Fundraising Concerts Archived

Bach on the Rock presents an exclusive concert of baroque music performed by the prestigious European trio

CONTRASTO ARMONICO

Marco Vitale (Italy) - harpsichord

Enrique Gómez-Cabrero Fernández (Spain) - baroque violin

Romeo Ciuffa (Italy) - recorders and baroque flutes

works by Boismortier, Handel, Matteis, Purcell, Draghi, Telemann, and Rameau

Tuesday, May 14, 2019 7:30 pm @ ArtSpring

This is a fundraising concert for Bach on the Rock, with 50% of the proceeds from ticket sales going to the Bach on the Rock Music Society.

Programme

CONTRASTO ARMONICO

Contrasto Armonico is Marco Vitale (harpsichord), Enrique Gomez-Cabrero Fernandez (baroque violin) and Romeo Ciuffa (baroque flute and recorders). This renowned ensemble based in the Netherlands focuses on the performance of baroque music using copies of original instruments, and historical performance practices. The goal of their ensemble is to get as close as possible to the style and aesthetic intended by the composer of the work. This is Contrasto Armonico’s debut performance on Salt Spring Island. They will perform music from their latest CD "A Musical Banquet" including works by Boismortier, Handel, Matteis, Purcell, Draghi, Telemann, and Rameau. They will bring with them a beautiful single register harpsichord, based on a 17th century Flemish instrument and built by Fabrizio Acanfora in Barcelona. These players are highly respected throughout Europe, and will astound with their musicianship and virtuosity. This is an event not to be missed!

Marco Vitale

Musical director/harpsichord

Marco Vitale was born in Palermo, Italy. He studied piano, organ, harpsichord and composition at Palermo’s V. Bellini Conservatory, where he completed the piano diploma in 2001 and the organ diploma in 2002 with full marks and “Cum Laude”. His concert life began at age of 15, with performances as a soloist and chamber musician. He took part in many international master-classes where he developed his skills and taste for baroque music. In 2002 he moved to The Netherlands where he studied at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. Marco earned a Bachelor’s degree in organ with Jos van der Kooy and a Masters Degree in Early Music (harpsichord) with Ton Koopman.

Marco’s musical career has seen him play in the most prestigious venues and festivals in Europe and the Middle East: Netherlands (Concertgebouw Amsterdam, De Doelen Rotterdam, Philipszaal Eindhoven, Utrecht Oude Muziek Festival), Italy (Teatro Massimo and Teatro Politeama of Palermo, Rome, Milano, Teatro Nuovo in Udine), Austria (Styriarte Festival in Graz), France (Opera de Versailles, Salle Pleyel, Opera de Bordeaux, Arsenal Metz), Spain (Fundación Juan March in Madrid), Germany (Festival Mitte-Europa), Poland (Misteria Paschalia in Kraków, Pieśń Naszych Korzeni in Jarosław), Czech Republic (Festival Mitte-Europa), Hungary (Budapest), Syria (Damascus Opera House and High Institute of Music), as a soloist/ and continuo player.

Marco is the co-founder and musical director of Contrasto Armonico. He is currently involved in the recordings of the Complete Italian Cantatas by Handel (Brilliant Classics), a thrilling project that will bring light on many undiscovered jewels of Handel, which are neither edited nor recorded. He appeared in radio and TV broadcasts (often invited to speak about his Handel project) in Netherlands (AVRO), Germany, Austria (ORF), Spain, Poland (Polskie Radio), Italy (RAI), UK (BBC) and Syria (Syrian National Television).

In addition to performing with Contrasto Armonico, Marco also gives master classes on baroque music in France, Germany, Czech Republic and Syria. He is the musical director of the Damascus Baroque Soloists (Syria) and he is regularly invited to perform with “Le Concert des Nations” and “Hesperion XXI” with Jordi Savall. Marco is conductor at the Warsaw Chamber Opera and runs the Arcadia Early Music Academy, which has offered baroque music courses for amateurs in Europe for 12 years.

Enrique Gómez-Cabrero Fernández

Baroque Violin

Enrique Gómez-Cabrero Fernández was born in Spain. Enrique earned his violin degree with Francisco Comesaña in the Conservatorio Profesional de Música de la Comunidad de Madrid in 2005. In 2006, he started studying baroque violin at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Hague with Ryo Terakado. He studied with and received master-classes from some of the best professionals on the early music stage such as Enrico Gatti, Hiro Kurosaki, François Fernandez, Elisabeth Walfisch, Mira Glodeanu, and Ton Koopman. His musical collaborations include the conductors Jacques Ogg, Michael Chance, Jaap ter Linden, Patrick Ayrton, Peter Van Heygen, and Oscar Gershenshon. Enrique has played with

Orquesta de la Universidad de Salamanca, Orquesta y coro , and La Ritirata and has been invited as a concertino several times by Contrasto Armónico, with whom he recorded the opera Acis, Galatea e Polifemo, the oratorio La Resurrezione, and Roman Cantatas by Handel (Brilliant Classics & AYROS). He has also been invited as guest teacher in the Damascus Conservatory, and as concertino of the Damascus Baroque Soloists. Enrique has participated in the Utrecht Oude Muziek Festival, Utrecht Fringe Festival, Nederland Dietrich Buxtehude Festival and Duinoord Muziek Festival. He has performed in some of the best concert halls in Europe, including the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, Teatro Comunale di Modena and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and has been broadcasted on Dutch Radio 4 and the Spanish RTVE.

Romeo Ciuffa

Recorders and Baroque Flutes

Romeo Ciuffa is from Rome, Italy. He began playing music at eight years of age in a local band, and took his first flugelhorn classes at that time. In 1989 he studied french horn at the Conservatoire of S. Cecilia in Rome, under the supervision of M° Luciano Giuliani. Romeo also studied bass tuba and trombone at the Conservatoire. Here he studied different musical styles, but was most deeply touched and impressed by ancient music from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Romeo then studied the recorder at the Conservatoire “O. Respighi” in Latina instructed by M° Paolo Capirci. He has attended master-classes in Italy and abroad with Marion Verrebruggen, Dan Laurin, Kees Boeke and Pedro Memelsdorff.

Besides his musical experiences in Italy, Romeo has held concerts in China (Beijing), North Korea (Pyongyang) and Mongolia (Ulan Bator), in Russia, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Holland, France, Spain, Switzerland, Zambia, Syria, Germany, Japan, Finland, Estonia, Hungary, Albania. In 1997 Romeo founded the “Arcangelo Corelli Ensemble” with which he recorded ten CDs of excerpts from Seventeenth and Eighteenth century European music. In the following years he joined several Roman musicians specializing in baroque practice and formed the “Cappella Musicale Enrico Stuart Duke of York” giving Mr. Cuiffa the opportunity to record works by M.A. Charpentier, M.R. Delalande, J.P. Rameau, and J.B. de Boismortier. In 2006 Romeo obtained his academic degree in Musicology at the University of Rome “Tor Vergata” summa cum laude. In 2012 he gave a master-class at the Royal College of Music of London at the department for the historical practice guided by Ashley Solomon. He is now the musical director of “Rassegna Cembalistica”, “I Concerti di Campagna”, “MonteCompatri in Jazz”: all musical events promoted in the “Castelli Romani” zone, near Rome, with musicians from all over the world.

Contrasto Armonico will perform on this beautiful Flemish school single manual harpsichord designed and built in 2018 by Fabrizio Acanfora (Barcelona) after the 1638 I. Ruckers double harpsichord. The instrument has an extension of 5 octaves, from FF to f³, with two sets of 8' strings and buff-stop.