Summer Cello Masterclass - Ochsenhausen 2024
Associazione Culturale Polifonie organizes a Summer Cello Masterclass, held by Matias de Oliveira Pinto, Stefano Cerrato and Umberto Pedraglio in Ochsenhausen from 21 to 28 July 2024, in the Landesakademie für die musizierende Jugend in Baden-Württemberg, one of the most important national music youth academies in Germany. The Masterclass is addressed to young cellists from 11 to 30 years of age and will be held in an ancient benedictine monastery from IX century. The best students will perform in the final concert.
The International Cello Masterclass held by Stefano Cerrato and Matias de Oliveira Pinto is mainly addressed to university students who would like to further and refine their cello playing (max 9 students).
The Cello Masterclass held by Umberto Pedraglio is intended for students from music middle and high schools and Italian conservatories and it will be structured as a summer camp (max 15 students).
The best student of the Masterclass will receive a scholarship worth 300 euros.
Application deadline: May 15th 2024
Info: click here.
Yuheng Chen wins the "Appassionato Ensemble" International Composition Competition
Yuheng Chen (China) wins the 7th edition of the International Composition Competition "Appassionato Ensemble" 2023.
The jury made up of Vittorio Zago (President, Italy), Mehdi Khayami (Iran) and Umberto Pedraglio (Italy) unanimously awarded the score "Planetarium Beta" for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano.
Our congratulations go to the composer Chen and to all the finalists, who were able to listen to their scores performed by the ensemble during the final concert, held at theCentro Cardinal Ferrari in Como.
A big thank you to all the partners and to the public who participated with great interest and attention to the event.
Como Contemporary Festival 2023
The Como Contemporary Festival is back. The 4th edition, 2023, is starting in November
COMO CONTEMPORARY FESTIVAL
International Festival of Contemporary Music and Other Arts
November 4-26, 2023
4th Edition
The Como Contemporary Festival is returning in the month of November. Born in 2019 in the crucible of ideas of the Polifonie Cultural Association, a series of meetings and concerts dedicated to New Music, a vital and thriving form of art that is too often absent from the programs of theaters and concert halls. Among the great names that will be in Como for the 2023 Contemporary Festival is Jean-Pierre Leguay, the organist of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris for forty years.
The Como Contemporary Festival, now in its fourth edition, is the International Festival of Contemporary Music and Other Arts, promoted and organized by the Polifonie Cultural Association. A dense program of events will unfold from November 4 to 26, 2023, in various venues in the city of Como and Cernobbio. CO.CO.Fe represents a unique moment in the cultural landscape of Como, where contemporary music intertwines and blends with other arts, from poetry to theater, from dance to fiber art, offering compositions created for the occasion and performed for the first time in the world. A meeting point for young artists and established masters, between an audience eager for new listening experiences and authors of unpublished scores, the Festival is closely linked to other activities of the Polifonie Cultural Association: the International Composition Competition "Appassionato Ensemble," aimed at promoting the writing and publication of new works, and the masterclasses where talented students can benefit from the lessons of some of the greatest active musicians.
The Como Contemporary Festival will open its doors on Saturday, November 4, with an extraordinary guest, Jean-Pierre Leguay, the choir master of Notre-Dame in Paris for nearly half a century. Leguay will present a program of music composed entirely by himself at 8:30 PM, highlighting the qualities of the Grand Organ of Como Cathedral (admission by voluntary donation). The evening concert will be preceded by an afternoon meeting at 4:00 PM at the Hotel Barchetta Excelsior, where the French artist will engage in a dialogue with Umberto Pedraglio and Victoria Saldarini, revealing the secrets of contemporary organ composition. Admission to this event is free.
On Saturday, November 11, at 6:30 PM, the Final Concert and Award Ceremony of the 7th International Composition Competition "Appassionato Ensemble" 2023 will be held at the Centro Cardinal Ferrari. The Appassionato Ensemble will present the finalist scores. Among the guests and judges of the competition, in addition to Vittorio Zago, Director of the Como Conservatory, the Iranian composer Mehdi Khayami will return to the city. Young participants from around the world compete in this annual event. Admission: 10 euros, available in advance at www.polifonie.it.
The third event is a musical theater performance by Ljuba Bergamelli (voice) and Simone Magnani (dance) on November 12 at 6:30 PM at Villa Olmo. "Una voce" is the evocative title of a program that combines historical names such as Luciano Berio, Cathy Berberian, and John Cage with others like the Greek Georges Aperghis and young Italians Pasquale Corrado and Vittorio Montalti, an interesting author of chamber music theater. Admission: 10 euros, available in advance at www.polifonie.it.
On Thursday, November 16, at 6:30 PM, CO.CO.Fe moves to Villa Bernasconi in Cernobbio to present the excellence of Polifonie International Music Masterclass. On this occasion, the young winner of the masterclass concert award, led by the Russian violinist and educator Pavel Berman, a teacher at the Conservatory of the Italian-speaking Switzerland in Lugano, will be announced. Admission is free.
Don't miss the event on Saturday, November 18, in collaboration with the Syntax Ensemble, one of Italy's leading groups for the interpretation of New Music. Alfonso Alberti (piano) and Maurilio Cacciatore (live electronics) will perform a monographic concert at 6:30 PM at the Pontificio Collegio Gallio featuring music by Ivan Fedele, a first Italian performance. Admission: 10 euros, available in advance at www.polifonie.it.
The last weekend of CO.CO.Fe begins on Saturday, November 25, at Villa Olmo at 6:30 PM with "E anche a me piace stare in mezzo al buio," a dialogue between the voice of actress Jasmine Monti, with texts by Alessandro Quattrone, and the silk cello of Umberto Pedraglio, who plays the dual role of interpreter and composer of the music. The two artists will be coordinated by actor-director Stefano Annoni. Admission: 10 euros, available in advance at www.polifonie.it.
