Ballet school
The Orchestra was established as part of the advanced courses for musicians and it is currently the only reality that only reality that specialize in the entire orchestral repertoire (symphonic, opera and ballet) for the future career.
The Accademia Orchestra has performed in prestigious theaters, concert societies and festivals of international importance: among others, Teatro alla Scala, La Fenice di Venezia, Auditorium Rai of Turin, Società del Quartetto di Milano, Unione Musicale di Torino, Bologna Festival, Ravello Festival and Kissinger Sommer Festival. There are also numerous tours: in 2008 in the Arab Emirates (Al-ain Classical Music Festival), and, with the Teatro alla Scala, in 2009 in Denmark (Aalborg, Kongres & Kultur Center), in 2010 in Russia (Bolshoi Theater in Moscow) and Philarmonia of St. Petersburg), in 2011, 2012 and 2015 in Oman (Royal Opera House of Muscat), in 2013 again in Russia at the Kaliningrad Opera. In 2013 the Orchestra toured Italy with Fabio Luisi, between Milan, Turin and Bologna and a tour in the United States with Daniele Rustioni, between Chicago and Washington, promoted by the Bracco Foundation for the Year of Italian Culture.
The Orchestra is often called by the Teatro alla Scala for some productions of the Corps de Ballet, including a Midsummer Night’s Dream, Giselle, Onegin and Histoire de Manon; it also participates in the “Progetto Accademia”, a work included in the Verona season entirely entrusted to the students. Among the most recent titles of the project are Così fan tutte, The Marriage of Figaro, The conveniences and theatrical inconveniences, The occasion makes the thief, The Italian in Algiers, Don Pasquale, La scala di seta and Il barbiere di Siviglia.
The direction of the Scala group has alternated artists such as Zubin Mehta, Yuri Temirkanov, Fabio Luisi, Gustavo Dudamel, Gianandrea Noseda, Roland Böer, Marc Albrecht, Ádám Fischer, Stefano Ranzani, Ottavio Dantone, Giovanni Antonini, John Axelrod, Susanna Mälkki, Christoph Eschenbach, Giuseppe Finzi, Daniele Rustioni, David Coleman, Mikhail Tatarnikov, Michele Mariotti, Lorenzo Viotti, Marco Guidarini and Pietro Mianiti have collaborated soloists such as Lang Lang, Herbie Hancok, Alexei Volodin, Simon Trpčeski, David Fray and Olga Kern.
2018-19 Program
The Academy Orchestra, now in the second year of a two-year program, will also occupy the orchestra pit at Teatro alla Scala to accompany the Bolshoi Theatre Ballet Corps, who are back in Piermarini’s auditorium for the first time in eleven years, conducted by Pavel Sorokin in La Bayadère by Petipa with new choreography by Yuri Grigorovich (September 7, 8, 10) and for a concert in SettembreMusica MITO Festival under the baton of Vladimir Fedoseyev (September 15).
In October the students will measure themselves against a conductor of the caliber of Iván Fischer, who will take the podium for the U.S. tour promoted by UBI Banca and Fondazione Milano per La Scala, with the sponsorship of the Italian Embassy, to acquaint the foremost east-coast universities with the La Scala Academy. They will perform in concerts at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland (October 22), the Richardson Auditorium at Princeton University (October 23), and the Peter Sharp Theatre of New York (October 25). The New York concert will be attended by students from the Juilliard School, the Manhattan School of Music, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York University, and Columbia University.
The Orchestra will close out the year 2018 at Teatro alla Scala in a grand gala dedicated to Giuseppe Verdi, accompanying the voices of Maria José Siri, Jorge de Leòn, Simone Piazzola, and Riccardo Zanellato, under the baton of Paolo Carignani.
On February 21, the students are scheduled for another formative experience abroad in the Royal Opera House of Muscat, Oman in a concert conducted by Oliver Diaz with the castanet player Lucero Tena and the budding young virtuoso violinist Giovanni Andrea Zanon. Then, in March, they will be back at Teatro alla Scala for the customary annual performance of the Academy Ballet School, under the musical direction of David Coleman (March 5 and 6) and the annual performance of the soloists in the La Scala Academy of Lyrica Opera (May 9).
Before the double billing conducted by Ádám Fischer concluding the Orchestra’s academic year, on June 30 it will be back at Teatro alla Scala for a special evening in support of the Italian League for the Fight Against Cancer, in a concert conducted by Michele Mariotti.
