Salvatore Accardo made his public debut at the age of 13, performing Paganini’s Caprices. Two years later, he won the Geneva Competition, followed by the Paganini Competition in Genoa.

His vast repertoire ranges from Baroque to contemporary music. Works have been dedicated to him by Sciarrino, Donatoni, Piston, Piazzolla, Xenakis and Colasanti.

He has performed with major orchestras and the most prominent conductors worldwide, combining his solo career with conducting. In 1986, he founded advanced courses at the Stauffer Foundation in Cremona with Bruno Giuranna, Rocco Filippini, and Franco Petracchi; in 1992, he formed the Accardo Quartet; and in 1996, he revived the Italian Chamber Orchestra with the best students and alumni of the Stauffer Foundation. He currently teaches at the Stauffer Foundation in Cremona and the Accademia Chigiana in Siena.

He has made countless recordings for various labels. He has received numerous awards and honours. In 1982, he was named Cavaliere di Gran Croce by the President of the Republic, Sandro Pertini — the highest honour of the Italian Republic.

He plays a 1730 Guarneri del Gesù ‘Hart’ violin.

www.salvatoreaccardo.it

Son of the legendary conductor and founder of the Academy of St. Martin the Fields, Sir Neville Marriner, Andrew Marriner held the position of principal clarinet in the London Symphony Orchestra from 1986 to 2019 and of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, a position he held concurrently with his commitment to the LSO until 2008.

Andrew first played with the LSO in 1977 under Sergiu Celibidache and, as guest principal, on the orchestra’s 1983 world tour.  Highlights of Andrew’s career include many performances over the years with his father, Sir Neville Marriner, both as soloist and as a member of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Among his many traversals of the Mozart Clarinet Concerto are particularly memorable performances at the Musikverein in Vienna; at Teatro alla Scala, Milan, with Sir Colin Davis conducting; with Sir Neville conducting at Teatro la Fenice, Venice in 2009; and in concerts with Mstislav Rostropovich and Sir Antonio Pappano conducting.

He is Professor at the Academy and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama; in 1996, he was awarded an Hon RAM. Over the years, Andrew has taught at the Sydney Conservatory, Australian National Academy (Melbourne), Juilliard School, Hong Kong Academy and Accademia de la Musica (Rome).

He is a regular panelist for the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition, serves on the Advisory Committee of the Solti Foundation, and is a Trustee of the Hattori Foundation.

Maestro Claudio Buccarella graduated from Santa Cecilia with top marks and immediately embarked on a brilliant musical career: at just 19 years of age, he became first violin at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, followed by another important position with the RAI Symphony Orchestra in Rome, where he held the role of concertmaster.

He worked with Rai for about 20 years and during the same period he was also part of various chamber music groups such as the ‘Quintetto Boccherini’ (with which he won ‘Le grand prix du disque de Paris’), the ‘Contrast Trio’, and Nuova Consonanza, demonstrating an innate versatility for all styles and moving from groups dedicated solely to classical music to others that contributed to the spread of contemporary music.

In 1978, he was invited to join the Musici, with whom he played for 34 years and performed in the world’s most famous theaters, from the Berlin Philharmonic to Carnegie Hall in New York, from Japan and Korea to South America, Australia, and New Zealand, not to mention various European countries.

His teaching work was also very important, passing on to students at the conservatories of Frosinone, Pescara, and Latina both his passion for music and the experience he had gained over many years of high-level activity.

Maurizio Cocciolito is a prominent and multifaceted figure on the Italian and international music scene, actively engaged as a pianist, composer, and conductor.

He currently holds the position of Chair of Score Reading at the prestigious Santa Cecilia State Conservatory of Music in Rome.

His solid musical training was developed under the guidance of maestros such as Vincenzo Di Sabatino, Paolo Renosto, Mario Gusella, and Carlo Zecchi, graduating in Piano, Composition, Orchestral Conducting, Wind Orchestra Instrumentation, Choral Music, and Choir Conducting.

His early passion for conducting led him, at the age of 21, to take on positions as Assistant Conductor and Substitute Conductor in important Italian theaters, collaborating with internationally renowned artists such as Piero Bellugi, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Renato Bruson, Katia Ricciarelli, Mariella Devia, and Mirella Freni.

At just 22 years of age, he took on the role of Permanent Conductor of the Benedetto Marcello Chamber Orchestra, of which he was also one of the founders.

Since 2013, he has been the Artistic Director of the Solisti Aquilani.
In 2022, he took on the role of President and Artistic Director of the Camerata Musicale Barese.
Since 2024, he has been a member of the artistic and cultural direction of CIDIM.

Jan Willem de Vriend is principal guest conductor of the Orchestre National de Lille and Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra. He makes regular guest appearances with such ensembles as the Belgian National, Bergen Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, HR-Sinfonieorchester, Melbourne Symphony, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Lyon, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Warsaw Philharmonic and Yomiuri Nippon Symphony.