The final event of the Festival, on Sunday, November 26, at the Pontificio Collegio Gallio, revolves around the figure of Helmut Lachenmann, an octogenarian German composer and one of the legends of our time. Lachenmann was a student of Luigi Nono and Karlheinz Stockhausen and a mentor to generations of new composers. His name is associated with the concept of concrete music. In 2008, when he was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale, they said of him: "Lachenmann has had a great influence on composers for at least two generations. His radical and utopian conception of a sound stripped of semantic weight, reaching a mineral state, has marked the extreme consequences of structuralist musical avant-garde but at the same time opened a new sound world, revealing a new idea of language."
At 6:30 PM, MDI ensemble, an excellence in the Italian chamber music scene, will perform Helmut Lachenmann's music in the concert "See the sound." The concert lineup will include Paolo Casiraghi (clarinet), Luca Ieracitano (piano), and Giorgio Casati (cello). Admission: 10 euros, available in advance at www.polifonie.it.
Ticket Information
Where indicated, admission tickets for events cost 10 euros and are available in advance at www.polifonie.it. Other events are free of charge. A subscription (50 euros) guarantees a reserved seat at all scheduled concerts, including those that are not ticketed. The Como Contemporary Festival is realized with the support of the Lombardy Region and with contributions from the City of Como, the City of Cernobbio, Villa d'Este, and BCC Cantù.
For more information:
info@polifonie.it – www.polifonie.it
Press Office:
Chiara Lupano
ELLECISTUDIO
Tel. 335.7835403
chiara.lupano@ellecistudio.it
Finalists announced at the VII International Composition Competition “Appassionato Ensemble” 2023
Today, October 1, 2023, the members of the jury, Mehdi Khayami (Iran) and Umberto Pedraglio (Italy), chaired by Vittorio Zago (Italy) selected the finalist scores of the 7th International Composition Competition “Appassionato Ensemble” 2023.
We received 90 scores from all over the world.
Below is the list of the selected finalist scores:
- “Elonei mamre” for cello, by Michael Edgerton (USA);
- “Durchs offne Fenster” for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano, by Francesco Mariotti (Italy);
- “There’s a Certain Slant of Light, Winter Afternoons” for violin, by Tetsuya Hori (Giappone);
- “Until the sound is lost in the distance” for flute, by Jacopo Caneva (Italy);
- “Planetarium Beta” for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano, by Yuheng Chen (Cina).
The five finalist scores will be performed on 11 November 2022 during Como Contemporary Festival 2023. At the end of the concert, the Jury will meet to determine the winning score. The awards ceremony will take place immediately after the concert.
Polifonie International Music Masterclass – Violin edition (Pavel Berman)
ITA
https://www.polifonie.it/polifonie-international-music-masterclass/
ENG
https://www.polifonie.it/en/polifonie-international-music-masterclass/
NEWS – VII CONCORSO INTERNAZIONALE DI COMPOSIZIONE APPASSIONATO ENSEMBLE 2023
Siamo felici di annunciare che in questa settima edizione del nostro concorso di composizione abbiamo ricevuto 89 partiture provenienti da 29 Paesi di tutto il Mondo. Le partiture verranno selezionate da una giuria internazionale ed eseguite all’interno di Como Contemporary Festival 2023.
Stay tuned!
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We are happy to announce that in this seventh edition of our composition competition we have 89 scores from 29 countries around the world. The scores will be selected by an international jury and performed within the Como Contemporary Festival 2023.
Stay tuned!
Rassegna Giovani Talenti
Nasce a Como una Rassegna dedicata alla musica e alla recitazione, in cui saranno protagonisti dei Giovani Talenti del territorio comasco e limitrofi.
Le serate (ad ingresso libero) prevedono la lettura espressiva di testi in versi e in prosa incentrati sui grandi temi della letteratura e l’esecuzione musicale di pagine di grandi autori classici e contemporanei.
Protagonista di questa edizione sarà la giovane attrice Vera Clemente, che interpreterà pagine di autori dell’800 e del ‘900 di diverse parti del mondo, insieme alla quale si esibiranno giovani promesse della musica: Andrea Stringhetti e Victoria Saldarini al violoncello; Henrike Blikslager, Mariasole Geminiani e Lia Paz Garrido al violino.
Vera Clemente ha seguito corsi di recitazione sia teatrale che cinematografica, integrandoli con seminari tenuti da importanti maestri. Attualmente frequenta l’Accademia di recitazione cinematografica A09 a Milano.
SCHEDULE
VENERDI 16 GIUGNO
LA PRESENZA, L’ASSENZA
Autori del ‘900 di diverse parti del mondo
Lettura espressiva di testi in versi e in prosa incentrati sui grandi temi della letteratura (la felicità, il ricordo, l’incontro, il dolore, la solitudine, la bellezza, la morte ecc.)
VENERDI 23 GIUGNO
AMORE, AMORE
Autori del ‘900 di diverse parti del mondo
Lettura espressiva di poesie d’amore
VENERDI 15 SETTEMBRE
IL PICCOLO, IL GRANDE
Autori del ‘900 di diverse parti del mondo
Lettura espressiva di testi in versi e in prosa. Piccole vite, grandi sogni. Piccole cose, grandi significati.
VENERDI 22 SETTEMBRE
L’OSCURITÀ, LA LUCE
Autori americani dell’Ottocento e del Novecento
Lettura espressiva di poesie sui grandi temi della vita.
