LA DOLCE VITA

He is one of the most acclaimed conductors and composers whose musical versatility spans the operatic and symphonic worlds. For five years Music Director of the Spoleto Festival and permanent director of the Opera Company in Philadelphia, Mercurio has collaborated to many recording projects, arrangements and films. In the theater, he has conducted more than forty-five operas in six different languages, and has appeared on the podium of prestigious theaters including theOpera in Rome, the Bellini in Catania, the Verdi in Trieste, the Monnaie in Brussels, theOpera in Bonn, the Massimo in Palermo, the English National Opera, San Francisco, Washington, Philadelphia, Seattle, Detroit, Opera Pacific, Florida Grand, Pittsburgh, Dallas and Cincinnati. Mercurio has performed in the symphonic repertoire with the London Philharmonia, London Philharmonic, London Sinfonietta, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Luxembourg, Prague Philharmonia, Sydney, Pittsburg, New Jersey, Sacramento and San Diego Symphony Orchestras. He has also conducted operas and symphonic pieces for several TV broadcasts, including the series "Christmas to Vienna" with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra for Sony Classical, featuring the "Three Tenors" in 1999, and the TV show "American Dream - Andrea Bocelli Concert at the Statue of Liberty" on public broadcaster PBS with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. He conducted at the 20th Anniversary Opera Gala of the Richard Tucker Foundation with the Orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera and at the live telecast on RAI networks of "La Bohème" in Cagliari, with Andrea Bocelli in the role of Rodolfo. Also famous are his performances at the Spoleto Festival of Berlioz's "Requiem," Scriabin's "Prometheus" and Mahler's "Second Symphony," and an evening devoted to the music of Chick Corea and Mozart with the Santa Cecilia Youth Orchestra. Recent recordings include "Il Trovatore," "Pagliacci" and "Cavalleria Rusticana" for Decca Records, and "Manon Lescaut" with Seville's Teatro de la Maestranza. Solo album recordings include "Verdi Arias" with soprano Daniela Dessì, "Romanze e Canzoni," and a tribute to Beniamino Gigli with tenor Fabio Armiliato. His collaboration with SONY Classics has produced a large number of recordings among which are from noteworthy "Christmas in Vienna" with Carreras, Domingo and Pavarotti, on CD and video, and "Many voices," an album of songs composed from Mercurio. Mercurio has also recorded Richard Einhorn's cantata "Voices of Light," Leo Brouwer's "Toronto Concerto" with guitarist John Williams, "Storyteller," which includes compositions by Wynton Marsalis, Patrick Doyle and Edgar Meyer, three violin concertos with composer-violinist Mark O'Connor, and a CD with Grammy-winning Chick Corea. Mercurio directed the U.S. premiere of Zemlinsky's "Der Zwerg" for the Spoleto Festival to Charleston and the Italian premiere for the Teatro dell'Opera in Rome; for the Spoleto Festival in Italy, he staged Menotti'sopera "Goya" (recorded for the Nuova Era label), Puccini's "Il Trittico," Berg's "Wozzeck," Korngold's "Die Tote Stadt," Shostakovich's "The Nose" and "Symphony No. 1" by John Corigliano. to Turin conducted "to Streetcar Named Desire" by Andre Previn, to Palermo and Rome the Italian premiere of Kurt Weill's "Lady in the Dark," at the Bonn Staatsoper a new production of "La Traviata," at the English National Opera in London "La Bohème" and to San Francisco "Les Contes d'Hoffman." Among his orchestral pieces are "For Lost Loved Ones," the premiere of which was conducted from Zubin Mehta with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, and "Mercurial Overture," performed by the Oslo Philharmonic in a televised concert, from he conducted, in honor of the Nobel Prize winners. Mercurio is active in creating arrangements for a large number of internationally renowned artists, including Andrea Bocelli, Placido Domingo, Fabio Armiliato, Carl Tanner, Ben Heppner, Bryn Terfel, Marcello Giordani, Secret Garden and Sting.

The Arturo Toscanini Philharmonic, based at the Paganini Auditorium in Parma designed from Renzo Piano, is from many years the point of excellence in the productive activity of the Arturo Toscanini Foundation, matured on an artistic level in the more than 30-year experience of the Regional Orchestra of Emilia Romagna and in the ancient musical tradition that has its historical roots in the reorganized Ducal Orchestra to Parma from Niccolò Paganini in 1835/36 and for the next forty years at the top of national performing capacities. Now one of Italy's leading symphony orchestras, the Philharmonic has performed under such conductors as Charles Dutoit, Eliahu Inbal, Lawrence Foster, Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Michail Jurowski, Dmitrij Kitajenko, Emmanuel Krivine, Yoel Levi, Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, Zubin Mehta, Krzysztof Penderecki, Michel Plasson, Georges Prêtre, Mstislav Rostropovich, Pinchas Steinberg, Jeffrey Tate, and Yuri Temirkanov. Enthusiastic acclaim from audiences and critics has greeted debuts and returns in major halls from concerts around the world in cities such as Washington, New York, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Hamburg, Moscow, Lucerne, Budapest, Bucharest, Warsaw, Warsaw, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Osaka, Beijing, Shanghai, Canton. In Italy, unique to all, the concert on Jan. 16, 2008, which saw the orchestra make its debut at La Scala Theater to a triumphant audience, to closing the National Celebrations for the 50th anniversary of Arturo Toscanini's death, remains in the memory. Among the many soloists whose collaboration the Arturo Toscanini Philharmonic boasts should be mentioned: Maxim Vengerov, Sergej Krylov, Vladimir Spivakov, Uto Ughi, Salvatore Accardo, Shlomo Mintz, Stanislav Bunin, Misha Maisky, Steven Isserlis, Natalia Gutman, Mario Brunello, Mariella Devia, Placido Domingo, Anna Caterina Antonacci, Mike Patton, Lucio Dalla, Juan Diego Flórez, Sonia Ganassi, Sharon Isbin, Andrea Lucchesini, Ivo Pogorelich, Jean- Yves Thibaudet, Rudolf Buchbinder and Uri Caine. The constant innovation of musical strategies, coupled with the rigor of the artistic approach, has prompted the recent expansion of the repertoire, extended from the cornerstones of the 19th century toward the frontiers of the 20th, to the outposts of the present. to this step corresponded to the invitation extended to a new roster of conductors, all belonging to the young generation but already fully established to international level. Thus, from 2006 to the present, the names of Kazushi Ono, who has been its Principal Guest Conductor since January 1, 2012, Vladimir Jurowski, Carlo Rizzi, Tugan Sokhiev, have taken turns with vibrant success on the podium of the Arturo Toscanini Philharmonic, Juraj Valčuha, Tomas Netopil, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Michele Mariotti, Lawrence Renes, Wayne Marshall, Tan Dun, Asher Fisch, Stéphane Dèneve, Pietari Inkinen, Christian Arming, Roberto Abbado, John Axelrod, and James Conlon. Since 2014 Francesco Lanzillotta has been appointed Principal Conductor. In 2012, after a successful tour in China, it performed in Switzerland, at the Lugano Festival; in Germany, at the BASF Festival in Ludwigshafen; in 2013 at the Bad Kissinger Sommer Festival; and on July 26, 2015, it will be a guest of the prestigious Ossiach-Villach Festival. As part of the musical proposal aimed at the city of Parma, which culminates with the concert season Nuove Atmosfere, now in its ninth edition, the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini has been an Artistic Partner of the Festival Verdi since 2012. Principal Partner of the Arturo Toscanini Foundation is Heracomm and Institutional Partner of the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini is Cepim Spa.