Pedro Memelsdorff – President
A music director, medievalist in musicology and recorder player, Pedro Memelsdorff was born in Argentina, graduated from the Schola Cantorum in Basle and the Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam, and obtained a Ph.D. in Musicology from Utrecht University.
As a musician, he has been a member of Jordi Savall’s Hesperion XX/XXI since 1981 and of a duo with Andreas Staier since 1984. In the late 1980s he played contemporary music with the ensemble Broken Consort Zurich. In 1987 he founded the ensemble Mala Punica, specializing in late medieval polyphony, with which he has performed over four hundred concerts in major early-music venues in Europe and America and published eight CDs that have received over forty international awards.
Memelsdorff and his ensemble Mala Punica have been Artists in Residence at the University of California Davis, at the Amuz in Antwerp, at the Fondation Royaumont in Paris, and Blodgett Distinguished Artists at Harvard University in 2014.
As a musicologist, Memelsdorff regularly publishes in the specialized press. He has authored a monograph on the history and codicology of the Codex Faenza 117 (LIM, Libreria Musicale Italiana, Lucca) and is preparing a further volume on the same MS for Brepols.
Angelo Bartoletti
Angelo Bartoletti
studied violin, viola, composition and orchestral conducting in Florence. In 1970 he made his debut at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, thus starting an international solo career on the viola and viola d’amore. In the same year he was appointed professor in the Italian conservatoires. He won the role of principal violist in orchestras in Florence, Venice, Trieste and Berlin, where he played with conductors of the calibre of G. Solti, E. P. Salonen, R. Chailly, M. Chung, Aronowitsch and D. Oren. Viola soloist of “I Solisti Veneti”, “Musicus Concentus” of Florence, “Solisten Ensemble Berlin”, “Symphonisches Orchester Berlin” and member of the “Oriole Trio Berlin”. He has given First Performances of works by Petrassi, Donatoni, Bussotti, Dalla Vecchia, Bartolozzi, Manzoni. He collaborated with Caterina Bueno for concert lectures at the Université de La Sorbonne, Paris. Founder, director and soloist of the “Symphonia Florentina” with tours and festivals nationwide. He studied Ancient Music in Berlin with K. Machler and in Bologna with L. Rovighi, continuing his research on Treatasies and Methods inherent to performance practice on period instruments. Violist on period instruments with the “Stendhal Quartet” and in Trio with F. Biondi. Viola d’amore soloist with C. Coin and the “Ensemble Baroque de Limoges”. He collaborated for thirty years with J Savall in “Le Concert des Nations”, also as the viola soloist. He has performed a vast repertoire on the violin, viola, Tenor Viola and Viola d’Amore with many different period ensembles (Rome, Paris, Berlin, Seoul, New York, Moscow, Helsinki etc.). He has held concerts on the Tenor Viola in various European festivals and brought the “Viola Alta” of Wagnerian memory back into use. A member of international juries and co-supervisor in university theses, he has held masterclasses at the “Académie Baroque Ambronay” and the ESMUC in Barcelona.
He was the historical-musical consultant for the Florentine Accademia Gallery’s Museum of Musical Instruments, on behalf of the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities, and made recordings with the Tenor Viola “Medicea”, Stradivari, 1690. He carried out a similar role for the Library of Congress in Washington, owner of the contralto viola of the “Medici Quintet”, with which he recorded music from the Tuscan school. Again on period instruments, he recorded the complete Klavier Quartette by J. Brahms with the “Italian Piano Quartet” after the debut in Philadelphia as a “World Première” (record of the year “Répertoire” 1994). With J. Savall he performed Lully’s music for Alain Comeau’s film Tous les matins du monde with Gerard Depardieu (“Cesar d’Or de la musique” 1992). He has recorded about sixty LPs and CDs for Erato, Decca, Astrèe, Opus111, Alia Vox, Symphonia, Virgin Classic.
Matteo Messori
Hailed in November 2011 by the German magazine FonoForum as “entering into the Champions League of the international Bach interpreters” Matteo Messori was born in Bologna where he studied Organ and Counterpoint, graduating cum laude. He studied Harpsichord with Sergio Vartolo at the Conservatories of Mantua and Venice, graduating again cum laude. In addition, he studied Musicology at the University of his native city. He is active as both a harpsichord, organ and clavichord soloist and conductor in Italy, Europe and America, and also works with various chamber ensembles. As means of exploring the musical and cultural relationship between the Italian penisula and the northern musical world in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, Messori founded the ensemble “Cappella Augustana”, which he is conducting in the first complete recording of Heinrich Schütz’ works for Brilliant Classics (Vols. 1-4, 19 CDs).
