A mandolin is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled metal strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 strings, although five and six course versions also exist. The courses are typically tuned in an interval of perfect fifths, with the same tuning as a violin. Also, like the violin, it is the soprano member of a family that includes the mandola, octave mandolin, mandocello and mandobass.
I Solisti Veneti is an Italian chamber orchestra founded in Padua in 1959 by Claudio Scimone.
Ofra Harnoy is an Israeli-Canadian cellist. She is a Member of the Order of Canada. By joining the international artists roster of RCA Victor Red Seal, Harnoy became the first Canadian classical instrumental soloist since Glenn Gould to gain an exclusive worldwide contract with a major record label. She is a five-time Juno Award winner.
The Mandolin Concerto in C major, RV 425, was written by the Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi in 1725 and is often accompanied by The Four Seasons (1725). The music consists of virtuosic treatment of the solo instrument, the mandolin, and the interplay between the soloist and accompaniment of the orchestra. The demands are considered higher than other concerti by Vivaldi, and the work is one of the most famous mandolin pieces. This concerto has been transcribed for guitar.
Carlo Cecere was an Italian composer of operas, concertos and instrumental duets including, for example, some mandolin duets and a concerto for mandolin. Cecere worked in the transitional period between the Baroque and Classical eras.
Mauro Maur, the Pavarotti of the trumpet, OMRI is an Italian trumpeter and composer who represents the Italian musician with a pure and unique style. After performing as a soloist at the Carnegie Hall at the age of 20 and traveling around the world playing in the largest concert halls for decades, he contributes with his art as a trumpet virtuoso to the knowledge of the Italian musical tradition to the highest level in the world alongside musicians such as Placido Domingo, Uto Ughi, Riccardo Muti, Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, Pierre Boulez, but also Tony Scott, Oscar Valdambrini, Nini Rosso, Paquito D'Rivera, Gloria Gaynor.
Giuseppe Pettine was an Italian-American concert mandolinist, teacher, and composer.
Carlo Munier (1858–1911) was an Italian musician who advocated for the mandolin's acknowledgement among as an instrument of classical music and focused on "raising and ennobling the mandolin and plectrum instruments". He wanted "great masters" to consider the instrument and raise it above the level of "dilettantes and street players" where it had been stuck for centuries. He expected that the mandolin and guitar would be taught in serious orchestral music schools and incorporated into the orchestra. A composer of more than 350 works for the mandolin, he led the mandolin orchestra Reale circolo mandolinisti Regina Margherita named for its patron Margherita of Savoy and gave the queen instruction on the mandolin. As a teacher, he wrote Scuola del mandolino: metodo completo per mandolino, published in 1895.
Guido Rimonda is an Italian violinist and conductor.
Salvatore Di Vittorio is an Italian composer and conductor. He is music director and Conductor of the Chamber Orchestra of New York. He has been recognized by Luigi Verdi as a "lyrical musical spirit, respectful of the ancient Italian tradition… an emerging leading interpreter of the music of Ottorino Respighi".
Dorina Frati is an Italian classical mandolin player. She performs regularly with European orchestras such as The Philharmonic of La Scala, the National Academy of Santa Cecilia, the National Orchestra of RAI, the Chamber Orchestra of Mantua and the Philharmonic of Rome. She completed her studies with Giuseppe Anedda, graduating from the Pollini Conservatory of Padua, Italy.
Claudio Brizi is an Italian organist and harpsichordist.
The International Composition Competition "2 Agosto" is a major composition competition in Italy. It was established in 1994 at the behest of the Association of the families of the victims of the massacre at Bologna Station on August 2, 1980.
La tempesta di mare, a flute concerto in F major, is the first of Six Flute Concertos, Op. 10 by Antonio Vivaldi, published in the late 1720s. La tempesta di mare may also refer to two earlier versions of the same concerto, RV 98, a concerto da camera featuring the flute, from which Vivaldi derived the concerto grosso RV 570.
Giuseppe Anneda was an Italian mandolin virtuoso who helped the mandolin gain more importance in the classical music world in the 20th Century. He performed with his instrument in concert halls around the world, including some where mandolin "had never entered", and taught at the Conservatory Pollini of Padua He also was able to gain access to manuscripts in museums, rediscovering works by Vivaldi, Pergolesi, Beethoven and many others.
Giovanni Vailati was an Italian mandolinist who reached the virtuosic-level of playing ability and was able to travel and perform throughout Europe. Entirely self taught on his instrument, he was described by Philip J. Bone as a "natural genius on his instrument, who by his remarkable performances, became known throughout his native land as 'Vailati the blind, the Paganini of the mandolin.'" He is important as one of the first generations of quality performers to use mandolin. He was one of a small number of mandolinists of the 19th century to play the mandolin in the concert halls of Europe after the Napoleonic War, who played with excellence in spite of indifference and diffidence toward their chosen instrument. Pietro Vimercati was another, whose concerts predated Vailati's by about 30 years. Also performing in Europe in the years following 1815 was Luigi Castellacci.
Alon Sariel is an Israeli mandolinist, lutenist and conductor.
Vincent Beer-Demander, born in Paris in 1982, is a French mandolinist and composer. He participates in lessons of several music schools and numerous musical events, in France and abroad, in particular of the Mandol'in Ariège festival of which he was one of the main creators and organizers. He also composes works, published by several music publishers.
Giovanni Battista Gervasio was an Italian musician and composer. Born in Naples he was one of the first generation of virtuoso-mandolinists who left Italy and played the mandolin in Europe in the 18th century. He was a composer for the mandolin and his works can be found scattered in 18th century collections such as the Gimo music collection and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. He also wrote a mandolin method Methode facile pour apprendre a quatre cordes, instrument pour les dames, published in Paris in 1767. He performed in London 1768 and in Frankfurt-on-the-Main on December 10, 1777, and the Concert Spirituel in Paris on December 24, 1784. He advertised in 1785 that he was master of singing and mandolin to Her Royal Highess, the Princess of Prussia. A work of music addressed to her exists today in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
