– JULY 2024 by Greggory Clark –
Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra is delighted to announce that Nova Scotian conductor Henry Kennedy has been selected as its new Resident Conductor.
Henry Kennedy hails from New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, and has spent his educational and professional life mostly based in the United Kingdom. His comprehensive experience and passion for music make him an invaluable addition to the NAC Orchestra.
27-year-old Kennedy is already a distinguished young conductor with a background in both opera and orchestral music, having recently completed his tenure as Conductor of Wroclaw Opera, in Poland, where he led numerous productions during the 2022-2023 season. Last summer, he was the Assistant Conductor to Sir John Eliot Gardiner for Berlioz’s monumental opera Les Troyens, touring prestigious venues such as the Berlioz Festival, Salzburg Festival, The Royal Opera of Versailles, Berliner Philharmonie, and BBC Proms. His forthcoming engagements include performances of Tosca in Italy with Orchestra Cherubini, marking the 100th anniversary of Puccini’s death.
As the founder of the London, UK-based Resonate Symphony Orchestra and its music director since 2017, Kennedy has curated and conducted diverse programs across London’s prominent concert halls. His training includes studying under Riccardo Muti and assisting several esteemed conductors with leading symphony and opera orchestras worldwide.
Kennedy will visit Ottawa this summer to attend the NAC Orchestra’s summer concert series and officially starts his tenure in September 2024.
“I will never forget the lightning bolt response I received from the Orchestra in the audition.”
Reflecting on this new role, Henry Kennedy said, “I feel greatly honoured to be joining the National Arts Centre Orchestra as their Resident Conductor. I will never forget the lightning bolt response I received from the Orchestra in the audition when I gave the downbeat for the first movement of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony. From the beginning to the end of the audition, I felt a musical electricity that I have never experienced before. This position offers a unique opportunity to work alongside some of the world’s finest musicians and contribute to the vibrant cultural landscape of Canada. I look forward to a period of immense growth and artistic collaboration in the beautiful city of Ottawa.”
The selection process, open to Canadians and Permanent Residents, involved reviewing over 50 applications, auditioning five finalists, and obtaining feedback from orchestra members and the Artistic Advisory Committee. The final decision was made by Alexander Shelley.
Alexander Shelley, NACO Music Director, expressed his enthusiasm for Kennedy’s appointment: “I am delighted to be welcoming Henry to our artistic team. During his audition he demonstrated wonderful technique and poise in front of the orchestra and spoke eloquently about the role of the conductor in the community and about the importance of music to us all. He joins us at an exciting moment in his career as his work across the pond in the UK and Europe continues to blossom. I am confident that our audiences in Ottawa and across Canada will benefit greatly from his artistry. Welcome, Henry!”
The new two-year Resident Conductor position offers an immersive professional development opportunity under the mentorship of Music Director Alexander Shelley. Responsibilities include serving as assistant conductor for the Orchestra’s guest conductors, working closely with Principal Guest Conductor John Storgårds and Principal Youth Conductor Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser, and collaborating with NACO’s administrative team. The role includes a competitive salary and participation in a conductor exchange program with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
Muti to receive 2024 recognition as “Benemerito della Lingua Italiana” for his contribution to the spread of the Italian language in the world by Accademia della Crusca, one of the leading institutions in the field of research on the Italian language.
The information comes from the official website of the Florence-based Accademia itself, publishing an article of its President, Paolo D’Achille who, “drawing on this and various other insights from history and current events, proposes a reflection on the Italian of music.”
“Benemerito della Lingua Italiana” is a recognition that the Academy grants to those who have contributed to the dissemination and knowledge of Italian without being linguists. The award to Muti was decided by the academic board of the “Crusca” during their meeting on April 29th, 2024, unanimously voting on the proposal put forward by academicians Ilaria Bonomi, Rita Librandi, and Claudio Marazzini.
“As stated in the reasons for this recognition” D’Achille reports in his statement, Maestro Muti “has demonstrated and promoted the Italian language in his role of conductor of some of the most prestigious international orchestras […] and through his tireless work in teaching and giving value to young people.” Muti “has also worked directly on our language, urging singers in rehearsals […] to have clear and correct diction and all performers […] to respect the meaning of the text set to music, as enshrined in its centuries-old and still vibrant linguistic tradition, and demanding that for opera performances the original libretto is strictly adhered to, without applying inappropriate innovations.”
