Manolo Da Rold – Management technique

From Belluno, he obtained diplomas in Organ and Organ Composition at the “A. Steffani “of Castelfranco Veneto, and in Sacred Music at the Conservatory” Santa Cecilia “in Rome with full marks and honors, subsequently he attended numerous master classes for organ, choral conducting and composition under the guidance of several teachers. He has performed both as a soloist and in a duo or trio with singers and instrumentalists participating in concerts and national and international organ reviews. He has directed numerous vocal and instrumental groups and since 1998 he has been director of the Corale Zumellese di Mel, a mixed polyphonic choir with to his credit over 800 concerts throughout Europe and overseas at the helm of which he has won first prizes and special prizes from the jury in choral competitions. national and international. He has been director and founder since 1999 of Mel’s small children’s choir “Roberto Goitre” made up of children aged between seven and eleven. He is director of Mel’s youth choir “Roberto Goitre” made up of young people aged between twelve and sixteen with whom he carries out intense concert activities. He was founder and director of the male choir “Melos” Valbelluna, of the Chamber Choir “E. R. Duni of the Matera Conservatory and other vocal groups. He has conducted the world premiere of works by Javier Busto, Ivo Antognini, Piero Caraba, Sandro Filippi, Giorgio Susana, Battista Pradal, Andrea Basevi, Manolo Da Rold and the national premiere of music by Z. Randall Stroope, Ivo Antognini, Erlend Fagertun, Trondt Kverno, Don McDonald. Winner of national and international composition competitions with “Alliance music pubblication” (USA), Ediction ICOT (Japan) Ut Orpheus Edizioni, Sonitus, Edizioni Musicali Europee, ASAC, Feniarco, many works have been included in music collections and specialized magazines . He has collaborated for many years as a composer with the historic choral and educational music magazine “La Cartellina”. He has published numerous musical analysis, interviews and articles in specialized journals. He is a teacher of vocal ensemble music and choral repertoire at the Conservatory of “Girolamo Frescobaldi” in Ferrara. Lecturer at the “Righele” ASAC Veneto Academy and Professor of Contemporary repertoire at the “G. Rossini ”of Sassari. For many years he was a lecturer at Mel’s Residential Course. He is the artistic director of Mel’s “International Choral Singing Review”, of the music festival “I Concerto del Borgo” and of other choral and instrumental musical events. He is a founding member and member of the Board of Directors of ANDCI National Association of Italian Choir Directors, has been for three consecutive terms Artistic Commissioner of the ASAC Veneto, is a member of the Artistic Committee of the Vittorio Veneto National Choral Competition and of the City of Belluno music competition. He has been repeatedly invited as a jury member to national and international choir singing and composition competitions. He deepened the study of theological and liturgical disciplines by studying at the Higher Institute of Religious Sciences of the Venetian regions. He is Organist in the archpriest church of Mel (BL).

