Alfredo Bernardini
President
Italian born, Alfredo Bernardini studied early music in the Netherlands, in order to master baroque oboe and antique music with, among the others, Bruce Haynes and Ku Ebbinge, and where he graduated in 1987. He has since performed all over the world as a member of ensembles, such as Hesperion XX, Le Concert des Nations, La Petite Bande, The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, The English Concert, Bach Collegium Japan and others. He is a founding member of the ensemble Zefiro, which has been awarded important international prizes. He has played in more than 100 recordings: among the others, his CD with concerts for oboe of Vivaldi has been awarded with the Cannes Classic Award in 1995. In 1999 he conducted Zefiro in a documentary focused on Antonio Vivaldi, for the Belgian television. Beside leading Zafiro in the orchestral formation, he has been guest conductor of baroque orchestras in Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, Austria, Germany, Holland, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Israel, Australia, Canada, Venezuela, Cuba, and of the European Union Baroque Orchestra.
His researches on the history of wind instruments has been used in several articles for international specialized magazines. Since 1992, he has taught at the Conservatory of Amsterdam, and from 2002 to 2007 at the Escola Superior de Musica de Catalunya. He is also a guest professor at several other conservatories and summer classes in Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Israel, United States, and others. Since 2014 Bernardini has been a professor at the Mozarteum University of Salzburg.
Gloria Banditelli
Gloria Banditelli, specialising in the Baroque and Rossini repertory, has sung in some of the most important Italian and European theatres, including the Teatro alla Scala, La Fenice, the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, San Carlo di Napoli, Regio di Torino, Massimo di Palermo, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Wiener Staatsoper, the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, the Théâtre des Champs Elysées and the Théâtre du Chatelet in Paris, the Musikverein in Vienna and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, under the baton of such conductors as Riccardo Chailly, Renée Clemencic, Vladimir Delman, Zubin Mehta and Riccardo Muti, Claudio Abbado, Carlos Kleiber, Gavazzeni, Lorin Maazel, among others. She has been heard in Monteverdi’s Il ritorno di Ulisse in patria at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and at the Monteverdi Festival in Cremona conducted by Trevor Pinnock, in Dido and Aeneas at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome and in Monteverdi’s Orfeo in Madrid with Jordi Savall and directed by Gilbert Deflo, Dido and Aeneas at the Teatro Comunale Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. Among others performances are Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria and Dido and Eneas in Florence, and L’Orfeo, in Graz and Madrid.
Gloria Banditelli’s concert activity includes Antonio Vivaldi’s Juditha triumphans at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, as well as J.S. Bach’s Magnificat (BWV 243), Händel’s Messiah and Serse and Monteverdi’s Orfeo. She sang chamber music for RAI, the Academy of Santa Cecilia, Chigiana Academy, Friends of the music of Perugia, Padova and Palermo and Settembre Musica of Torino.
Gloria Banditelli has recorded for Radio France, for the Westdeutsche Rundfunk, for Austrian and Dutch Radio, for the Swiss Television, and on RAI. She can be heard on Fonit-Cetra, Harmonia Mundi, Hungaroton, Denon, Frequenz, Nuova Era, Tactus, and Bongiovanni records.
Mechthild Karkow
Baroque violinist Mechthild Karkow is amongst the most versatile specialists in historical performance practice. Her repertoire ranges from the end of the 16th to the beginning of the 20th century, and also includes contemporary compositions for Baroque violin, Baroque viola and viola d’amore. The examination of historical sources and the use of instruments, bows, playing techniques and playing positions appropriate to the repertoire are standard practice for her, and contribute to a stylistically-differentiated, vibrant interpretation.
Mechthild Karkow performs internationally as a soloist, concertmaster and chamber musician in various ensembles, and appears at renowned festivals at home and abroad. She has won prizes at international competitions and made numerous radio and CD recordings. She has collaborated with musicians such as Christophe Coin, Andrea Marcon and Marieke Spaans, and appeared as a soloist and artistic director with orchestras such as the Bremer Philharmoniker and the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra.
Passing on her experience and deep knowledge of violin playing is an important focus of Mechthild Karkow’s artistic life. She began her teaching career in 2013 as a professor of Baroque violin and viola at the University of Music and Theatre ‘Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’ Leipzig, and also taught at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts until 2021. In the 2020/21 winter semester she was appointed Professor of Baroque violin and viola at the University of the Arts Bremen, where she has played a key role in shaping the renowned Early Music department ever since. International masterclasses, lectures and workshops complement her university activities, and complete her multifaceted profile.
Takashi Watanabe
Takashi Watanabe was born in Nagano, Japan, in 1975. He graduated from Tokyo College of Music (Piano major) and completed the postgraduate course at Tohō Gakuen School of Music (Harpsichord major). After moving to Europe in 2002 to study with Bob van Asperen at the Conservatory of Amsterdam, he earned his diploma in historical organ under Lorenzo Ghielmi at the Scuole Civiche di Milano in 2010. He has won prizes at numerous competitions, including the “Cembalosonderpreis” at the International Viola da Gamba Competition Bach-Abel 2006 in Köthen, Germany, and the third prize at the Fano Adriano International Organ Competition 2010 in Italy.
In 2004, he founded “Ensemble Ricreation d’Arcadia” (2 violins, violoncello and harpsichord), dedicated to the instrumental and vocal music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with a particular focus on the trio sonata repertoire. That same year, the ensemble won the first prize at the “Premio Bonporti” (Jury President: Gustav Leonhardt) in Rovereto, Italy, also receiving the Audience Prize and the ORF Recording Prize. Since 2005, they have appeared at numerous early music festivals across Italy, Austria and Slovenia.
He has performed across Europe, Japan, Australia and Mexico alongside distinguished musicians including Erich Höbarth, Enrico Onofri, Christophe Coin, Rachel Podger, Enrico Gatti, Ensemble Cordia (Stefano Veggetti), Ensemble Zefiro (Alfredo Bernardini) and La Fonte Musica (Michele Pasotti), among others. In June 2012, his first solo CD — J. S. Bach’s “Goldberg Variations” on ALM RECORDS [ALCD-1130] — was released to critical acclaim. He has over 30 CD recordings to his name on labels including ALM, Passacaille and Arcana.
Since September 2013, he has been teaching Historical Performance Practice, Harpsichord and Basso Continuo at the Hochschule der Künste Bern (HKB), Switzerland, and also gives workshops and masterclasses in Japan and Italy.
Romano Vettori
Romano Vettori had a classical education while studying piano, harpsichord and composition. He has a Degree in Musicology and a Doctorate in Musicology and Musical Heritage from Bologna University.
He has published essays in musicological journals and in series with an international distribution, and has made numerous transcriptions of sacred and secular music from the XVI-XVII centuries and the XVIII century.
His research concentrates on Renaissance and Baroque music history, in particular regarding Trentino, Northern Italy and the History of the Philarmonic Academy of Bologna. In parallel with research, he is deeply involved in organization and musical performance, due to his role as Artistic Director of the Academy of Ancient Music of Rovereto (Euregiomusica Project – Bonporti Baroque Orchestra & Choir, Premio Bonporti International Baroque Violin Competition, Premio Ferrari International Fortepiano Competetition).
He conducts both in Italy and abroad and has recorded, mainly unpublished works, (Viadana, Cavalli, De Kerle) for Fonè, Stradivarius and Bongiovanni. Former professor of Musical history and aesthetics and of Choral conducting for music education in Italian Conservatories, he is the Archivist of the Philharmonic Academy of Bologna (founded in 1666).
