Biography - Tafelmusik
Transcript
Biography - Tafelmusik
BIOGRAPHY ELISA CITTERIO, MUSIC DIRECTOR DESIGNATE The “superb” Italian violinist Elisa Citterio (The Guardian) is renowned for her stunning virtuoso performances on baroque violin and her innovative approach to period performance. In January 2017, she was appointed Music Director of Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir, “one of the world’s top baroque orchestras” (Gramophone). Citterio divides her artistic life between orchestral work, including her former role as concertmaster and soloist with the orchestra of the Accademia del Teatro alla Scala di Milano, and an intense schedule as a chamber musician. She has recorded and toured, often as leader or concertmaster, with such ensembles as Dolce & Tempesta, Europa Galante, Accademia Bizantina, Accordone, Zefiro, la Venexiana, La Risonanza, Ensemble 415, Concerto Italiano, Orquestra del Monsalvat, Il Giardino Armonico, and Orchestra Academia 1750. Since 2004 she has been a member of the Orchestra del Teatro della Scala di Milano. Citterio was born in Brescia, Italy, and grew up in a musical family: her mother and brother are composers and her two sisters are professional musicians. Elisa began playing piano and violin as a pre-schooler, and as a teenager played baroque sonatas with her mother and sister. At sixteen she began formal studies in violin and viola at the L. Marenzio Conservatory in Brescia under full scholarship for five consecutive years. During her time at the Conservatory, she won many prizes in national competitions and graduated with the highest honours. She continued her postgraduate studies with Franco Gulli, Corrado Romano, Dora Schwarzberg, Matis Vaitsner, Ilya Grubert, and Dejan Bogdanovich. In 2000, Citterio was selected as concertmaster and soloist with the orchestra of the Accademia del Teatro alla Scala di Milano, where she received intensive professional training in orchestral and chamber music repertoire, as well as violin technique. She made her debut at La Scala in 2000, playing the solo violin part in Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante with La Scala’s principal violist Danilo Rossi, under the direction of Stefano Ranzani. Soon after graduating from the Accademia del Teatro alla Scala di Milano, she began studying baroque violin technique, taking part in master classes with Enrico Onofri and studying with Chiara Banchini at the Schola Chantorum Basilensis, and with Luigi Mangiocavallo in Rome. Between 2000 and 2004, Citterio won numerous prestigious orchestral auditions with such orchestras as I Virtuosi, the orchestra of the Opera of Rome, the orchestra of the Arena of Verona, and the Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Riccardo Muti. Citterio’s discography of more than 35 recordings includes Vivaldi concertos with Accademia I Filarmonici; Bach and Vivaldi concertos with Europa Galante; Handel Fireworks with Zefiro; Storie di Napoli with Accordone; Vivaldi The Four Seasons with Brixia Musicalis; Marini sonatas for solo violin with Opera Prima; Handel arias featuring soprano Sandrine Piau, and Corelli concerti grossi, both with Accademia Bizantina; the Goldberg Project, a recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations transcribed for string quartet; Handel arias featuring Julia Lezhnieva, and Haydn symphonies, both with Il Giardino Armonico; Monteverdi madrigals with La Venexiana; Schuster quartets with Joachim Quartet; C.P.E. Bach trio sonatas with Helianthus Ensemble; Beethoven's Eroica Symphony with Orquestra del Monsalvat, and a number of opera recordings with the Orchestra e Coro del Teatro alla Scala under such conductors as Daniel Barenboim, Riccardo Chailly, Edward Gardner, Daniele Gatti, Daniel Harding, Lorin Maazel, and Riccardo Muti. For the 2014/15 and 2015/16 seasons, together with Stefano Montanari, Citterio co-chaired the baroque violin studies program at the Civica Scuola di Musica Claudio Abbado in Milan.