saturday, february 8th – 11 am
Confrence Hall – Museo del Violino
Duccio Ceccanti
plays a violin by Alfio Batelli (1945)
conference
Tuscan Violin makers in the twentieth century
con Paolo Sorgentone
DUCCIO CECCANTI, graduated at a very young age with honors at Firenze Conservatory, following which he continued his specialization with S.Gheorghiu, B.Belkin and S.Accardo. He performs as a soloist and in chamber formation for important institutions and festivals among which: Biennale Musica in Venice, Massimo in Palermo, San Carlo in Napoli, Accademia Filarmonica Romana, Milano Musica, Teatro della Pergola in Florence, Settimana Musicale Senese, Amici della Musica in Palermo, Ravello Festival, Festival Internazionale in Prague and Patras, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Music08 Cincinnati University, Auditorium della Radio Svizzera di Lugano, Teatro dell’Opera in Cairo, Flaneries Musicales in Reims, and tours the whole world. He was the solo violinist on stage in the opera Les oiseaux de passage of Fabio Vacchi at the premiere at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna in collaboration with Daniele Abbado, and performed the Concert for violin by Luis Bacalov with Orchestra Verdi conducted by the composer in the Auditorium di Milano. For two years in a row he performed as featured artist at the Festival of Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in 2009 with the Italian premiere of the Sonata for Violin and Piano by P. Maxwell Davies with Bruno Canino and in 2010 with a visual art concert dedicated to Kaija Saahriaho and J.Baptiste Barriere. He has performed in chamber music groups with B. Belkin, A.Meunier, B.Canino, M.Ovadia, M.Pousseur, P.De Maria, B.Petrushansky, R.Prosseda, R. Fabbriciani etc.. He works with the following most important living composers performing compositions for the first time, and some of which dedicated to him: S.Bussotti, M.Sotelo, P.Maxwell Davies, H.Pousseur, I.Vandor, A.Corghi, G.Petrassi, L.Berio, A.Clementi, A.Guarnieri, L.Mosca and F.Vacchi. His recording for ARTS, BRILLIANT and NAXOS have been acclaimed by international critics. He has recorded music written by F. Vacchi for the soundtrack of the movie “Il Mestiere delle armi” by E. Olmi, which won the David di Donatello Award in 2002,and has also been the leading performer in various live radio performances by the RAI. He is solo violin and founder of the Contempoartensable. As a first violin he has collaborated with important Italian orchestras. He has held master classes in Italy and the United States and is teacher assistant of Azio Corghi and Luis Bacalov at Accademia Chigiana di Siena. He is currently teaching violin at Matera Conservatory.
PAOLO SORGENTONE was born on 26th June 1961 at Roseto degli Abruzzi (Teramo).
When he was 17 years old, he moved to Cremona attending the International School of Violin Makers where he studied with Maestro Francesco Bissolotti and graduated in 1982.
He moved to Tuscany, near the small town of Gaiole in Chianti, where he opened a workshop together with Guust Francois, Paolo Stucchi and Jens Norskov Hansen, mainly constructing new instruments.
In 1986 he began working in Florence enlarging his activity to the restoration and construction of copies of ancient and baroque instruments.
To date he has constructed over 180 instruments including violins, violas, cellos and doublebasses.
In 1992 he produced a video showing the construction of string instruments using the traditional “cremonese” method.
In 1998 he opened a new workshop in Florence with Michele Mecatti where, besides making instruments, he deals also with restoration, specification and commerce of antique instruments.
As from 2002 he teaches on the Specialization Course in Violin Making, one of the international courses in musical specialization organized by the Music School “Sinfonia” of Lucca.
He is President of the Association of Tuscan Violin Makers and member of the Scientific Commitee which has taken care of the editing of the volume “Liuteria in Toscana – I Liutai del Novecento”.
He uses mostly classical models.