Catharina Scharp – Vocality, Diction, Body Awareness

She was born in Stockholm, Sweden, where she began her vocal and musical studies at the age of 9, at the prestigious “Adolf-Fredriks Musikskola” music school, specializing in Choral Singing. At the age of 15 she joined the Oscars Motettkör Choir, under the guidance of the charismatic conductor and composer Torsten Nilson, with whom she participated in numerous national and international events and also won the International Polyphonic Competition “Guido d’Arezzo “In 1980. After a period of study with Prof. Berit Hallqvist, at the Kungliga Musikhögskolan in Stockholm, she moved, thanks to a scholarship from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to Italy where she graduated in singing, with the highest marks, at the Conservatory of Music in Perugia. She attended specialization courses in “German Lied Interpretation”, with Prof. Hildegund Lohmann-Becker (Germany), in “Opera Interpretation”, with Elisabeth Söderström (Sweden), Håkan Hagegård (Sweden), Carmen Gonzalez (Italy) and in “Interpretation of the Modern Contemporary Repertoire” with Rosemary Hardy (England). In March 2007, she obtained the II level Academic Diploma in Singing, maxima cum laude, at the Conservatory of Music in Perugia. Over the years, he has performed many concerts in Italy, Belgium, Austria, Holland and Sweden, specializing in the chamber repertoire and collaborating with festivals and cultural associations such as the Goethe Institut – Institute of Germanic Culture in Bologna, the Italian Cultural Institute in Brussels, Belgium, the Cultural Institute of Amsterdam, Holland, the Zwolle Conservatory, Holland, the Tagliacozzo Festival, the Perugia Symphony Orchestra, The Dance Museum, Stockholm, Sweden, “Music at Karlberg Castle”, Stockholm, Sweden, Amici della Musica, Perugia, “Norrbärke Dalarna Festival”, Sweden, the “Millesgården” art museum Stockholm, Sweden, “Villach Kultur” Villach, Austria, AGIMUS, Perugia and “Festival delle Nazioni”, Città di Castello. In addition, he has participated many times in Italian television broadcasts, on RAI UNO, RAISAT and on CANALE 5. He was the voice of the theme song for the television program “La Domenica Sportiva”, which aired on RAI UNO from 1992 to 1996 and he recorded concerts for the radio network of the Italian Radiotelevision RAI and the Swedish Radio SVT. In 2001 you sang at the concert for Pope John Paul II, in Piazza San Pietro, Rome, with an audience of over 100,000 people, and at the related television program broadcast live on RAI UNO and RAI SAT. You have also recorded the “ABBA’ PATER “disc for Sony Classical and Vatican Radio with the participation of the Holy Father John Paul II (platinum disc in various countries). Since 1999, he has been teaching Lyric and Chamber Singing at the “G.Puccini” Municipal School in Città di Castello (PG). You have held numerous courses and masterclasses in vocal technique and interpretation, both for soloists and for vocal groups and choirs. He takes care of the vocal preparation of the White Voice Choir and the Youth Choir of the “Octava Aurea” Association (of which he is also a founding member), which he carries out in collaboration with the “Brunello and Federica Cucinelli” Foundation. She has been a member of the juries of national and international Singing and Choral Singing Competitions several times.

Petra Grassi – Management technique

Petra Grassi is one of the brightest young European directors, awarded at the most prestigious international competitions. She graduated in piano and music teaching at the Trieste Conservatory, where she also studied composition. She also perfected herself at the Ljubljana Academy of Music in conducting and composition. She graduated with full marks and honors from the two years of choral conducting at the Trento Conservatory. He has won numerous competitions for choir conductors nationally and internationally (Choir award as best conductor at the World Choral Conducting Competition 2019 Hong Kong- China, 1st prize competition for choir conductors Zvok moji rok, 2016- Ljubljana, 3rd prize international competition for choir conductors organized by the European Choral Association, 2016 – Turin, 1st prize competition for choir conductors Le mani in sound, 2015 – Arezzo). You are the guest conductor of the Slovenian Philhrmonic Choir from Ljubljana. With the Vikra choir – vocal group of Glasbena matica and the female choir Kraški slavček – Krasje has only obtained first prizes in national and international choral competitions (Vittorio Veneto, Arezzo national, Malcesine, Corovivo, Sozvočenja- Slo, Bad Ischl- Austria, Olomouc – Blind Rep.). From 2016 to 2020 she was chosen as the first director of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Youth Choir. Since 2017 she has been artistic director of the semi-professional chamber choir DEKOR with which she won the 1st absolute prize at the Slovenian national choir competition Naša pesem in Maribor, also winning the prize for best conductor. As a young conductor you have been invited to join TENSO, the European network of professional choirs and conductors. In this circuit you conducted the Estonian Chamber choir in Belgium and the choir of the Radio and Television of Zagreb-Croatia (2017) as part of the invited masterclasses. You collaborate as choir director with the International Operetta Association. She is a member of the jury in international competitions for choir conductors, she teaches choir conducting in Ljubljana and Nova Gorica for JSKD- Slovenia and collaborates with the Ljubljana Music Academy. In addition, she received the prestigious Zlati znak – golden emblem of the JSKD (National Ministerial Body for Choral Culture) for national and international artistic merits in the field of vocal music. She was invited to hold an atelier for the Europa Cantat junior 2020 edition. Since 2020 she has been co-director of the Italian Youth Choir.

