Teresa Satalino
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.
She is also Artistic Director of AYSO Youg Soloist, a chamber orchestra with an intense concert activity which recently was guest of Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Praga and of the Italian Embassy in Wien.
She has conducted in international festivals such as the Italian Brass Week, the Walton Foundation International Festival, the Como Città Classica Festival at the Teatro Sociale in Como, the International Festival of Youth Orchestras in Florence, and the Napoli Teatro Festival. She conducted a world premiere performance at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino under the patronage of the Italian Space Agency and the first Italian performance of Ayre, an extraordinary cycle of folk songs by Argentine composer Osvaldo Golijov with materials from Arabic, Jewish and Sephardic sources.
She combines artistic activity with teaching: she is a Professor at the Nino Rota Conservatory of Monopoli.
Michał Balas
Cello
Born in 2001 in Cracow, Poland. Currently studying his Masters of Arts Degree at Musik Akademie Basel in the class of Prof. Danjulo Ishizaka.
Michał Balas is an active soloist and a chamber musician. Despite his young age, he had the chance to perform in many renowned concert halls, including Berlin Philharmonic, Herkulessaal in Munich, Concert Hall of the Ferenc Liszt Academy in Budapest, Big Hall of Mozarteum University in Salzburg, Stadtcasino Basel, Warsaw National Philharmonic, Bedrich Smetana Hall in Prague, among others.
He is a winner of many international competitions. His biggest success is winning the First Prize and a Special Prize for the best performance of a piece composed by a Maltese composer during the “Classic Strings Competition” in Dubai (2022). This competition provides a tour consisting of 10 solo performances in major European concert halls. In 2018 he was awarded with First Prize and a Special Prize for the best performance of a contemporary work during the “Johansen International Competition for Young String Players” in Washington D.C. He also became the first Grand Prix Winner at the “Dominik Połoński Hommage Competition”in Łódź, Poland (2021).
In 2023 he was named “Classic FM 30 under 30 Rising Star” – a prestigious British plebiscite, that recognises successful young musicians, that already proved themself on international arenas. In 2022 he became a nominee during the “Corypheus of Polish Music Award” in the “Discovery of the Year” category. In 2021 he received a title “Polish Cello Personality 2021”.
He had the chance to meet and work with renowned musicians and professors, such as: Prof. Robert Levin, Steven Isserlis, Prof. Claudio Martinez-Mehner, Prof. Arto Noras, Prof. Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt, Prof. Laurence Lesser, just to name a few. He also had the opportunity to meet and learn from world-class composers, for example György Kurtág and Krzysztof Penderecki.
In 2020 he created a chamber ensemble with a pianist Mikołaj Woźniak, with whom he had the chance to perform on classical music festivals in Denmark, Spain, Switzerland and Poland. They regularly record chamber music pieces as well. Piano Trios and String Quartets are also among Michał’s interests. He was the 1st cellist of Penderecki Youth Orchestra.
He is a scholar of LYRA Stiftung, Swiss Foundation for Young Musicians and Musik Akademie Basel.
He performs on an instrument from 1718, made by Carlo Antonio Testore.
AYSO Orchestra
AYSO Orchestra is a youth orchestra permanently directed by Maestro Teresa Satalino. The musicians of AYSO come from all over Italy and attend OrchestrAcademy, an orchestral training academy that offers professional paths to support the careers of young musicians. OrchestrAcademy constitutes a valuable trait d'union between the system of High Artistic and Musical Education and the world of work in professional orchestras, as musicians are offered the precious opportunity to work with conductors and first-part musicians of major national and international orchestras. Founded with the aim of enhancing young Apulian talents, AYSO has become in just a few years a reference point in the field of youth orchestras, attracting musicians from all over Italy and now also musicians from abroad, becoming a national excellence.
