Stefano Montanari graduated
cum laude in
Violin and Piano and received a M.A. in Chamber Music with Pier Narciso
Masi at
Florence’s Music Academy. He then received the Soloist Diplom in Violin
Performance at the Swiss- Italian School of Music in Lugano, under the
guidance
of Carlo Chiarappa; S. Montanari focused his studies on historically
informed
practice. Since 1995 he has been the Principal violin at the Accademia
Bizantina in Ravenna and he collaborated with leading exponents in the
field of early music, particularly with Christophe Rousset and his
ensemble,
Les Talents Lyriques. M° Montanari teaches Baroque Violin at the
International
Academy of Music in Milan and he also teached at the "E.V.
Dall’Abaco" Music Conservatory in Verona. He also held master classes
at
the Ancient Music Academy in Urbino. He taught Baroque Violin and
Chamber Music
at the Music Conservatories in Cesena, Parma, Pesaro, Piacenza and at
Lugano’s
Swiss- Italian School of Music between 1993 and 1999. Stefano
Montanari is Principal Director of the “Jugendspodium Dresden-Venice”
project. His method for Baroque Violin is recently published by
Carisch.
S. Montanari made his
conducting debut
with an As.Li.Co. production of Le nozze di Figaro with the
Orchestra
I Pomeriggi Musicali di Milano, followed by Mozart’s Messa KV 337
on
the podium of the Accademia Bizantina. He was Konzertmeister in several
performances of Concerto Köln. He participated in various concerts as
both
conductor and violin solo: Haydn’s The Seven Last Words and
Vivaldi’s Four
Seasons with Accademia Bizantina; series of concerts with Vivaldi
and
Mendelssohn repertoire with Orchestra 1813. He conducted Vivaldi’s Four
Seasons with the Baroque Orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di
Santa
Cecilia in Rome, for a Christmas Gala Concert in 2007 and for a gala in
honor
of the 150th anniversary of Italy’s unification, events that
were
both live broadcast on national television.
Highlights of his conducting
career in
the early years include regular collaborations with Teatro Donizetti in
Bergamo
(Don Gregorio; L’Elisir d'Amore; Don Pasquale
and
Piccinni’s La Cecchina, ossia la Buona Figliuola) and Opéra
de Lyon (Don
Giovanni, Così fan tutte, Le nozze di Figaro); and also Don
Pasquale in Mantua; L’Elisir d’Amore in Lucca; series of
concerts
in Canada with the ARION ensemble; Semiramide riconosciuta at
the
Musique Baroque de Beaune and in Santiago de Compostela; Don
Giovanni
at the Opera-Atelier in Toronto. He started a research project that
aims at
producing the critical edition of operas of the 19th Century,
particularly
Donizetti, in collaboration with scholars of the Hochschule der Künste
Bern.
Amongst his past engagements it is worth mentioning L'inganno
Felice,
Così Fan Tutte, La cambiale di matrimonio, L'Elisir d'amore at the
Teatro La Fenice in Venice; Die Zauberfloete and Carmen
(awarded
as the best opera staged in 2012 season), Le Comte Ory at the
Opera
the Lyon; Dido and Aeneas at the Teatro Ristori in
Verona
where he returned conducting Rossini's Stabat Mater, Il Barbiere
di
Siviglia and Barocco Remix, a ballet based on baroque
music
at the Teatro Filarmonico; Liederabend in Florence; Il
barbiere di
Siviglia in Palermo; Bach's Sonatas and Partitas in
Taranto; Così
fan tutte in Moscow; concerts in Milan with the Orchestra I
Pomeriggi
Musicali and in Montréal with the Arion Baroque Orchestra as well as in
Palermo, Florence, Turin and Bern. Maestro Montanari received huge
acclaim for
his baroque tour in Australia with the Brandeburg Cosort. In Venice,
where
he regularly appears both in opera and concert, he conducted also
Caldara's Dafne and Cavalli's Eritrea (first
performance in modern times), L'Inganno Felice and Don
Giovanni.
Latest engagements include: Il
Barbiere di Siviglia at the baths of Caracalla in Rome; Dido
& Aeneas, Bach's B minor mass and other symphonic
concerts at
the Opera in Florence; Il viaggio a Reims (new production by
Damiano Michieletto) at the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam; Don
Giovanni
at the Arena in Verona; Le nozze di Figaro for
OperaLombardia; La clemenza di Tito at the Tchaikovsky
Concert Hall
with the State Chamber Orchestra of Russia; Così fan tutte at
the
Bolshoi Theater in Moscow; Rinaldo on European tour in
Brussels, Paris
and Karlsruhe and a concert in Grenoble with the ensemble Il Pomo
d’oro; Die
Entführung aus dem Serail, Alceste, Don Giovanni (also in tour in
Oman),
La Cenerentola and Rodelinda in Lyon; L’elisir d’amore, Die
Lustige Witwe e Il barbiere di Siviglia in
Venice; Rossini’s Stabat Mater with the Warsaw
Philarmonic Orchestra in Warsaw; Agrippina and La
clemenza di Tito in Antwerpen; Il viaggio a Reims and Le
nozze di Figaro (new production by Graham Vick) and La
Cenerentola at
the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome; Le nozze di Figaro di
Cagliari; Mosè in Egitto at the San Carlo in Naples; Don
Giovanni in Moscow; La Clemenza di Tito in Antwerp; La
Cenerentola at the Edinburgh Festival with the Opéra in Lyon; his
debut at the Royal Opera House in London conducting Mozart's Così
fan
tutte; Iphigenie en Tauride in Stuttgart; L'Elisir d'amore and Pagliacci in Turin; Anna Bolena in Geneve; Vivaldi 's Four Season and a series of concerts at the Pomeriggi Musicali in Milan; Donizetti's Le nozze in Villa and a gala concert at the Festival Donizetti in Bergamo; Il barbiere di Siviglia and Die Lustige Witwe in
Rome; Hasse's Enea in Caonia in Rome and Herne. Stefano Montanari conducted Gianni Schicchi, opera movie directed by Damiano Michieletto producted by Genoma Film.
Future plans include Messiah in Lyon and Paris; Rigoletto at the Royal Opera House in London; Die Entfuhrung aus dem serail, La Cenerentola and Agrippina a Monaco; Le nozze di Figaro in Zurich; Il Barbiere di Siviglia in Vienna; the
Donizetti Maria Stuarda and Roberto Devereux at the Grand Théâtre de
Genève; series of concerts at the I Pomeriggi Musicali in Millan and in Stockolm.
Mr. Montanari has recorded
for Foné,
Frequenz, Denon, Opus 111, Erato, Virgin, Tactus, Astrée, Thymalus,
Simphonya,
Bottega Discantica, Decca, Oiseau Lyre and Naïve (receiving the MIDEM
international award as best baroque recording both in 2007 and 2010).
His
recording of Corelli’s Violin Sonatas op. 5 for Arts
received widespread recognition and numerous international prizes,
including a
Diapason d’Or. He was recently nominated for a Grammy Award (Best
Classical
Vocal Solo) for his recording of Purcell’s O Solitude with
Andreas
Scholl, Christophe Dumaux and Accademia Bizantina for Decca. His
recording of
Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas has just been published for the
Italian music magazine Amadeus.
November 2021