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 Simone Fontanelli - conductor    

Since winning the prestigious VI. Salzburg International Mozart Composition Competition in 1995, Simone Fontanelli has been considered as one of the most interesting and authentic contemporary musical personalities.

As composer and conductor, he has been invited to many international Festivals in Italy, Austria, England, Spain, Hungary, Sweden, Germany, Kazachistan, Israel, Taiwan and USA. He has always received the highest praise for his works: "I treasure his talent very highly…" (György Kurtág). “Fontanelli's music is poetically beautiful, touching” (Muzsika, Hungarian Music Magazine) and his interpretations as a conductor: “It is rare that one's music is prepared with such sensitivity and insight, combined with such superb technical skill” (George Crumb).

In 2003 Mr. Fontanelli was appointed as Director of the Gamper Festival of Contemporary Music (Brunswick, ME - USA) and became a member of the distinguished faculty/artist roster of the prestigious Bowdoin Summer Music Festival in Brunswick,  a position he has also held, since 2008 at the Internationale Sommerakademie Mozarteum in Salzburg.

Since 2000 he has been on the faculty of the University of Mozarteum in Salzburg. He is both founder and conductor of the Amadeus Kammerorchester Salzburg, an acclaimed chamber orchestra devoted to the classical repertoire and whose members are some of the best Alumni of the Mozarteum.

Mr. Fontanelli was born in 1961 in Milan. He studied guitar with Notis Mavroudis and Giorgio Oltremari. He also studied Philosophy at the University of Milan. In 1989, he graduated in Composition from the Conservatorio of Milano, where he’d been a pupil of Davide Anzaghi and Umberto Rotondi. He won the first prize at the Ville de Bagneux International Competition (France 1988).

Mr. Fontanelli studied conducting in Hungary with László Somogyi and Péter Eötvös. He was the conductor of the Milano Ensemble (1985-1988), the Latina Logos Ensemble (1985-1988) and the Nuovi Spazi Sonori Ensemble (1989-1991). He was awarded the “Diploma di Merito” in Instrumental Contemporary Music at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena in 1980 and 1981.

Mr. Fontanelli gives masterclasses and lectures in Music Analysis, Chamber Music, Conducting and Composition. He has been invited to give them at many important universities in Europe, Asia and America including the Juilliard School in New York, the Lamont School in Denver, the Yehudi Menuhin School, the Royal Academy of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, the F. Liszt Academy in Budapest and many others.

...The experienced Italian conductor Simone Fontanelli guided the Manson Ensemble with a sure hand. [...] Webern's Six Pieces opus 6 were well realized, reaching a truly shattering climax.    Barry Millington - The Times

 Paul Roczek - co-founder

Paul ROCZEK was born in 1947 in Vienna and was brilliantly tought in violin by Franz Samohyl and Max Rostal. He was already a member of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra during his studies and later on a member of the famous ensemble "die Wiener Solisten". After having participated succesfully at international competitions he devoted himself especially to chamber music: he founded the Österreichische Streichquartett and the string trio Anton Webern. Paul Roczek performed at international festivals together with a number of important musicians such as Vegh, Gitlis, Leister, Rampal, Menuhin, Engel, Shetler, Kontarsky a.o. Today he is a constant guest on europian concert stages and repeatedly performs overseas. As early as 1969 he took over a class for violin at the university for music Mozarteum in Salzburg and was appointed to a chair 1976. For more than ten years he held the office of the vice rector and has been the director of the International Summer Academy at the Mozarteum between 1990 and 2002.

 Michaela Girardi - Concertmaster  

The young Salzburg violinist Michaela Girardi began to play the violin at the age of six. She studied at the Universität Mozarteum with Professor Paul Rozcek and compleated her studies with Mauricio Fuks at the Indiana University and with Shmuel Ashkenasi at the Musikhochschule in Lübeck. She has also received Masterclasses from musicians such as Lewis Kaplan, Gerhard Schulz, Igor Oistrach, Dmitry Sitkovetsky and Ruggiero Ricci. 

 Michaela has had many successes at competitions, beginning at the age of ten when she was awarded 1st prize at the "Jugend für Mozart" competition. Further on she won numerous other prizes, including first place in 'Prima la Musica', 'Jugend Musiziert' and third place at the Brahms international competition in Pörtschach.  She was awarded the Christa-Richter-Steiner prize from the „Freunde und Förderer“ of the university Mozarteum.

 Already at the age of eleven Michaela Girardi gave her Solo Debut with the Salzburg Symphony Orchestra. Since then she has performed many concertos with various orchestras including the Bruckner Orchester Linz under Dennis Russel Davies, the Nizgny Novgorod Philharmonic, the Bad Reichenhall Philharmonie and the Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss. 2007 she had her Solo Debut in the „Grossem Festspielhaus“ with the Mozarteum Orchestra under Ivor Bolton playing Brahms’ violin concerto.

 Chamber music is a major part in Michaela Girardis musical life. She received inspiration from working with musicians as the Hagen Quartett, Jürgen Geise and members of the Vienna String Sextett. Concerts at festivals and concerthalls such as the Berlin Philharmony, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Beethovenfest Bonn, the Open Chamber Music Seminar in Prussia Cove, the Salzburger Mozartwoche , the Carinthia Summer and the Salzburger Schlosskonzerte.  Her chamber music partners include Martin Grubinger, Per Rundberg, Erich Höbarth, Thomas Riebl, Tibor Benyi, Matthias Bartolomey, Peter Tilling, Christoph Richter, Biliana Tzinlikova and Robert Oberaigner.

 Since 2006 she is a member of the Callino Quartet, one of the best young irish quartets.  2008 they won second prize in the International String Quartet Competition „Tromp“ in Holland. 

 In addition Michaela Girardi is concertmaster of the Amadeus Kammerorchester and the Salzburger Kammerphilharmonie. In 2006 she got invited to lead the orchestra of the Mozarteum in the Salzburg Festival, performing two operas from Mozart. 2009 she led a project with the Camerata Salzburg as concertmaster together with the oboist Francois Leleux.

 Since 2008 she is teaching at the Mozarteum Salzburg as the assistent of Prof. Roczek and is assistent professor at the Sommerakademie in Mühldorf.