FLORENCE, ITALY – The Italian Brass Week International Festival, created and directed by Maestro Luca Benucci, first horn of the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, reaches its 18th year with this edition. Florence Daily News is media partner of the event.
As in previous years, it will be held in Florence from the 8th to the 16th of July 2017, and will involve professors and international guest artists in a week filled with masterclasses, conferences and concerts dedicated to the Brass world.
The key word of the Italian Brass Week Festival is internationality; professors from Germany, the Netherlands, USA, Canada, Venezuela, Russia, Italy, Norway, Australia, Hungary, France and Great Britain will meet students from over thirty countries from around the world, from Asia to South America.
An intense weekend filled with emotions that will see a synergy of personalities, institutions, agencies and associations from Florence, Tuscany, Italy, Europe and the rest of the world unite in Music and in the Brass world, together with sponsors and contributors who help to make this Festival come to life: Yamaha, B & S Markneukirchen, Antoine Courtois, Stomvi Art and Technology, Conn-Selmer Inc, Vincent Bach, Besson, International Horn Society, International Trumpet Guild, International Tuba and Euphonium Association.
The stars of the Italian Brass Week
The stars of the Brass world will reunite in Florence at the Italian Brass Week Festival. For the Trumpets: Francisco “Pacho” Flores, International Soloist and Deutsche Grammophon Artist; Otto Sauter, International Soloist and Professor; Sergei Nakariakov, International Soloist; Claudio Quintavalla, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino; Andrea Tofanelli, International Soloist and Professor; Rex Richardson, International Soloist and Professor at the Virginia Commonwealth University.
For the Horns: Dale Clevenger, Ex Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Indiana University Professor; Luca Benucci, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and Conservatorio di Musica “B. Maderna” di Cesena; Froydis Ree Wekre, Member of the International Horn Society, Professor at the Ingesund Music Academy (Sweden) and at the Royal Northen College of Music of Manchester (Great Britain); Francis Lloyd, International Soloist.
For the Trombones: Alain Trudel, International Soloist and Professor, Canadian Music Ambassador of the Canadian Music Center, Yamaha International Artist and Director of the Orchestre Symphonique de Laval; Jamie Williams, Deutsche Oper di Berlino and Professor at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater of Rostock and at the Hanns Eisler Hochschule für Musik of Berlino; Gabriele Malloggi, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino; Jonathan Reith, National Orchestra of France.
And, finally, for the Tubas: Roger Bobo, Ex Los Angeles Philarmonic Orchestra, Brass legend and Professor at the Musashino School of Music of Tokyo; Anne Jelle Visser, Orchestra of the Zurich Opera House, Professor at the Hochschule der Kunste of Zurich, Yamaha International Artist; Steve Rosse, International Soloist and Professor, Sydney Symphony Orchestra; Roland Szentpali, International Soloist.
The Italian Brass Week collaborations
As in previous Florentine editions, the Institutional Partners will be: The Teatro dell’Opera di Firenze, The City of Florence, the City-Province Metropolitan Office, the Region of Tuscany, the World Brass Association, the European Brass Association, ANBIMA, Estate Fiorentina 2017 and Publiacqua.
This year the Festival is proud to have the patronages of numerous Embassies and Consulates: Embassy of Australia in Rome, Embassy of Canada in Rome, Honorary Consulate of France in Florence, Embassy of Great Britain in Rome, Embassy of Israel in Rome, Embassy of Norway in Rome, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Rome, Embassy of the Venezuelan Bolivarian Republic in Rome.
Florence Daily News is a media partner of the festival. The other media partners are Amadeus, Suonare news, Teatrionline, Rivista Musica, Toscana Tascabile, Firenze Spettacolo, The Florentine, Rete Toscana Classica, Novaradio Città Futura, Firenze Notte, Risveglio Musicale.
For this 18th edition, the Italan Brass Week Festival has chosen the focal point of the concert season to be the great Maestro Giotto di Bondone (1267-1337), on the 750th anniversary of his birth, revisiting the biographical Florentine locations of the Artist himself.