“We await with great excitement the day when the maestro will come to the Crusca to receive the award”, D’Achille further writes.
Ansa, May 13 2024
FONDAZIONE PRADA RENEWS THE COLLABORATION WITH RICCARDO MUTI.
FROM 18 TO 29 NOVEMBER 2023, THE PUBLIC WILL EXPERIENCE REHEARSALS OF THE OPERA “NORMA” AND THE CONCERT CONDUCTED BY THE MAESTRO
Milan, 8 May 2023 – The collaboration between “Riccardo Muti Italian Opera Academy” and Fondazione Prada is renewed. They will present the 2023 and 2025 editions of the project at the Fondazione’s Milan venue: the first one dedicated to Norma by Vincenzo Bellini, while the second one to Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
From 18 to 29 November 2023, the public will be able to experience the entire series of lessons and rehearsals focused on Norma and held by Maestro Riccardo Muti up to his concert. Tickets are available from today on Fondazione Prada’s website.
A new set-up conceived for the Deposito’s premises will host Riccardo Muti who, at the helm of the Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini, will undertake an educational project addressed to young orchestra conductors and répétiteurs. Selected through an international call by a committee chaired by the Maestro, participants will be between 18 and 35 years old and graduated in Italy or abroad, in Conducting or Piano.
On Saturday, 18 November, the 2023 edition of the Academy will be inaugurated by a lesson concert by Riccardo Muti dedicated to the opera Norma. From 19 to 25 November, it will continue with a series of open rehearsals held by the Maestro at the piano, with the orchestra, the singers and the choir addressed to the young musicians. The project will conclude with two events: on Sunday, 26 November, the final rehearsal of the young conductors presented by Riccardo Muti and on Wednesday, 29 November a concert conducted by the Maestro.
Riccardo Muti’s focus on music education has always been a constant element of his artistic activity. With “Riccardo Muti Italian Opera Academy” he intends to share with young musicians what he learnt from his great masters and to accompany them in the process of interpreting and performing an opera. Moreover, the series of lessons and rehearsals open to the public will give all the occasion to take part in an intense experience of learning in the field of classical music.
As stated by Miuccia Prada, President of Fondazione Prada, “the collaboration with Riccardo Muti and his Academy affirms the centrality of teaching and transferring knowledge between different generations. We are convinced that study is one of the most effective tools for artistic and personal growth. This project is an important educational opportunity, both for the young students who will have the opportunity to work closely with Riccardo Muti and for the public who will be engaged by the Maestro’s generosity and passion and his commitment to spreading and strengthening musical culture.”
As underlined by Riccardo Muti, “I chose Norma by Vincenzo Bellini because I want to highlight this composer’s bel canto which Norma embodies in the most absolute way. This is an extremely complicated opera: it requires peculiar attention to phrasing and the orchestral texture, which are apparently simple but extraordinarily effective in supporting and interweaving with the vocal line. Norma’s sublime and endless melody, which also fascinated Wagner, demands purity and nobility of execution. The conductor’s task is to sublimate the singing without neglecting the orchestral texture. It should not be reduced to mere accompaniment but must intertwine with the voices, which should be given colour and warmth”.
Norma is the eighth of the ten operas by composer Vincenzo Bellini (Catania, 1801 – Puteaux, 1835). It was staged for the first time on 26 December 1831 at Teatro alla Scala in Milan. Despite its unsuccessful debut, from the following performance the opera won over the audience and established itself as the composer’s greatest masterpiece, synthesizing lyricism and drama in perfect balance. The story told by the libretto by Felice Romani (Genoa,1788 - Moneglia, 1865) has three thematic lines: the motif of the priestess who breaks her vows for love, the theme of infanticide, taken directly from Greek tragedy and the character of Medea, and the Celtic-Barbaric motif that strikes the collective imagination of the 1830s. Composed in the historical period that Lorenzo Arruga defines as one of “cross fading” between Neoclassicism and Romanticism, Norma is an opera whose language is mainly related to songs to which Bellini entrusts the representation of “the nature of man at the mercy of the passions” communicated “by means of harmony.”