AYSO guests included Luca Ranieri, Vincenzo Venneri, Andrea Corsi and Francesco Pomarico from the Orchestra Nazionale della RAI, Silvia Careddu and Patrick Messina from the Orchestre National de France, Sandro Laffranchini, Danilo Rossi and Emanuele Urso from the Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala, Carlo Parazzoli and Francesco Bossone from the Orchestra Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, violinist Davide Alogna, violinist Marco Rizzi, international violist Anna Serova, Omar Tomasoni and Calogero Palermo from the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Luca Vignali from the Orchestra del Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Sergey Galaktionov, Vincent Lepape and Amedeo Cicchese from the Orchestra del Teatro Regio di Torino, Domenico Zicari from the Orchestra del Teatro della Fenice, Antonio Bossone and Ermanno Calzolari from the Orchestra del Teatro San Carlo, Alex Elia, Roman Spitzer and Emanuele Silvestri from the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Cecilia Radic from the Royal Academy of Manchester, Hakan Sensoy, principal conductor of the Izmir State Symphony Orchestra and Istanbul Chamber Orchestra, Nir Kabaretti from the Santa Barbara Symphony.
AYSO Orchestra recently triumphed for the second consecutive year at the prestigious Summa cum Laude International Competition in Vienna, winning over the international jury and winning first prize in the Youth Symphony Orchestra category. Outperforming competing orchestras from Taiwan, the United States and Spain, AYSO played in the Golden Hall of the Musikverein, distinguishing itself for the quality of the performance, the attention to detail, and the great professionalism of the musicians and soloists. The Orchestra also performed in several theatres considered temples of classical music, such as the Smetana Hall in Prague, the Haydn Saal in the Esterhazy Palace and the Konzerthaus in Vienna, where the young musicians were honoured in the presence of orchestras from all over the world.
AYSO also proudly represented Italy by collaborating with the Italian Cultural Institutes and the Italian Embassies in Prague and Vienna and by performing in the concert hall of the Prague Conservatory, one of the oldest in Europe, and in Metternich Palace, seat of the Italian Embassy in Vienna.
AYSO inaugurated 2023 with an important concert conducted by Maestro Teresa Satalino at the Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari for the Concerti del Mattino season organised by the Petruzzelli Foundation, gaining great success with the public and critics.
In 2022 OrchestrAcademy received the prestigious recognition of the Ministry of Culture by being included, with the AYSO Young Soloists project, in the instrumental ensemble section of the FUS (Fondo Unico per lo Spettacolo).
OrchestrAcademy has started a fruitful collaboration with the Department of Tourism, Economy of Culture and Territorial Development of the Region of Puglia with a series of activities at the Kursaal Santalucia Theatre in Bari, which has become a precious sound casket, hosting masterclasses with big names from the international classical music scene, concerts and training activities for young audiences. AYSO Orchestra turned out to be the only youth orchestra eligible for the Expression of Interest called by the Region of Apulia
with Executive Determination no. 45 of 17/03/2023 - Regional Law no. 32 of 29 December 2022, art. 64 entitled "Contribution to Apulian Youth Symphony Orchestras".
The Orchestra played for the Italian Cultural Institute in Prague and Vienna and at the Metternich Palace for a concert in cooperation with the Italian Embassy in Vienna. AYSO played at the Teatro Sociale in Como; for the International Festival organised by the Walton Foundation in Ischia; it was a guest of the Napoli Teatro Festival playing at the Palazzo Reale. The orchestra inaugurated the Italian Brass Week at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino performing with the brass soloists of the Maggio in a world premiere under the
patronage of the Italian Space Agency and also collaborated with the CMC Orchestra of New York.
The OrchestrAcademy Association was the winner of the Puglia Sounds Producers 2021 and 2022 calls for proposals with the projects OrchestrAzione and Vita da leggio (directed by Alessandro Piva). The Orchestra has collaborated on several occasions with the Fondazione Nuovo Teatro Verdi in Brindisi and the Direzione Generale Musei della Puglia, with concerts held at the Castello Svevo in Bari. For two consecutive years, with the projects OrchestrAcademy Lab and OrchestrAcademy Lab_Pro Ukraine, it was one of the winners of the 'Orizzonti solidali' (Solidarity Horizons) call for proposals of the Megamark Foundation. The Classica4Youth project 2021 was sponsored by the Presidency of the Regional Council with the support of the Guarantor of the Rights of the Child of the Region of Puglia.