan, France, Japan, South Korea ( concertos for piano and orchestra by Mozart and J. S. Bach ); numerous liederistic recitals with Renato Bruson, Jose Cura, Ghena Dimitrova, Maureen Forrester, Barbara Frittoli, Nicolai Gedda, Nicolai Ghiaurov, Giuseppe Giacomini, Nicola Martinucci, Mariana Nicolesco, Leo Nucci, Luciano Pavarotti and Cesare Siepi. For 13 years he was invited to Japan as Artistic Director of the Ongakoyoku Festival in Nijgata, for two years he led the Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago, and in Tuscany he was appointed in 1998 as Artistic Director of Fiesole and in Puglia he directed the San Severo Music Festival in its first edition.
Marco Balderi has received several Honors and Awards: among them the Premio Pegasus ’94 Award, and the prestigious Tutor Campus Castle award conferred to him in 1998 by the Rome Academy of Fine Arts for his activities to integrate young people into artistic works.
Among the various operas he spearheaded has directed particular attention should be paid to his successful conduction of Madama Butterfly at the Deutsche Opera Berlin and the Teatro La Bastille in Paris, two triumphant concerts at the prestigious Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow with the Russian National Orchestra, Gdansk with the Baltic Philharmonic Orchestra, Don Giovanni in Bucharest, ten performances of La Bohème at the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome, in Toulon the Secret Marriage, Cosi fan tutte, the Barber of Seville, La Sonnambula, Tosca; in Messina Harlequin, Gianni Schicchi, Don Giovanni and finally La Traviata and Falstaff in Lodz. After directing two opera concerts for the Festival Europa Nevers at the end of July 2000, he was invited again in 2003 to Barcelona.
In Las Vegas he represented Sicily with a large symphony concert. After recent successes in Sicily (The Barber of Seville in Noto, Don Giovanni in Messina, and three Symphonic concerts with the Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana in Palermo), in June 2001 he conducted a Verdi concert in Rome attended by the President of the Republic of Italy.
Later, he conducted Verdi’s Requiem at the Teatro Regio in Turin, and for the Verdi Celebrations he has been present as a conductor in several European capitals for concerts and operas. In September 2001 after directing a popular Lucia di Lammermoor in Mexico, he was again invited back in 2002 to give a masterclass on Puccini, conducting the Triptych and Messa di Gloria; and in 2003 he conducted a new production of Madama Butterfly. In February 2002, he successfully directed La Traviata and Verdi’s Falstaff with Renato Bruson in Lodz.
For three years he was invited to Savona to conduct Symphonic concerts, the last of which, the Stabat Mater by Dvorak, was repeated with great success in Montecarlo (Monaco). In November 2003 he opened for the sixth time the Opera Season of Toulon with La Bohème.
The production was met with high approvals from the Belgian Critics when in January 2003, he directed L’Elisir d’amore produced by Theatre Royal de Wallonie in Liege. In May 2003 he conducted a memorable Gala Concert at the X ° Opera Festival Bydgoski with Ignacio Encinas and Youn Koh Seng and in Warsaw he conducted
Denyse Graves in Carmen.
Then, in June 2004 he was invited by the Fondazione Toscanini in Parma to conduct the Isabeau of Mascagni and the successive New Year’s Concert in 2005.
Since June 2003, he has been invited to give a masterclass in Florence annually for students of orchestral conducting in the University of California. The Fondazione Arena di Verona casted him for the staging of Carmen and Turandot and in December 2004 he conducted La Bohème in Fano directed by Luciano Pavarotti. He was invited to conduct the Mozart Messe Kv427 at the Festival of Sacred Music in Acireale (Sicily). In 2004 he directed the soprano Mariella Devia in a recital at La Sapienza University of Rome, and at the Opera House in the capital city he successfully directed the Soirée Balanchine ballet.
In February 2005 for the Theatre of Bordeaux, he conducted ten performances of Tosca and was reappointed for Aida and Don Giovanni in 2006. In June 2005 he conducted William Tell, overture for the Festival of Miskolc in Hungary with Renato Bruson as a soloist. Also in the summer of 2005 he was invited to conduct La Traviata and the Verdi-Requiem at the Opera Festival in Florence and Pistoia. In September of the same year he conducted in India with great success Les pecheurs de Perles (New Delhi and Mumbai) the first entirely Indian production.
In January 2006 he was invited to conduct thirteen performances of Madama Butterfly at the Théatre La Bastille in Paris where he received favorable reviews from critics. Also he was invited to Bordeaux to conduct the opening of the 2007-2008 season with La Bohème. In the summer he directed La Traviata for the Boboli Gardens in Florence, and then the Mozart masterpiece Die Zauberflöte in Mexico. In October, he was invited to conduct Gianni Schicchi in the Tuscan regional circuit.
2007 saw him conducting mainly in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan opera and ballet, and in June he was invited by the Teatro Bellas Artes in Mexico City to conduct a production of The Barber of Seville, and the following December travelled in Bordeaux to conduct the ballet Don Quixotte.
By early 2008 he was invited to direct an acclaimed production of Tosca in Toulon, and began working for a number of masterclasses in different cities around the world: Paris, Budapest, Bucharest, Cyprus, Florence, and in October opened the season of Radio – TV Symphony orchestra of Bucharest with a concert devoted entirely to Mozart.
During 2009 he was invited to conduct at the KNO, ( Korean National Opera ) directing Norma, L’elisir d’amore, several masterclasses and Gala Concerts, and in the beginning of 2010 he was again invited to Seoul for a new production of Macbeth and in 2011 Un Ballo in Maschera; later he conducted the Miskolc symphony orchestra with a program dedicated entirely to the symphonies of Tchaikovsky and finally was invited to Budapest to conduct a new production of L’Elisir d’amore. In December, he directed three Gala Concerts with the Cyprus Symphonic Orchestra in Nicosia, Limassol, and Larnaca.
Since January 2012 he was appointed visiting professor at the National University of Art (the highest level of musical education in Korea) and conducted Tosca at the Korea Opera Festival (Francesca Patanè protagonist) and May ushered in a large auditorium in Busan with a much applauded Tosca. In June, he was invited to conduct the State Opera in Almaty Kazakisthan a Festival entirely dedicated to Puccini, where he achieved a memorable success with La Bohème and Turandot. In August he was invited to conduct Il Trovatore in the Competition and Festival “Hariclea Darclee” in Romania.
In October 2012 he conducted for the Teatro Bellas Artes in Mexico City a new production of The Barber of Seville involving a great company of soloists. In November of the same year he conducted Rigoletto at l ‘Art Center in Seoul, and November 12, he was invited to give a masterclass to the Conservatory of Almaty in Kazakisthan.
Recently, from March to December 2013 he conducted in Korea ten different productions: La Boheme, Tosca, La Traviata and Turandot at the Seoul Art Center ( starring Giovanna Casolla ) under the patronage of the Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago, enjoying great success and rave reviews.
In 2014 he conducted Madama Butterfly at the Opera Festival in Seoul (which received the award for best Korean production of the year ) and Turandot at the Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago ( with Casolla and Lindstrom protagonists). The Artistic Direction of the Puccini Festival appointed him Ambassador of Puccini operas in Eastern Countries. Recently, during 2015, he directed Lucia di Lammermoor and Rigoletto in Seoul and DaeGu. Also planned is a whole series of concerts dedicated to the music of G. Bizet, a new production of Boheme, Rigoletto and Carmen as well as several symphonic concerts in South Korea.