Daniele Sconosciuto – Music Score Reading

Born in Mesagne (BR) in 1983, he has been living in Bologna since 2002. Graduated in Piano at the Istituto Musicale Pareggiato “G. Verdi” in Ravenna (2007), graduated in DAMS-Music at the University of Bologna (2009) with a thesis in Music Pedagogy (The music laboratory as a teaching strategy for deutero-learning), qualified in piano teaching at the Conservatory “G. Frescobaldi” of Ferrara (2010), graduated in Music Disciplines at the University of Bologna (2012) with a thesis in Musical Paleography (The Antiphonary-Gradual of the Private Library “Alfredo Calabrese” – Campi Salentina – LE). He graduated in 2020 from the “G. Verdi” Conservatory of Music in Milan, where he studied with conductors Vittorio Parisi (conducting) and Marco Munari (score reading, Maestro Collaborator at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan). He attended conducting master classes and workshops in Italy and Europe to deepen the symphonic and opera repertoire. He has been didactic coordinator and member of the Board of Directors of the Association “Le Muse e il Tempo – Centro di formazione ricerca e didattica della musica” (2006-2012, Bologna) and has been consultant as assistant archivist for the reorganization and cataloguing of the Orchestra Mozart’s musical materials (2013-2014, Bologna) under the artistic direction of Claudio Abbado. He has an intense concert activity as pianist in chamber music ensembles, as collaborating maestro in opera choirs and as choir and orchestra conductor. He is a piano teacher at I.C. Granarolo dell’Emilia, organist in the parish of Santi Bartolomeo e Gaetano in Bologna and choir conductor of the Centro Culturale “L’Arengo” in Bologna. He is a member of the Board of Directors and Provincial Delegate of AERCO for the province of Bologna (Associazione Emiliano Romagnola COri).

Giorgio Susana – Choral Composition and Arrangement

Graduated in Piano, Conducting, Choral and Didactic Composition, he carries out an intense concert activity in Italy, France, Slovenia, Croatia, Austria, Germany, Argentina, Taiwan and Japan, in prestigious concert halls and festivals. He is a pianist of some chamber ensembles and accompanist of opera and pop / jazz singers. He has always supported teaching activities and the growth of young people through singing and music. He is the founder and current director of the OrcheStraForte youth orchestra, the SingOverSound youth choir and other youth choirs and orchestras. He is also the director of the Corocastel male choir with which he carries out an intense and profitable concert activity and with which he has won numerous competitions and prizes. He has composed choral music, chamber music, sacred oratories, musicals, songs. His compositions and his arrangements as well as in Italy are regularly performed in various countries of the world by prestigious choirs directed by renowned masters. He has received awards in numerous national and international competitions as a composer and conductor and prestigious career awards for him. It is published by Alliance Music Publications (Houston, U.S.A.), PanaMusica (Tokyo, Japan), Sonitus Music Editions, Feniarco, Asac Veneto and Usci F.V.G. G. Susana is the Regional Art Commissioner of A.S.A.C. Veneto, of the National Choral Competition of the City of Vittorio Veneto, of the Assoc. National Choir Directors (A.N.D.C.I).

Luca Buzzavi – Introduction to the Gregorian Chant

Luca Buzzavi obtained with full marks the second level degree in Prepolyphony at the G. Verdi Conservatory of Turin under the guidance of Prof. Fulvio Rampi, the first level diploma in Choir Direction and Choral Composition (with honors and mention of honor) at the L. Campiani Conservatory of Mantua, the master in Physics (with honors) at the University of Bologna, the 1st level University Masters in Teaching and Psychopedagogy for DSA and SEN and in Strategies and good practices in the classes multicultural (both with honors). He studied Classical Guitar and attended numerous masterclasses on choral conducting (in particular at the Guido d’Arezzo Foundation with Donati, Marzola, Marzilli, Pavese, Berrini, Graden, Corti, Busto, Rasmussen, Lah, Broadbent, and in other intensive courses with Phillips, Krawczynski, Leech), Orchestra Conducting (Nicotra, De Palma) and on Musical Didactics and Pedagogy (Leo, Astulez, Visioli, Piccardi, Oetterli, Paduano).He teaches classical guitar, ear training and choral singing at the Andreoli Foundation of the municipalities of the Northern Area of Modena, where he prepares the choral singing class consisting of the Aurora Children and Youth Choir. For the same Foundation he is an external expert in the Primary School for projects related to Musical Preparation and the School Choir and a member of the Disability Project team.He is artistic director of Accademia Corale Teleion (Poggio Rusco – MN) where he follows the Gamma Chorus chamber choir and the Gregorian Schola Matilde di Canossa, organizes and holds seminars and summer courses with illustrious teachers on Gregorian Chant and Polyphony; in particular he is artistic director and teacher at the School and the Summer Course of Gregorian Chant in collaboration between the Teleion Choral Academy and the professional ensemble Cantori Gregoriani. He taught the 1st Online Course of Gregorian Chant and the 2nd Online Course: Topicality and Rhetoric in Gregorian Chant, promoted by AERCO. He is a member of the editorial committee of the magazines FarCoro and Dirigo, lecturer at the regional course for school choir directors promoted by AERCO and a member of the Artistic Commission of USCI Lombardia. He has obtained important results and awards in national choral competitions as director, composer and commissioner.