From 2015 to 2019 Jan Willem de Vriend was Principal Conductor of the Residentie Orkest Den Haag and from 2006 to 2017 he was Chief Conductor of Phion, Orkest van Gelderland & Overijssel. He was also Principal Guest Conductor of the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya from 2015 to 2021 and Principal Guest Conductor of the Brabant Orchestra (now South Netherlands Philharmonic) from 2008 to 2015.

De Vriend and the Netherland Symphony Orchestra went on to record a substantial Beethoven catalogue for Challenge Classics, embracing the complete symphonies and concertos (with Hannes Minnaar and Liza Ferschtman among the soloists).

Classic FM praised the interpretation of Symphony No 7 for “a bounding flair that does real justice to the composer’s capacity for joy”. Further landmarks in the Challenge Classics catalogue are the complete Mendelssohn symphonies, again with the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra, and the complete symphonies of Schubert, recorded with the Residentie Orkest, also de Vriend’s orchestra for a Decca recording of Mendelssohn’s complete works for piano and orchestra.

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Claudio Scimone’s favorite student and spiritual and aesthetic heir, Giuliano Carella was unanimously elected Artistic and Musical Director of I Solisti Veneti in 2018.

Music director of the Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago (1986-1991), principal guest conductor of the Fondazione Arena di Verona (1998-2002), music director of the Opéra de Toulon (2002-2016), he has also been guest conductor at the Vienna State Opera, Deutsche Oper and Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, Frankfurt Opera, Staatsoper in Stuttgart, Semperoper in Dresden, Staatsoper in Hamburg, Opéra Comique in Paris, Opéra in Marseille, Opéra National du Rhin in Strasbourg, Opéra in Monte Carlo, Opéra in Geneva, Nederlandse Oper in Amsterdam, Teatro de la Monnaie in Brussels, Teatro Real in Madrid, Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, Michigan Opera in Detroit, Dallas Opera, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires.

In Italy, he has conducted at the Arena di Verona, La Fenice in Venice, Teatro Comunale in Bologna, Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Carlo Felice in Genoa, Teatro Regio in Parma, Teatro Verdi in Trieste, Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, Teatro Lirico in Cagliari, Teatro Bellini in Catania.

In addition to opera, he has conducted some of the most prestigious symphony orchestras in the world, including the RAI Symphony Orchestra of Turin, the Philharmonia Orchestra of London, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, the Staatskapelle Berlin, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra,  Saint Petersburg Philharmonic, Russian National Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra.

He has collaborated with many orchestras in Italy and abroad as conductor, first violin, and director, including the Pomeriggi Musicali orchestra in Milan, Istituzione Sinfonica Abruzzese, Lugano Orchestra, Sinfonietta del Teatro Lirico in Cagliari, Orchestra del Teatro Lirico in Cagliari, Accademia I Filarmonici, I Virtuosi Italiani.

He has been invited by the most important theaters and leading Italian and foreign musical institutions: Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Teatro La Fenice, Teatro Regio di Parma.

He is regularly invited to the most important festivals in Italy, France, Germany, Spain, England, the United States, Japan, Russia, China, and Korea.

After winning numerous international competitions, since 1986 he has collaborated regularly as first violin with many important orchestras, including the Pomeriggi Musicali in Milan, the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, and the Teatro alla Scala
di Milano, working with the greatest conductors such as Riccardo Muti, Riccardo Chailly, Valery Gergiev, Dmitri Yurovsky, Myun Whun Chung, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Yuri Temirkanov, etc.

His recordings  as a conductor and concertmaster include more than 60 CDs recorded for the most important record labels on the market, such as Deutsche Grammophon, Warner Classics – Erato, Sony, CPO, Chandos, Emi, Naxos, Dynamic, Verany, etc., and over 400,000 records sold worldwide.

He made his debut at the age of thirteen performing Arcangelo Corelli’s sonatas in Alberto Basso’s Rai television drama Per Antonio Vivaldi, in which he played the part of Vivaldi as a child. 

In 1992, he founded the Camerata Ducale and in 1998, in close collaboration with the city of Vercelli, he founded the Viotti Festival, of which he is the musical director.

Alongside the concert season, he performs in the most important concert halls in Italy and abroad and has given over a thousand concerts as a violin soloist and conductor.

He was assistant to Giuliano Carmignola and Franco Gulli at the Scuola di Alto Perfezionamento Musicale in Saluzzo and he teaches violin at the Conservatory of Novara.

He was named Cavaliere della Repubblica Italiana for artistic merit in 2012.

He has also been very active in recording, with over 30 CDs to his credit for Chandos, EMI, and Decca Universal. In 2012, he signed an exclusive contract with Decca for the Viotti Project: the production of 15 CDs containing the complete compositions for violin and orchestra, with numerous unpublished works and world premiere recordings. 

Recently, Guido Rimonda’s version of Schindler’s List was chosen and included in Deutsche Grammophon’s new Platinum Collection box set, which contains 55 famous film soundtracks performed by the world’s greatest performers and orchestras.

He plays the 1721 Stradivarius “Jean Marie Leclair” (Le Noir), described by G. B. Somis as “the voice of an angel.”