Conductors

Paolo Ponziano Ciardi was born in Genova and began his conducting career at an early age. Alongside his classical and humanistic preparation, he also studied pianoforte, composition, organ, orchestral conducting and choral conducting. Contemporaneously he frequented courses at the Mozarteum in Salzburg under Milan Horvat and at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena under Franco Ferrara. In 1981 he was the only Italian to win a scholarship offered by the Austrian Government and he perfected his studies at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna with Otmar Suitner for Orchestral Conducting, Karl Etti for Opera Conducting and Gunther Theuring for Choral Conducting. He won the edition of the "European Personality Award" for his work.

As a conductor Ciardi is a regular guest to Symphonic and Choral Associations, Orchestras and important international Concert Societies. Amongst these are: the RAI Orchestra in Turin, Teatro Verdi in Trieste, the Opera Society "G.P. da Palestrina" in Cagliari, Teatro Rossini in Pesaro, the Orchestra "A. Scarlatti" of Neaples, the Milano Classica Orchestra, the Opera Theatre “V. Bellini” of Catania, the Opera Theatre of Budapest, the Opera Theatre of Spalato (Croatia), the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence, the Philarmonia of Minsk, the Budapest Chamber Orchestra, the National Orchestra of Malta, the Bacau Philarmonic Orchestra, the Budapest Concert Orchestra, he has collaborated with soloists and singers such as Simon Estes, Mariella Devia, Daniela Mazzucato, Fiorenza Cedolins, Cecilia Gasdia, Pietro Ballo, Raina Kabaivanska, Francesca Patanè, Istvan Ruha, Ilya Grubert, Felix Ayo, Massimo Quarta, Rolando Panerai, Katia Ricciarelli and Simone Alaimo, winning the enthusiasm of the public and excellent press notices everywhere.

Particularily significant were his performances in the Tchaikowsky Hall in Moscow, the Abravanell Hall in Salt Lake City, the Bonn University, the Liszt Academy in Budapest, the "Salle des Penitents Blancs" at Avignon, the Internationale Salzburger Orgelkonzerte of Salzburg, Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Teatro Comunale di Cagliari, Rossini Opera Festival, Opera Theatre of Ankara (Turkey), the Festival Internacional Cervantino of Guanajuato (Mexico), the Auditorium of Mexico City, the Roman Theatre at Cartagine, the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, the Cecilia Meireles Hall in Rio de Janeiro, the Fujiarah Performing Arts Hall (UAE).

Maestro Marcello Mottadelli graduated from the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi in Milan, obtaining his degree in organ and organ composition. Afterwards, he studied organ for four years at University of Music and Performing arts - Vienna Musik Hochschule. Following his studies, he started his career with a two-year engagement as 1st Kappelmeister at the Stadttheater Bern, Switzerland in 1999, being in charge of all the operatic repertoire.

Whilst in Bern, he was invited to conduct a touring production of Nabucco, as well as Un Ballo in Maschera, with the orchestra and choir of Bolshoi Minsk.

In 2001, he made his debut in the USA, conducting Turandot at the Colorado Opera Company. In the same year, he also made his debut in South Africa, conducting Rigoletto and Mahler's 2nd Symphony at the Opera of Cape Town. Invitations for international appearances followed steadily in 2002, adding Germany to the list. During the same year, he also travelled to Belarus to continue his work with the choir and orchestra of Bolshoi Minsk and conducting their production of Tosca at the Bolshoi Theatre, Minsk.

Between 2002 and 2008, among other productions, Mr. Mottadelli conducted Der Freischütz and Rigoletto at The National Danish Opera, symphonic concerts with Odense and Aalborg Symphony Orchestras, Bialystok Philharmonic Orchestra (Poland), Orchestra Teatro Coccia from Novara, the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra (Denmark), and the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra in Bratislava. During this period, he made several appearances with Cairo Symphony Orchestra both in Cairo and in Jordan, at a Gala Concert starring Placido Domingo.

From 2008 until 2011, Mr. Mottadelli held the position of General Music Director to the Cairo Symphony Orchestra. During this time, he also debuted in South Korea at the Seongnam Art Centre in Seoul. He also conducted Don Carlo at the Royal Danish Opera, in Copenhagen. Further invitations to Denmark followed, where he conducted Elisir d'Amore and Manon Lescaut at the Danish National Opera, in 2009 and 2010. During the same and following year, other appearances included Aida at the Cairo Opera House, several symphonic concerts at Teatro Carlo Felice di Genova and Teatro Verdi di Trieste, La Traviata at the Royal Opera in Copenhagen and Lucia di Lammermoor at the Swedish summer opera festival “Opera pä Skäret”, which was greatly received by the international critics. Maestro retuned to the Swedish summer opera festival over years, as it follows: in 2014 for Otello, in 2015 for La Traviata and 2017 for a series of 12 performances of Madama Butterfly.

Born in South of Italy, she began her studies on the piano. Then she graduated in Composition, Orchestra Conducting and also in Literature and music history with a thesis on Luciano Berio.

She holds a master’s degree in onducting under the guidance of Jorma Panula, Bruno Bartoletti, Lu-Jia, Alain Lombard, Donato Renzetti e Piero Bellugi.

She has performed in venues like Musikverein and Konzerthaus in Wien, Esterazy Palace in Eisenstadt, Smetana Hall in Prague, Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari, Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence, Surayya Opera in Istanbul. She collaborated with artists like Calogero Palermo, Omar Tomasoni, Carlo Parazzoli, Silvia Careddu, Patrick Messina, Sergey Galaktionov, Davide Alogna, Marco Rizzi, Anna Serova, Roman Spitzer, Emanuele Silvestri, Gernot Süßmuth, Felix Schwarz.

In 2018 she was nominated as Music Director of AYSO Orchestra, a youth orchestra composed by about 70 musicians from all over Italy; in just a few years AYSO has become a national reference point and a valuable trait d'union between academic training and the world of professional orchestras.

She recently led AYSO to win first prize at International Summa Cum Laude Festival in Wien against orchestras from all over the world.