Orchestra:
Orchestra del Teatro Goldoni di Livorno
Orchestra Sinfonica di Sanremo
Conductor:
Smbatyan (Armenia)
Soloist:
Zorman Violin
(Israel)
Programme:G.Rossini
L'italiana in Algeri
Overture
Alexey Shor
Violin Concerto
in B minor
Ludwig van Beethoven
The Symphony No. 6
in F major, Op. 68
G.Rossini
L'italiana in Algeri
Overture
Alexey Shor
Violin Concerto
in B minor
Ludwig van Beethoven
The Symphony No. 6
in F major, Op. 68
Sergey Smbatyan
Acclaimed as a cultural leader in his native Armenia and increasingly in demand on the international stage, Sergey Smbatyan is founder, Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra. In September 2019 he became Principal Conductor of the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra following highly successful tours of Germany, Austria and the United States, including performances at the Berlin Philharmonie, Vienna’s Musikverein and Carnegie Hall.
Music’s power to unite, heal and inspire has driven and sustained Smbatyan since childhood. His mature artistic vision combines lessons learned from the best traditions of Russian music-making and a profound personal commitment to transforming lives through the shared experience of performing and listening. The charismatic conductor’s reputation with fellow musicians and critics alike flows from his technical command, the intensity with which he shapes and communicates musical ideas, the intelligence of his programming, and the spiritual richness and depth of his interpretations.
Sergey Smbatyan was eighteen when he founded the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra in 2006. He has overseen its transformation since from youth ensemble into one of Armenia’s finest professional orchestras. They began 2020 with a landmark European tour, complete with debut appearances at Vienna’s Musikverein, the Berlin Philharmonie, Salzburg’s Großes Festspielhaus, the Barbican Hall in London, Moscow’s Zaryadye Concert Hall, the Gasteig Munich, Stuttgart’s Beethoven Hall and Prague’s Rudolfinum.
Smbatyan’s guest conducting career has flourished in recent seasons, leading to concerts with Sinfonia Varsovia, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the Dresden Philharmonic, Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra and, among others, the Orchestra of the Komische Oper Berlin. He returns to the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra during the 2020-21 season for a European tour comprising concerts at Wiesbaden’s Kurhaus and the Vienna Musikverein. His schedule also includes dates with the Malta Philharmonic, Russian National, Jerusalem Symphony and Royal Philharmonic orchestras as part of the 2021 Malta International Music Festival. Smbatyan will conduct the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra on its first UK tour in September 2021, presenting ten concerts at leading venues in company with Maxim Vengerov as soloist
Known for his imaginative programming, Smbatyan is a determined champion of new music and supporter of emerging talent. He is founder and artistic director of four music festivals in Armenia, Artistic Director of the Aram Khachaturian International Competition and, in October 2019, conducted the WTIC World Orchestra in the first ever concert of music composed by artificial intelligence (AI). His repertoire embraces everything from masterworks of the western symphonic literature to compelling scores by Armenian and other Eastern European composers, many of them commissioned by or specially written for him.
Born in Yerevan in 1987, Sergey Smbatyan showed exceptional musical promise as a child. He received his first violin lessons from his grandmother, Tatiana Hayrapetyan, and continued his training at the Komitas State Conservatory of Yerevan, the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and with Zakhar Bron. He refined his conducting skills while studying for a PhD in fine arts at the Institute of Arts of the Armenian National Academy of Sciences and as a postgraduate student at London’s Royal Academy of Music, where he gained invaluable insights into the conductor’s art from Sir Colin Davis.
Sergey Smbatyan’s list of awards and prizes includes the title of Honoured Artist of the Republic of Armenia, presented by the President of the Republic of Armenia in recognition for his promotion of Armenian music and culture. In 2014 he became the youngest ever worker in the field of the arts and the first Armenian to be appointed Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Ministry of Culture.
