Clark College Orchestra Presents Italia

VANCOUVER, Wash. – The Clark College Orchestra, Dr. Donald Appert, Music Director, will present the first concert entitled Italia of its 2008-2009 Season “A European Tour” on Wednesday, December 3, in the Royal Durst Theatre of the Vancouver School of Arts & Academics, 3101 Main St., Vancouver. Italian guest conductor Antonello Gotta will conduct Verdi’s Overture to Nabucco, Tchaikosky’s Capriccio italien, and Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2. The featured soloist will be his colleague from Italy Maurizio Barboro. The performance is at 7:30 p.m., and admission is free and open to the public. Donations to the Orchestra General Fund will be accepted at the door.

Antonello Gotta studied piano, composition, and conducting at the Turin Conservatory and graduated with distinction. Among his many different awards in national and international competitions, he received first prize in the “Robert Schumann” International Piano Competition in 1984. He has worked in Italy and abroad as a pianist and conductor. He has conducted chamber music, symphonic music, and opera in Italy, Rumania, Russia, Germany, France, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Macedonia, Great Britain, and the United States.

From 1989 to 1993 Maestro Gotta was a member of the Central Commission of Music in the Italian Ministry of Tourism. In collaboration with Gualtiero Gatto, he was co-founder of the Italian Opera Company which has recorded more than 40 CD’s for BMG Publications, including Puccini’s “Madame Butterfly” for the Ricordi Publishing House Centennial celebration. Their latest recording “Classics on set” has just been released.

He is often a member of the jury for important musical competitions in Italy and abroad. Currently he is a member of the faculty at the “Giuseppe Verdi” Conservatory in Turin, Italy.

Maurizio Barboro’s musical education took place under the guidance of Lya De Barberiis at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. He won several international piano contests, and in 1980 began an intense concert activity, collaborating with famous conductors and prestigious orchestras all over Europe and in Asia and North America. Since 1996 he is the “artist in residence” of the Dumitrescu Philharmonic Orchestra of Valcea (Romania).

In 1999 Barboro made his debut in the United States, where now he is periodically invited to hold master classes at institutions such as the Boston Conservatory, the Longy School of Music and the Rivers School. In October 2000 he inaugurated the symphonic season of the Berkshire Symphony Orchestra (Massachusetts) with Rachmaninoff’s Second Concert. In April 2001 he played Shostakovich’s Second Concerto, accompanied by the prestigious Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra at the Ateneu Hall of Bucharest. He is also as a member of the Nuovo Quartetto Pianistico Italiano.

Barboro is the holder of the chair of Piano of the Ghedini Conservatory of Cuneo and a teacher at International Specialization Courses. He is a member of the jury of several prestigious international contests, artistic director of the Franz Schubert International Contest and of the Alfredo Casella Musical Association, and president of the Città di Racconigi International Contest. He has recorded the complete collection of Shostakovich’s Concertos for Piano and Orchestra, accompanied by the Belarus National Philharmonic Orchestra, and a CD in world premiere with the Nuovo Quantetto Pianistico Italiano.