He also directed, for the Swedish label Mvsica Rediviva, the first sound tribute wholly dedicated to the sacred music by the Kapellmeister in Dresden and organist at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, Vincenzo Albrici (1631-1690/96). He has recorded the third part of the Clavierübung by Johann Sebastian Bach (“5 de Diapason”, March 2008), the Schübler Chorales, 8 great Preludes and Fugues and the Canonical Variations on five historical central German organs. He recorded Die Kunst der Fuge, Musikalisches Opfer and the fragmentary Triple Fugue BWV 1080/19 by J. S. Bach, as a soloist on three several harpsichords (also in Central German style, with 16′ stop), as well as a leader of the ensemble “Cappella Augustana”. He has also recorded for the first time the complete keyboard works by Luzzasco Luzzaschi. Forthcoming the complete keyboard music by Johann Caspar Kerll as harpsichord and organ soloist and as a clavichordist the Inventions & Sinfoniae by Bach. He regularly conducts orchestras and ensembles in Europe (a.o. Capella Cracoviensis, State Chamber Orchestra of the Republic of Belarus, the first Italian stage performance of the Händel oratorio La Bellezza ravveduta with Cappella Augustana). Recently he has performed as harpsichord soloist, conductor at the Great Hall of the St. Petersburg Philhamornia where he gave also a Bach organ recital. As harpsichordist he has performed with the Wiener Philharmoniker and Daniel Harding at the Vienna Konzerthaus. In the Bach-Jahrbuch 2010 he has published a study of the 16′ harpsichord with pedal harpsichord built by Zacharias Hildebrandt for the Collegium Musicum in Leipzig. He teaches organ at the Genoa Conservatory and harpsichord at the Bergamo Conservatory.
Pubblications interviews and compositions:
https://independent.academia.edu/MatteoMessori
https://www.youtube.com/@matteomessori310
Elam Rotem
Elam Rotem is a harpsichordist, composer, and singer. He is the founder and director of Profeti della Quinta. He specialized in historical performance practice at the Schola Cantorum in Basel, and graduated with a master’s degree in continuo playing and another in improvisation and composition. In 2014, Rotem established the award winning resources website Early Music Sources (www.earlymusicsources.com). In 2016, he finished his PhD thesis with distinction (“Early Basso Continuo Practice: Implicit Evidence in the Music of Emilio de’ Cavalieri“), within a new collaborative program between the Schola Cantorum in Basel and the University of Würzburg, Germany.Pan Classics, March 2014.
– Quia Amore Langueo
Song of Songs and Dark Biblical Love Tales.
Pan Classics, May 2015.
– The Lamentations of David
YouTube and streaming services, April 2020
Publications
– Emilio de’ Cavalieri, Lamentations and responsories for the holy week
– PhD: “Early Basso Continuo Practice: Implicit Evidence in the Music of Emilio de’ Cavalieri” (University of Würzburg, 2016) [link]
– The Carlo G Manuscript (ca. 1600–1620)
Selected pieces, edition by Elam Rotem. Free online edition on IMSLP (2017).
– “The Carlo G manuscript: New light on early seventeenth century accompaniment and diminutions practices”, in Basler Beiträge zur Historischen Musikpraxis 39, Schwabe verlag 2019. [Link to download].
Romano Vettori
Romano Vettori had a classical education while studying piano, harpsichord and composition. He has a Degree in Musicology and a Doctorate in Musicology and Musical Heritage from Bologna University. He has published essays in musicological journals and in series with an international distribution, and has made numerous transcriptions of sacred and secular music from the XVI-XVII centuries and the XVIII century. His research concentrates on Renaissance and Baroque music history, in particular regarding Trentino and Northern Italy. In parallel with research, he is deeply involved in organization and musical performance, due to his role as Artistic Director of the Academy of Ancient Music of Rovereto (Euregiomusica Project – Bonporti Baroque Orchestra & Choir, Premio Bonporti International Baroque Violin Competition, Premio Ferrari International Fortepiano Competetition). He conducts both in Italy and abroad and has recorded, mainly unpublished works, (Viadana, Cavalli, De Kerle) for Fonè, Stradivarius and Bongiovanni. Former professor of Musical history and aesthetics and of Choral conducting for music education in Italian Conservatories, he is the Archivist of the Philharmonic Academy of Bologna (founded in 1666).