Fabio Ferrucci – Theory and Perception (Ear-Training)

Fabio Ferrucci was born in Faenza in 1969. he He began his musical studies at the age of 10, first at the “G. Sarti ”in Faenza where in 1987 he obtained the“ E. Placci “as best pianist student and subsequently at the” F. Venezze ”of Rovigo, where he graduated in Piano in 1989 under the guidance of Paolo Bidoli and Luca Paganini. At the same Conservatory he also obtained diplomas in choral music and choir conducting with Marina Malavasi, Didactics of music with Ida Maria Tosto and the final certificate of the course in Musical Acoustics and Tuning with Agostino Montalbano. At the “G. B. Martini “in Bologna he attended the electronic music course held by Lelio Camilleri, graduating in 2001. From 1989 to 1993 he attended the courses of the Piano Academy” Incontri col Maestro “in Imola. In 1991 he ranks in 2nd place (4th in the overall ranking) in the Competition for professorships for teaching Music Ed. In the Middle School in the province of Ravenna and in 1993 in 1st place (2nd in the overall ranking) in the Competition to chairs for the teaching of Musical Ed. in Secondary Schools, in the same province. Parallel to his musical studies, he cultivates the humanities: after having obtained the Scientific Maturity with the highest marks, he graduated in Philosophy with full marks and honors at the University of Bologna with a thesis on Renaissance memory systems . He began teaching as a piano teacher at the “G. Sarti ”in Faenza, a position he has held continuously from 1989 to today. From 1994 to 1999 he teaches Music Education at the “S. Humility ”of Faenza. He has held training and refresher courses for teachers of Music Education. He has carried out concert activity both as a pianist (soloist, in various chamber ensembles and with orchestra) and as director of the polyphonic choir “Kairòs” of Imola (Bo) with which he carried out concert activities from 1995 to 2002. Winner of the National Competition for exams and qualifications, since 1999 he has been a teacher of Theory, Rhythmic and Musical Perception at the “Arrigo Boito” Conservatory of Parma, where he also holds the role of Discipline Referent and Coordinator of the Department of Theoretical, Historical and Musicological Disciplines. Since 2012 he has been Tutor of the Conservatory and since 2016 Didactic Coordinator. He constantly carries out training periods and courses both in Italy and abroad, as well as an intense mobility activity for training and teaching at European Academies and Conservatories. Jury member for two editions of the International Solfège Competition in Ljubljana (2015 and 2017), in October 2017 he was invited by the prestigious Gnesins Academy in Moscow to hold an Eartraining masterclass. Curriculum designer within the strategic partnerships VoxEarlyMus and European Opera Academy, he is also responsible for the Conservatory for the National Coordination on the evaluation of refugee qualifications. Since 2018 he has been enrolled in the register of AFAM disciplinary experts of ANVUR. In 2020 he is called to be part of the consultation group of the INDIRE National Agency as an AFAM expert for the implementation of the Erasmus + 2021-2027 program. He has conceived and organizes “Sentiamoci a Parma-connecting ears!”, An international workshop and forum dedicated to research on artraining which every year in January brings together European teachers representing different methodologies. From 2015 to today, Sentiamoci a Parma has allowed the creation of a network of over 100 teachers in the sector, coming from 25 countries. In 2019 he was among the winners of the first edition of the “Leonardo da Vinci” award, established by the MIUR to enhance the skills and abilities of the human capital of Italian higher education and research at an international level, resulting in one of the two scholarships awarded available to AFAM institutions, thanks to which he has the opportunity to collaborate as a visiting academic with the UiT of Tromsø (Norway), the institution where the only European two-year specialization in Eartraining is active. In 2020 he won the “Leonardo da Vinci” prize for the second time, thanks to a cooperation project with the Royal Conservatoire de l’Aia (Holland) and the Latvian Academy of Music in Riga (Latvia). He collaborated on the Italian version of the EarMaster eartraining software. The passion for the role of memory in learning mechanisms led him to take an interest in ancient memory arts and modern mnemonics. At Anima Edizioni in Milan he published in 2006 “The art of memory by Giordano Bruno” (3rd reprint 2010), creating the first functional Italian translation of the De Umbris Idearum and the practical and concrete treatment of memory techniques conceived by the philosopher from Nola.

