L´ORFEO

After graduating from the G. Verdi Conservatory in Milan in organ and harpsichord, Ottavio Dantone embarked on a concert career at a very young age, soon distinguishing himself to the attention of critics as one of the most accomplished and gifted harpsichordists of his generation. In 1985 he won the basso continuo prize at the International Competition in Paris, and in 1986 he was a prizewinner at the International Competition in Bruges. He was the first Italian to have obtained such awards to international level in the harpsichord field. A profound connoisseur of the performance practice of the Baroque period, since 1996 he has been the Music Director of the Accademia Bizantina of Ravenna, with which he has collaborated since 1989. Under his direction the Accademia Bizantina, within a few years, established itself as one of the best known and most accredited ensembles of Baroque music with ancient instruments on the international scene. Over the past two decades, Ottavio Dantone has gradually added to his activities as soloist and leader of from chamber groups, that of Conductor, extending his repertoire to the classical and romantic period. His debut in conducting anopera opera was in 1999 with the first performance in modern times of Giovanni Sarti's Giulio Sabino at the Alighieri Theater in Ravenna with his Accademia Bizantina. His career has subsequently led him to juxtapose the best-known repertoire with the rediscovery of lesser-performed or first modern performance titles at the world's most important festivals and theaters including Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Teatro Réal in Madrid, Opéra Royale Versailles, Opera Zurich and London Proms. He has recorded, both as a soloist and conductor, for the most important record companies-Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, Naïve and Harmonia Mundi-gaining prestigious awards and recognition from international critics.

Born to Milan in 1930, Pier Luigi Pizzi was trained as an architect and to twenty years began a career as a set and costume designer, then as a director, in prose and opera, in major theaters and festivals halfway around the world. Hundreds of performances. The numbers speak. In 50 years 33 titles at La Scala in Milan, 25 years of association with the Compagnia dei giovani, 38 years of appearances at the Rossini Opera Festival, 6 years of artistic direction at the Sferisterio Festival in Macerata, from he founded. In 1951 he made his debut at La Fenice for a relationship that has never ceased. Several decades of collaboration with the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.

The list is very long and includes extensive activity in film and television as well.

to Spoleto was invited from Gian Carlo Menotti in the inaugural year 1956 and returned later called from Romolo Valli and from Giorgio Ferrara.

Passionate about art, he has been very involved in curating and setting up major exhibitions and museums.

He has received numerous awards. He is Cavaliere di Gran Croce al Merito of the Italian Republic, Commandeur de la Legion d'Honneur and, still in France, Officier des Arts et des Lettres. Laurea Honoris Causa from the University of Macerata, 7 Abbiati Awards, to name but the most significant.

The Accademia Bizantina was born to Ravenna in 1983 with the programmatic intent of "making music as a great quartet." Today, as then, the group is run autonomously by its members who are the guardians and guarantors of the chamber music interpretive approach that has always distinguished it. This philosophy combined to a deep collective study has allowed the Ensemble to specialize in the performance of the musical repertoire of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries playing on original instruments. Over the years it has been able to distinguish itself and gain a prominent place in the preferences of audiences and critics, adopting its own interpretative style that draws its raison d'être from the search for and appropriation of a "common and shared" language and performance practice that presupposes a careful reading of the score and prefers stylistic accuracy in performance, as in the noblest Italian chamber music tradition. Ottavio Dantone joined to the group permanently in 1989 as harpsichordist and in 1996 he was appointed musical and artistic director, becoming the guarantor of the Ensemble's prestige and artistic quality. Under his expert guidance and in full harmony with his first Violin Alessandro Tampieri, he continues the path of focus and specialization in the field of early music with the intention of combining philological research and the study of the aesthetic interpretative and performing praxis of the Baroque. As in a "Byzantine mosaic," Dantone's expertise, imagination and refinement have come together with the enthusiasm and artistic complicity of each individual instrumentalist in the group, giving body and substance to interpretations that have allowed the orchestra to be accredited as one of the most prestigious ensembles on the international music scene. Since 1999, the year of the performance of the first opera in stage form - G. Sarti's Giulio Sabino - Accademia Bizantina has specialized in the rediscovery and performance of both the operatic repertoire and the Baroque Oratorio, offering, in addition to the most important titles on the bill, titles that have never been performed in modern times. The ensemble performs in the most prestigious from concert halls and international festivals. Its numerous recordings for Decca, Harmonia Mundi and Naïve, as well as to a prestigious Grammy Music Award nomination, have won prizes and awards such as the Diapason d'Or, the Midem, "Prix Classica" and the Gramophone Award.

Founded to Cremona in 1993 from Antonio Greco, the Costanzo Porta Choir won 1st Prize at the Guido d´Arezzo National Competition in 1998 and distinguished itself in other competitions-including the final of the 1st edition of the "London to Cappella Choir Competition," sponsored by the Tallis Scholars in 2014, as the only Italian representative. He has participated to festivals in Italy and Europe, both from solo and with Greco´s own Cremona Antiqua orchestra and other first-rate groups, such as Accademia Bizantina, Europa Galante, I Virtuosi Italiani, Orchestra Barocca di Venezia, I Pomeriggi Musicali. He also sang in concert with Tallis Scholars and participated with Carlo Boccadoro´s Sentieri Selvaggi in the staging ofopera contemporary Il sogno di una cosa by Mauro Montalbetti (2014). Together to La Risonanza took Purcell´s Dido and Aeneas on a European tour (recorded for Challenge Classics, 2016) and with Accademia Bizantina sang in Claudio Monteverdi´s L´Orfeo (2003-2017). He has to his credit recordings of _Madrigali _by Personé (2007), Mozart´s Messa from Requiem in transcription by Carl Czerny (Discantica, 2011), sacred compositions by Tebaldini (Tactus, 2012), symphonic arrangements of songs by De André with the London Simphony Orchestra (Sony, 2011), Book Seven of Biagio Marini´s madrigals (Tactus 2018). At the invitation of M° Muti he participated in 2018 to concerts on excerpts from Verdi´s Macbeth for the Ravenna Festival and for a benefit performance on live national TV to Norcia and - again with Muti conducting - in the 2019 edition of Le Vie dell´Amicizia to Ravenna and Athens on the notes of Beethoven´s Ninth Symphony.