ORCHESTRA FONDAZIONE TEATRO CARLO FELICE

conductor Alvise Casellati

violin soloist Laura Bortolotto

music program 

R. Schumann Manfred Ouverture

P.I. Tchaikovsky Concert for violin and orchestra in D major, op. 35

The Teatro Carlo Felice has had an orchestra for its productions since the early 1900s. This orchestra was once seasonal. The musicians were hired for one or more shows or for the duration of the opera and symphonic season. Only in the 60s this reality evolved into a stable complex.

Meanwhile, the Teatro Carlo Felice had been hit by bombing in World War II and the problem of reconstruction had not yet been effectively dealt with. In the half-destroyed theater and only briefly re-established, from 1943 to the early ’60s, concerts and opera productions were however held, but then moved to the cinema/theater Margherita until the final reconstruction of the Carlo Felice completed in 1991.

In 1965 the Orchestra was given the building and code of stable structure and the musicians were hired permanently through national competitions. The orchestra activities, of the then Ente Autonomo Teatro Comunale dell’Opera di Genov, took place as in our days, on the double ground of opera and symphonic repertoires holding concerts on the premises and decentralizing, as well as abroad.

Many important conductors have been on the podium: in the ’50s and ’60s Victor De Sabata, , Franco Capuana, Igor Strawinsky, Sergiu Celibidache, Hermann Scherchen, John Barbirolli, etc. In more recent times we recall Georges Pretre, Francesco Molinari-Pradelli, Giuseppe Patanè, Gianandrea Gavazzeni, etc. up to our days with names like Daniel Oren (Principal Conductor of the Orchestra in the second half of the ’80s), Gary Bertini, Antonio Pappano, Myung-Whun Chung, Yury Ahronovitch, Bruno Bartoletti, etc.

With a staff of 88 stable elements and a repertoire that ranges from the early eighteenth century to contemporary music, the Orchestra of the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa (now Foundation, since1998) is found at the highest levels of the Italian panorama for productivity and versatility. Numerous chamber groups with various instrumental ensembles were created within and operate profitably with their intense activities, contributing to the spread of music throughout the Regional territory.

Alvise M. Casellati graduated in violin with Guido Furini at the Conservatory of Music "C. Pollini" of Padua, his hometown. He continued his studies with Felice Cusano and Taras Gabora. He also graduated in law at Padua and obtained a Master’s degree at the Columbia University of New York, specializing in copyright. He has played with various orchestras and chamber ensembles in Italy, Belgium and the United States. He approached orchestra conducting with Leopold Hager in Vienna and the Juilliard School of Music in New York, he trained with Piero Bellugi and participated in international courses with Colin Metters, Korchmar and Nicotra and attended to the rehearsals of great Maestros such as Ivan Fisher with the Budapest Festival Orchestra. He is music assistant to Gustav Kuhn at the Neues Festspielhaus Erl and member of the Montegral Academy. Among his various experiences, he conducted the Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra of Moscow, the State Symphony Orchestra of St. Petersburg, Liepaja Symphony Orchestra, the New York Chamber Virtuosi at the Lincoln Center in New York. He made his debut in Italy with the Orchestra and Chorus of the Fenice at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice with the Concert for the 150th anniversary of the Unification of Italy and returned the following year with the Orchestra of the Fenice at the Teatro Malibran of Venice. He also directs the Orchestra of the Musical Afternoons in Milan, the Orchestra of Padua and Veneto, the Orchestra of the Province of Bari, the Sanremo Symphony Orchestra, the Abruzzese Symphony Orchestra, where he is re-invited to conduct as guest conductor. He is President and Founder of the "Venetian Community of New York", Co-Founder of "La Fondazione", a non-profit association for spreading Italian culture in the United States and is involved in various associations for the promotion of Italian culture.

Laura Bortolotto, born in 1995, is among the most promising of the new Italian violin generation.

Graduating in violin at the age of 14 from the Conservatory "G. Tartini" of Trieste with the highest marks, honors and special mention of merit, she began studying violin at the age of four with the school teacher Domenico Mason at the school of the Associazione Altoliventina di Prata of Pordenone. She specialized with the Maestro Pavel Vernikov and followed courses and master classes of the Maestros Fucks, Semchuk, Accardo, Rachlin, Volochine, Martin, Mazor, Pogorelova, Makarova, Montanari and others. Currently she is specializing with the Maestro Marco Rizzi at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst of Mannheim.

In 2011 she won first prize at the International Hindemith Competition in Berlin. In 2010, at only 15, she won the 29th Concorso Nazionale Biennale di Violino of Vittorio Veneto, the most important national Italian violin competition, being the youngest winner of the competition since its foundation (1962).She had already won numerous first prizes and awards in national and international contexts, including "Il Piccolo Violino Magico" in Portogruaro (VE), Concorso internazionale Postacchini of Fermo, Concorso Europeo Marcosig of Gorizia and, in 2010, was among the three winners of the XIV Rassegna Musicale Migliori Diplomati d’Italia of Castrocaro Terme.

Laura Bortolotto has already performed as a soloist with major orchestras, including: Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia of Rome, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Deutsche Kammerorchester Berlin, National Ukrainian Orchestra, Orchestra of Padua and Veneto, Nuova Orchestra Busoni of Trieste, Orchestra dell’Accademia Naonis of Pordenone, Orchestra Giovanile of Valle d’Aosta, Orchestra San Marco of Pordenone, Orchestra Mitteleuropa of Udine. She has given concerts with several pianists, including Leonora Armellini and Massimo Somenzi, with violinist Daniele Pascoletti and the oboist Luca Vignali, and collaborates constantly with pianist Matthew Andri.

She has performed in prestigious halls such as those of the Mozarteum of Salzburg, the Kiev Philharmonic Theatre, the Sale Apollinee of the Teatro la Fenice in Venice, the Teatro Comunale of Florence and the Sala Santa Cecilia of the Auditorium Parco della Musica of Rome. She has given concerts at the Festival del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Festival "Assisi in the world", Festival "Fantasie 2008" and "Il Doppio" 2010 of Portogruaro (VE), Stagione Sinfonica of Valle d’Aosta, Festival Pianistico of Spoleto and in the cities of Cosenza, Padua, Venice, Duino, Trieste, Pordenone, Milan, Aosta, Gressoney, Sirmione, Florence, Vicenza, Sulmona, Rome, Salzburg, Berlin and Kiev.

In 2010 she received the Honor Certificate of Standard Bearer of the Republic "for her fine qualities as young violinist" from the Italian Head of State Giorgio Napolitano.

Laura Bortolotto plays an 1815 Giovanni Battista Ceruti violin, put at her disposal by the Foundation Pro

Canale.