Orchestra
Ballet School
The two-year program of the La Scala Academy Orchestra prepares young musicians for their future career by offering them thorough preparation in the symphonic, opera, and ballet repertoire.
The curriculum includes individual lessons in the chosen instrument, chamber music, and section rehearsals led by the First Chairs of the Teatro alla Scala Orchestra. This is complemented by an intensive performance schedule in Italy and abroad under the guidance of some of the world’s most eminent orchestra conductors.
The musicians have the opportunity, first and foremost, to perform at Teatro alla Scala, where they not only take part every year in a title on the regular La Scala opera program but are also engaged for Ballet Corps productions and numerous concerts. Performances in Piermarini’s auditorium between 2007 and 2019 have included Così fan tutte, Le nozze di Figaro, L’occasione fa il ladro, L’italiana in Algeri, Don Pasquale, La scala di seta, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Giselle, Onegin, Histoire de Manon, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Die Zauberflöte, Hänsel und Gretel, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, Gianni Schicchi, Prima la musica e poi le parole, and Rigoletto. The Academy students have also provided the music for the “Big Shows for Little People” program, which has been acquainting children with musical theatre since 2014 with reduced versions of major titles. In 2018, the Orchestra accompanied the Bolshoi Dance Company in La Bayadère.
The Orchestra has performed in a long list of theatres, music societies, and international festivals, including the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, the Saint Petersburg Philharmonia, the Royal Opera House in Muscat, the Harris Theatre in Chicago, Strathmore Hall in Washington D.C., the Peter Norton Symphony Space in New York, the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland, the Richardson Auditorium at Princeton University, La Fenice of Venice, Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Teatro San Carlo in Naples, Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari, Teatro Bellini in Catania, the RAI Auditorium in Turin, the Ravello Festival, the Kissinger Sommer Festival, and the Wolfegger Festspiele.
Eminent conductors have taken their turns on the podium: Roberto Abbado, Marc Albrecht, Giovanni Antonini, John Axelrod, Roland Böer, Paolo Carignani, David Coleman, Ottavio Dantone, Óliver Diaz, Placido Domingo, Gustavo Dudamel, Christoph Eschenbach, Vladimir Ivanovič Fedoseev, Iván Fischer, Ádám Fischer, Lawrence Foster, Marco Guidarini, Theodor Guschlbauer, Michael Halász, Manfred Honeck, Fabio Luisi, Susanna Mälkki, Michele Mariotti, Zubin Mehta, Pietro Mianiti, Gianandrea Noseda, Daniel Oren, Evelino Pidò, Stefano Ranzani, Donato Renzetti, Daniele Rustioni, Mikhail Tatarnikov, Yuri Temirkanov, Lorenzo Viotti, and Massimo Zanetti. The Orchestra has also accompanied artists of the caliber of David Fray, Herbie Hancock, Olga Kern, Lang Lang, Andrea Lucchesini, Francesco Manara, Fabrizio Meloni, Miriam Prandi, Alessandro Taverna, Simon Trpčeski, Alexei Volodin, Giovanni Andrea Zanon.
THANKS TO: Fondazione Gatta Trinchieri