Francesco Di Fortunato – History of Choral Music

He began his singing career at the age of nine when he joined the “Pueri Cantores” of the Sistine Chapel, where he received the first rudiments of music. He continued to study voice and piano privately, and to sing in choir. Currently he is studying Renaissance and Baroque Singing with Furio Zanasi at the L. Refice Conservatory in Frosinone and Lyric Singing with Marika Spadafino. He perfected himself through solo singing masterclasses with Emma Kirkby, and ensemble music masterclasses such as the “italia mia” workshop on the 16th century madrigal held by W. Testolin; but also an annual jazz piano workshop at the Saint Louis, or the harpsichord masterclass by E. Baiano. As a boy he sang in the youth choir of the academy of santa cecilia, with which he took part in some interesting productions including Mozart’s opera “Cosi fan tutti”. Later he worked as a cantor in the Choir of the Giulia Chapel and in the Choir of the Musical Chapel of the Oratory of San Filippo Neri, with which he recorded some polyphonic and Gregorian pieces for Vatican radio. Recently he worked for three years in the Sistine Chapel Choir with which he performed in many contexts around the world, from the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Buckingham Palace, to the MET gala 2018. He sang in the Sistine Chapel with Cecilia Bartoli during the presentation of the cd Veni Domine, (a historic occasion given that a woman had never performed in the Sistine Chapel). He also participated in two recordings of the Sistine Chapel Choir for the Deutsche Grammophon: the cd Crux Benedicta and the cantico dei cantici di Palestrina. He was also part of the “masterclass group” of the Sistina, engaged in a series of concerts and conferences in conservatories throughout Italy, focused on peculiar aspects of the ancient and sacred repertoire. He is currently part of the madrigal ensemble of the L. Refice conservatory. He alternated his solo activity with the choir. She sang in the representation of “Anima et corpo” by E. De Cavalieri (1600), in the “Vespro dello stellario” by B. Rubino (1655) in the concert “La Venezia di Vivaldi in the works of Canaletto”, and in many other contexts inherent to ancient and modern music. He has organized some popular recitals, as a singer, harpsichordist and speaker, giving lectures on various musicological themes: “From the monody to Mozart” – on the birth and development of the opera; “Schubertiade” – life and art of Schubert, with historiographical and musicological readings and testimonies; “Of ancient and modern music” – on the baroque monody and its relationship with tradition. He wrote and staged the pastoral fable “the laurel”, with music by Monteverdi, Cavalli, Caccini and Frescobaldi. He manages the youtube dissemination channel in the field of ancient and classical music: Musica Antica (for dummies).

Masterclass: Youth Choirs, Our Futureo

Basilio Astulez graduated in Fine Arts from the University of the Basque Country, studied music in Vitoria-Gasteiz and conducting at the Basque Choral Federation and in international courses. In 1999, she founded the women’s choir Vocalia Taldea, with which she won many international awards. He teaches choir singing at the Municipal Conservatory of Leioa, where he founded the youth choir Leioa Kan- tika Korala in 2000 and the mixed choir SJB in 2007, with which he has already won numerous awards in Spain and Europe. He has recorded 12 records, travelled in Europe, America and Asia and worked with leading soloists, orchestras and conductors. He won the special prize for the best conductor at the 49th International Seghizzi Competition in Gorizia (2008) and the 38th Florilège Vocal de Tours (2009). In 2014, he was invited with Leioa Kantika Korala to the 10th International Symposium of Choral Music in Seoul. He currently teaches choral conducting at Spanish choral institutions and universities, is a jury member in competitions and holds choral singing courses in Spain and abroad. Since 2018, he has been a professor of choral conducting at the Superior Conservatory of Music of the Basque Country, Musikene.