Riccardo Muti Music (RMMUSIC) conceived and created “Riccardo Muti Italian Opera Academy” in 2015. Since then, it has managed its organization in Italy and Japan, where the project has been presented since 2019 in collaboration with the Spring Festival in Tokyo.
Press contacts
Fondazione Prada
T +39 02 56 66 26 34
press@fondazioneprada.org
fondazioneprada.org
Riccardo Muti Italian Opera Academy
info@riccardomutioperacademy.com
riccardomutioperacademy.com
riccardomutimusic.com
Attend the rehearsals with Riccardo Muti
(in the audience)
Conductors and répétiteurs: call for applications 2023
Deadline: July 14th, 2023
Watch the gallery of the Riccardo Muti Italian Opera Academy 2021
(Fondazione Prada, Milan)
RICCARDO MUTI
MESSA DA REQUIEM by GIUSEPPE VERDI
DECEMBER 2nd to 15th
at the Teatro Alighieri in Ravenna
From the preparatory stages and rehearsals
to the final performance…
a unique opportunity to immerse yourself in the concert
always accompanied by Maestro Riccardo Muti
Tickets available in advance from today at 4 p.m.
From December 2nd to December 15th at the Teatro Alighieri in Ravenna, Maestro RICCARDO MUTI will present and conduct Giuseppe Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, composed in 1874 and dedicated to Alessandro Manzoni.
Accompanied by Riccardo Muti, the audience will have the opportunity to totally immerse themselves in great music and experience all the preparatory stages of the concert up to the final performance.
On December 2nd, the audience will be able to listen to Riccardo Muti’s concert-lesson of the Messa da Requiem, in order to discover anecdotes, information and curiosities about the composition.
From December 3rd to December 11th, the public will be able to attend rehearsals and see live the work behind-the-scenes of a Maestro like Riccardo Muti. During the rehearsal sessions, he will explain the music and his method to approach it, with a simple, direct language that everyone can understand, engaging those participating so that they will be more aware and ready to the listening. In this way the rehearsals become real concert-lessons.
On December 13th young Conductors from the eighth edition of the Riccardo Muti Italian Opera Academy, in Italy, will lead the opera. The Academy is an extremely important project through which Riccardo Muti passes on his experience to new generations of musicians, and more, he helps them face the extraordinary Italian repertoire.
On December 15th, Maestro Riccardo Muti will conduct the Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini, performing the Messa da Requiem, a work with which he won two Grammy Awards for Best Classical Album and Best Choral Performance in 2011, thanks to his recording with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus.
From 4 p.m. today, Thursday, October 13th, tickets for all scheduled performances at Ravenna’s Teatro Alighieri can be purchased in advance at www.ticketone.it and www.teatroalighieri.org and at the usual selling points.
HERE THE COMPLETE SCHEDULE
Friday, DECEMBER 2, 2022
Riccardo Muti concert-lesson
Messa da Requiem by Giuseppe Verdi
with Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini and singers
Teatro Alighieri, Ravenna
8:30 p.m.
DECEMBER 3 to 11, 2022
Rehearsals by Riccardo Muti at the piano, in orchestra and with singers
on Messa da Requiem by Giuseppe Verdi
Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini
From December 8, the Chorus will also be in rehearsals
Teatro Alighieri, Ravenna
Morning and afternoon
Full rehearsal schedule HERE.
Please note that on December 10 and 11, only those attending the entire rehearsal period will be able to attend.
Tuesday, DECEMBER 13, 2022
Riccardo Muti presents the final Young Conductors Concert:
Messa da Requiem by Giuseppe Verdi
Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini
Teatro Alighieri, Ravenna
8:30 p.m.
Thursday, DECEMBER 15, 2022
Riccardo Muti conducts Messa da Requiem by Giuseppe Verdi
Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini
Teatro Alighieri, Ravenna
8:30 p.m.
The main aims of the Riccardo Muti Italian Opera Academy are:
– Giving young musicians the opportunity to work with Riccardo Muti and learn lessons coming directly from Verdi’s world through Toscanini and great teachers like Antonino Votto (Riccardo Muti’s Conducting Professor).
– Educating the audience to listening, showing them how an opera is built and prepared during the whole journey from the first rehearsal at the piano and the stage orchestra rehearsals to the final performance, through the deep study of the score from the musical and dramatic point of view.