Itamar Zorman
Violin
Distinguished by his emotionally gripping performances and gift for musical storytelling, Itamar Zorman is regarded as a singularly soulful and evocative artist. The recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and a Borletti-Buitoni Trust award, Itamar Zorman was also a laureate of the 2011 International Tchaikovsky Competition. He has given recitals at Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, the Louvre Recital Series in Paris, the Laeiszhalle Hamburg, Muziekgebouw Frits Philips in Eindhoven, the HR-Sendesaal Frankfurt and the Kolarac Hall in Belgrade, and at festivals including the Kronberg Academy, Rheingau, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Delft and the Copenhagen Summer Festival, as well as Marlboro, Classical Tahoe and Chamberfest Cleveland in the US.
Itamar Zorman’ solo career encompasses four continents. He has appeared with orchestras in the USA, Europe, Asia and South America, including the American Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Belgrade Philharmonic, Kremerata Baltica, Het Gelders Orkest, Israel Philharmonic, the Tokyo Symphony, the KBS Symphony Seoul, as well as the St. Petersburg Philharmonic and the Russian State Symphony Orchestra “Novaya Rossiya. A committed chamber player, he has led the Mahler Chamber Orchestra play-directed Camerata Nordica and is a founding member of the Israeli Chamber Project. He is also a member of the Lysander Piano Trio, with which he won the 2012 Concert Artists Guild Competition.
Itamar Zorman’s diverse repertoire is reflected in his discography; June 2022 saw the release of his third CD ‘Violin Odyssey’ on the First Hand Records label, featuring seldom heard works by composers such as Schulhoff, Bacewicz, Revueltas and Pejacevic, while his previous CD, ‘Evocation’ (BIS Records, 2019) featured the violin works of Paul Ben-Haim.
Born in Tel-Aviv to a family of musicians, Zorman is a graduate of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, the Juilliard School, where he studied with Robert Mann and Sylvia Rosenberg, and the Manhattan School of Music. He is also an alumnus of the Kronberg Academy where he studied with Christian Tetzlaff.
Itamar Zorman is a recipient of scholarships from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation; he currently plays on a Guarneri Del Jesu from 1734, from the collection of Yehuda Zisapel.
Orchestra del Teatro Goldoni di Livorno
The staff, modulated according to needs, is mainly made up of the elements chosen through a selection organized by the theater in recent times, in which 290 musicians participated, many of whom are already part of the Orchestral Laboratory of the Fondazione Goldoni, located inside the theater from 2010 to 2014.
Orchestra Sinfonica di Sanremo
The Sanremo Symphony Orchestra is one of the oldest and most prestigious Italian musical realities. Founded in 1905, it is part of the 12 State-recognized Orchestral Concert Institutions (ICOs) (since the foundation of the first 6 ICOs in 1967) and is a Cultural Institution of Regional Interest in Liguria. Since 2003 it has acquired the legal status of a Foundation.
In its long history it has seen the greatest international conductors and major international soloists alternate. Carlo Farina (artistic and permanent director from 1953 to 1979, architect of the rebirth and development of the "Symphonic" up to the highest levels), Evelino Pidò (1986-1987), Stefan Anton Reck (1990- 1993). Among the Artistic Directors we remember Roberto Hazon. Alberto Zedda, Bruno Santori (2010-2015). Since 2015, the Artistic and Stable Director is Maestro Giancarlo De Lorenzo.
Attentive to the enhancement of young talents, the Sanremo Symphony is endowed with a great versatility that allows it to perform, always with great recognition, both the classical repertoire, as well as the romantic, modern and contemporary ones.
The main venue of his concerts is the Opera House of the Casino of Sanremo.
The Foundation also brings its musical proposal to places of historical and artistic interest: from the Civic Museum of Sanremo to the Fort of Santa Tecla, from Villa Ormond (where evenings on the themes of music and flowers were created, activating collaborations with the institutions of the Municipality of Sanremo and with the world of Floriculture) to the churches included in the Review of Music in the Churches and to the Roman Theater of Ventimiglia.
The main objective of many of these projects and collaborations is to fit into cultural and non-cultural contexts, usually dedicated to other activities, favoring a new and innovative use and making use of musical mediation.
In order to educate the new generations to listen and understand symphonic music, the Orchestra offers an intense activity dedicated to schools with a varied educational offer.
Since the summer of 2021, the Symphony has brought its summer season to the Alfano Auditorium, reopened after 15 years and destined to become one of the top locations for musical events in Sanremo.