Masterclass: Non-Idiomatic Reticular Method

Vincenzo Marino graduated in horn in 1989 under the guidance of Pietro Anfuso, and in 2009 he obtained a degree in Choral Music and Choir Direction with top marks, honours, mention and publication of the thesis. In 2012, he obtained a Master’s Degree in Choir Direction in the field of Ancient Music, with top marks, praise and mention, again under the guidance of Maestro Nunzio Scibilia. He attended Masters in Artistic Phoniatrics with Franco Fussi, Conducting with Aldo Ceccato and Baroque Vocality withSoniaPrina. Hefoundedandconductedseveralchoralensembleswithwhichhe won several absolute prizes in regional and national competitions. With the Gruppo Vocale Euphoné, he recorded two CDs of vocal music: ‘La cattedrale’ produced by Wicky Music Milano; and ‘Le Frottole di Isnello’ financed by the Assessorato al Turismo e spettacolo of the Regione Sicilia. He took part as Arranger and Choir Director on set in the making of the film ‘Seven Days’ by Swiss director Rolando Colla, a film that won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. He prepared and conducted on set the choir for the film ‘L’Ora Legale’ by Ficarra and Picone produced by Medusa Film. Since 2007, he has been holding Masterclasses for choir conductors and choristers in Italy and Lebanon. From 2017 to 2019, he collaborated with the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan, preparing the Choir Laboratory for the exams taken by the Choral Conducting class. For the Faculty of Basic Theology S.. Luca Evangelista in Palermo he teaches two three-year courses: ‘Sacred Music and Gregorian Chant’ and ‘Liturgical Choir Direction’. Since 2018, he has been teaching Choir Direction and Choral Composition at the Accademia Direttori di Coro di Altavilla Milicia; he is the artistic director of InChorus Federation; of the Choral Music Competition, the Choral Composition Competition and the ‘Vincenzo Amato’ Festival; and of the Vocal and Instrumental Music Week of Altavilla Milicia. His concert activity continues to be intense and he has performed in Italy and abroad with concerts in Kranj, Postumia, Ljubljana, and Paris in Saint-Louis-en-l’Île.

Masterclass: Sounds of the Renaissance

Singer and conductor, he dedicates much of his musical commitment to the knowledge and dissemination of the polyphonic vocal repertoire of the Renaissance, of which he is considered one of the most attentive and significant performers, recording for major record labels including Sony Music, Archiv – Deutsche Grammophon, Alpha, Arcana, Pan Classics, Harmonia Mundi, EMI, Stradivarius. In 2001 he founded De labyrintho, which under his direction has established itself as one of the leading vocal ensembles in the performance of 15th and 16th century repertoire, performing at major European festivals and whose recordings have received acclaim such as the Gramophone Critic’s Choice and the Amadeus Prize for the best disc of the year. Since 2011, he has been conducting the young vocal and instrumental ensemble RossoPorpora with whom he is developing a profound study of the Italian madrigal repertoire, which has led the group to perform, among others, at prestigious festivals such as Laus Polyphoniæ in Antwerp and Oude Muziek in Utrecht. RossoPorpora’s recent disc dedicated to Luca Marenzio’s madrigals has been highly praised in the international press, winning, among others, the prestigious Preis der deutschen schnallplattennkritik, the German-speaking music critic’s disc award. He has sung with many of the leading conductors of the European renaissance and baroque music scene and has collaborated in concerts and recordings with the Belgian orchestra La Petite Bande conducted by Sigiswald Kuijken and for over twenty-five years with the Coro della Radio Svizzera Italiana. At the Salzburg Festspiele in 2015, he sang in Gluck’s Iphigenie en Tauride, conducted by Diego Fasolis, directed by Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier and with Cecilia Bartoli in the title role. Also active in the contemporary repertoire, he has sung and conducted works by some of the leading composers of today’s music scene and recently participated in the staging of the operas Cuore di cane by A. Raskatov and Die Soldaten by B. A. Zimmermann at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. He holds courses, lectures and masterclasses at prestigious Italian and foreign institutions. He is the author of a study, which was made public during the Symposium Josquin & the Sublime organised by the University of Utrecht (NL) and whose final version was published by the Rivista Italiana di Musicologia, which proposes the great Renaissance composer Josquin Desprez as the subject of Leonardo da Vinci’s Ritratto di Musico, preserved in the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan. His articles have been published by the Italian publishers Olschki, De Agostini, Paragon and the Belgian Brepols. A convinced musical divulger, he was the protagonist with De labyrintho of the RAI 5 programme Come un’alma rapita dedicated to the figure of Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa, as part of Sandro Cappelletto’s Raccontare il tempo cycle. He also supervised the reconstruction and recording of the music contained in Caravaggio’s paintings for the monograph Dentro Caravaggio by Tomaso Montanari, directed by Luca Criscenti, for RAI 5. He wrote for the Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana Treccani the part dedicated to the Madrigale for the volume Musica within the major publishing project Il contributo italiano alla storia del Pensiero published in 2018. Since June 2019, he has founded and directed the Bach Collegium Roma and is co-founder and artistic director of Ghimel, an association active in the field of knowledge and dissemination of musical culture and practice, which brings together different Italian artistic and cultural realities. Since 2021, he has also been teaching Renaissance and Baroque singing at the G. Tartini Conservatory in Trieste.