– Protecting, therefore spreading, the beauty and profoundness of the Italian Opera, according to methods and criteria that are disappearing.
For over forty years, Riccardo Muti has been insisting on the importance of classical music in everyone’s development and human growth. Therefore, Riccardo Muti feels the moral and ethical duty to convey his experience to new generations of musicians (and not only), to help them deal with the extraordinary Italian opera.
www.riccardomuti.com
Instagram: @riccardomutimusic
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Facebook RMMUSIC: Riccardo Muti Music
Is now open the Call for Applications for Under-35 Conductors for the Riccardo Muti Italian Opera Academy, in the framework of the Sping Festival in Tokyo.
With Tokyo-HARUSAI Festival Orchestra.
Discover more
about Riccardo Muti Italian Opera Academy in Tokyo
Discover more
about the Riccardo Muti Italian Opera Academy in Italy
(Ravenna, December 2022)
Photo 1,2 ©Spring Festival in Tokyo/Satoshi Aoyagi – Photo 3 ©Spring Festival in Tokyo/Koji Lida
– AUGUST 2022 –
After being selected by Riccardo Muti for participating in the Riccardo Muti Italian Opera Academy in Ravenna 2018, on “Macbeth” , Alvin Ho – now Assistant to Thomas Dausgaard, Chief Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra is named first-price winner by “Princess Astrid International Music Competition 2022” – 22nd edition – for Conductor under 35, with the opportunity to collaborate with the Norwegian Orchestra Trondheim Symfoniorkester & Opera.
March 12, 2022 RAVENNA
YOUNG CONDUCTORS OF THE RICCARDO MUTI ITALIAN OPERA ACADEMY
ON THE PODIUM OF ORCHESTRA GIOVANILE LUIGI CHERUBINI
From 31 October to 6 November 2022, the Autumn Trilogy celebrates its 10th anniversary and in this occasion the protagonists are Mozart and Da Ponte’s masterpieces: The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Così fan tutte.
To conducted Orchestra Giovanli Luigi Cherubini will be respectively Giovanni Conti, Erina Yashima and Tais Conte Renzetti, the young conductors who – after being selected by Riccardo Muti – partecipated in the Riccardo Muti Italian Opera Academy High Training Course.
January 18, 2022
Ongaku no Tomo – 17 best 2021 concerts in Japan
Concerts conducted by Riccardo Muti came first and second
The Japanese magazine Ongaku no Tomo asked 40 music critics and journalists to select 10 titles as best classical music performances in Japan in the period from December 1, 2020 to November 30, 2021.
Each of them could give 2 points for the first place and 1 point from the second place on. Results are in the scheme in the original pages of the article, where we find horizontally the names of journalists and vertically the top 10 titles.
Position Score – Titles
1 28 “- Macbeth” Spring Festival in Tokyo
2 16 – Vienna Philiharmonia conducted by Riccardo Muti
2 16 – “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg” New National Theatre
4 11 – Isabel Faust (violin)
4 11 – Alexandre Kantorow (piano)
6 10 – Daniel Baremboim (piano)
6 10 – “Lulu” Tokyo Nikikai
8 8 – Ensemble InterContemporain
8 8 – Mitsuko Uchida (piano)
10 7 – Sayaka Shoji (violin) and Vikingur Olafsson (piano)
10 7 – “Love, Hope and Prayer” by Toru Takemitsu
10 7 – NHK Simphony Orchestra conducted by Herbert Blomstedt
10 7 – Evgeny Kissin (piano)
14 6 – Tokyo City Harmonic Orchestra conducted by Taijiro Iimori
14 6 – “Yuzuru”
16 5 – “La Cenerentola” New National Theatre
16 5 – “La Traviata” Suntory Hall
Riccardo Muti’s comment:
I am extremely honoured to receive this award from the prestijous magazine ONGAKU NO TOMO for the opera “Macbeth” performed during the 2021Tokyo Spring Festival and I share this honour with the wonderful musicians of the Tokyo Harusai Orchestra and Choir and with the young singers who have taken part to the 2021 Italian Opera Academy in Tokyo.
My best wishes for this new year to the Japanese people!