Just like Giotto’s artwork, the Festival also strives to be revolutionary, realizing new artistic ideals and giving back to the Brass world, both part of our core missions: Music to People and Wings to Talent, the pillars of this edition.
Many students of the Italian Brass Week Festival, just as apprentices learned at the feet of the Master Giotto, take inspiration from the lessons, conferences, recitals and concerts given by their Maestros, Professors and International Soloists, and interweave themselves into the music world, renewing their musical vision and contemporary approach, continuing toward performing great artistic works that leave an indelible mark on the audience and performers alike, certain that the beauty of music itself will save the world.
The revolution of the Italian Brass Week Festival continues, then, in Giotto’s footsteps, by holding concerts in the actual locations Giotto himself had left his mark on the fleur-de-lis city.
The Giotto-esque locations of the Festival
The Santa Maria Novella Basilica, custodian of Giotto’s crucifix since the 1200s, will be the stage where the Soloists of the Festival will perform in Recital (11 July 2017, 21.30h), accompanied by Maestro Andrea Severi on the Organ, designed by Daniele Paoli, in a musical journey of heavenly musicianship that bonds with the power and presence of the Divine. The soloists will play with light and color, harmony and dissonance, just as Giotto and other contrasting artists, unearthing and revisiting elements of the Renaissance, based on the resurrection.
The Podestà Chapel, in the Bargello National Museum, where Giotto frescoed an illustration of Heaven as well as his contemporary and compatriot, Dante Alighieri, will host the Soloists of the Italian Brass Week – Francisco “Pacho” Flores and Otto Sauter on the Trumpet, Frank Lloyd on the Horn and Alain Trudel on the Trombone – who will unite with the Florentine Chamber Orchestra, under the direction of Maestro Giuseppe Lanzetta (12 July 2017, 21:00h).
The Arno river and Ponte Vecchio will be the backdrop to the performance of a world premiere piece dedicated to Giotto and to the Brass world (15 July 2017, 19:30h). This event has been a prominent presence for the past three years, thanks to its originality, historic location and the impression it leaves on the international audience. The composition, commissioned by the Festival, has been entrusted to noted composer Enjott Schneider. From his pen, “Water Music” was given life. The performance of this work will be executed by 18 soloists who, under the direction of Maestro Dale Clevenger, will play on board the historic boats of the Renaioli. They will unite with two Brass Orchestras, the first, with 50 musicians, will play from the Ponte Vecchio, under the direction of Maestro Roger Bobo. The second, with 40 musicians, will be directed by Maestro Alain Trudel from the riverbanks of the Arno at the Canottieri Social Club. Embellishing the performance will be the lyrical soprano voice of Eva Lind, star of lyric Opera, who, also from Ponte Vecchio, will be the herald of Giotto’s artistic message.
The Inaugural and Closing concerts of the XVIII Italian Brass Week International Festival (9 and 16 July 2017, 21.15h) will be included in the calendar of the already exhaustive Opera di Firenze 2017 summer season.
The Cortile dell’Ammannati, in Palazzo Pitti, will be the ideal stage to display the Ottoni del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (9 July 2017), a dynamic and versatile group with leading members of the international music scene, to perform a program that spans from the Baroque to the Contemporary; as well as for the Italian Brass Week’s World Big Band that will close the Festival with special guests Andrea Tofanelli, Rex Richardson and Alain Trudel, virtuosi performing musical acrobatics and sweet melodies on the most renowned American jazz standards and more.
Beyond the two aforementioned concerts, Palazzo Pitti will also host the world premiere of “The Titans”, a new composition written by Francesco Traversi, recent award winner of the Gold Medal for Best Composer of the Year by the Global Music Award in San Diego (California, USA), for 10 brass soloists and symphonic orchestra. The stars of the festival will unite with the Orchestra of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, under the baton of Maestro Philipp von Steinaecker (13 July 2017, 21.15 h).
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