Masterclass: Everyone to the Opera!

Martino Faggiani, born in Rome in 1962, graduated with honours in piano and harpsichord. He also holds a classical high school diploma and studied composition. He became assistant to Norbert Balatsch and assisted him in Rome in all productions, working with conductors such as Bernstein, Sinopoli, Abbado, Gatti, Thielemann, Sawallisch and Giulini. Since 1996, he has conducted the youth choir of Santa Cecilia, signing productions with Chung, Sinopoli, Gelmetti, Alessandrini, De Marchi. From 2000 to the present day, he has been Maestro of the Choir of the Teatro Regio di Parma, a group that received an Oscar for opera in 2010. At the same time, from 2008 to the present, he is Chef des Choeurs at the Theatre La Monnaie in Brussels where, in 2018, he prepared the choir for Wagner’s Lohengrin. He has recorded Pizzetti’s Assassinio nella Cattedrale, Vivaldi’s Iuditha Triumphans, Donizetti’s Marin Faliero and all of Verdi’s operas.

Masterclass: Overtone Singing

Anna-Maria Hefele (1989) is a singer (specialising in harmony singing), musician and teacher. In 2018 she graduated in Elementary Music and Dance Pedagogy with classical singing as her main subject at the Carl Orff Institute, Mozarteum Salzburg. In 2014 she released her YouTube video Polyphonic Harmonic Singing which went viral and resulted in more than 20 million views, followed by Anna-Maria’s regular appearances on various international TV shows and radio broadcasts. ‘A voice like from another world’, ‘the lady with two voices’, ‘the polyphonic vocalist does the impossible’: these and other titles have spread all over the world. As a music pedagogue, she travels the world to give master classes, lectures and workshops on the technique of harmony singing, its acoustics and artistic application; she is also involved in yodelling and vocal improvisation. Anna-Maria Hefele approached harmonic singing in 2005 and has been writing compositions and arrangements for polyphonic solo voice since 2006. Since 2010, Anna-Maria has worked as a soloist with various ensembles, choirs and orchestras and collaborates with contemporary composers. As a musician she is often involved in contemporary ballet, circus and dance theatre productions with harp, nyckelharpa, voice and composition.

Masterclass: Vocal Pop a Cappella

Paul Phoenix‘s long career in the world of music spans five decades, from Ivor Novello Award-winning solo chorister at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, through seventeen years and two Grammy Awards as tenor in the world-renowned a cappella group The King’s Singers, with whom he has performed in more than 2000 concerts, to the founder of PurpleVocals, a consultancy agency that draws on his vast experience as a singer and performer. His work not only as a speaker, coach and mentor, but also as a soloist continues to take him around the world to share his passion for singing and choral music. His teaching specialises in encouraging audience engagement and building trust with soloists, conductors, choirs and ensembles. 2019 was a pivotal year for Paul as PurpleVocals evolved and he became the Executive Director of the ‘Paul Phoenix Academy’ (PPA) in Hong Kong. The PPA is a centre of learning and excellence that offers young musicians engaging and inspiring music lessons in the heart of one of the world’s most vibrant cities. In 2022, he collaborated with ‘Vocasia’, an award-winning ensemble from Tianjin, China, working closely with their artistic team to develop a world-class long-term learning programme for the ensemble’s development. In addition to his work in Asia, Paul is the artistic director of Nomad Vocals, a semi-professional ensemble collective in Finland, pioneering a new model of online and autonomous learning for young singers. He lives in Cambridge, England, with his wife Helena and has two grown-up sons, Will and Ed. When not working, he enjoys cycling long distances and cheering on Manchester City!!