Massimo Mercelli

flutist

Massimo Mercelli is, perhaps, the flautist in the world with the most important dedications and cooperations ; star composers as Penderecki, Gubaidulina, Glass, Nyman, Bacalov, Morricone, Sollima wrote and/or performed with him. flute with the famous flautists André Jaunet and Maxence Larrieu. At just nineteen years of age, he became the first flute at Teatro La Fenice in Venice, and subsequently won the Prize Francesco Cilea, the Concorso Internazionale Giornate Musicali and the Concorso Internazionale di Stresa. He has performed as a soloist in some of the world most prestigious concert halls, like Carnegie Hall of New York, Moscow Conservatory, Oslo’s Conserthuset, Monaco’s Herkulessaal and Gasteig, Colon Theatre of Buenos Aires, RAI Auditoriums at

Turin and Naples, Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, St-Martin-in-the-Fields of London, Mozarteum of Salzburg, Victoria Hall of Geneva, Parco della Musica of Rome and Saint Petersburg Philarmonic, and important festivals, such as Ljubljana, Berlin, Santander, Beethoven of Bonn, Saint Petersburg, Cervantino, MiTo Milan and Turin, Rheingau and Jerusalem.

He has worked with artists such as Yuri Bashmet, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Krzysztof Penderecki, Philip Glass, Peter-Lukas Graf, Maxence Larrieu, Aurèle Nicolet, Cecilia Gasdia, Anna Caterina Antonacci, Susanna Mildonian, Federico Mondelci and Patrizia Tassini, and with orchestras such as the Moscow Soloists, the Lituanian National Symphony Orchestra, the Wiener Symphoniker, the European Union Chamber Orchestra, the Soloists of Teatro alla Scala, the Roma Opera House Orchestra, the Salzburg Soloists, the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, the Slovenian Radio and Television Orchestra and the Riga Philharmonic Orchestra.

Massimo Mercelli is artistic director and founder of Emilia Romagna Festival. Since 2001 he is a member of the board of counselling of the European Festivals Association (EFA) and on April 2011 he was elected vice president. More recently he performed at London’s Wigmore Hall and Salzburg’s Mozarteum, held a Master Class at the Rostropovich Foundation and played the first performance of Philip Glass’s composition “Façades” for flute and piano, with the composer at the piano. On 11 September 2006 he performed at the Dag Hammarskjold Library Auditorium of the United Nations. He performed in the Berliner Philharmonie with Berliner Philarmoniker and in the Big Hall of Moscow Conservatory, in a Gala Concert with Yuri Bashmet and Gidon Kremer. Massimo Mercelli has made two tournée with “I Virtuosi Italiani”, conducted by Krzsystof Penderecki, playing his Sinfonietta for flute and strings.

He performed the World Premiere of the new Cantata “Vuoto d’Anima Piena” by Ennio Morricone, under the baton of the composer and he has taken part in the Festival at Warsaw Philharmonic for the 75 years of Maestro Penderecki. In the 2009-10 season he played in Milan at MiTo Festival, at Prague’s National Theatre with Denyce Graves, in China with Luis Bacalov at Shangahi EXPO, at Vienna MusikVerein and he performed the World Première of the concert for flute and orchestra by Michael Nyman dedicated to him. In January 2011 he played at Čajkovskij Hall in Moscow under the conduction of Yuri Bashmet and in November he played at MusikVerein in Wien.

In 2012 the Orange Mountain Record has released “Massimo Mercelli performed Philip Glass” CD with Philip Glass’s chamber music for flute. Mercelli has been a jury member of the following international competitions: International Competition of Geneva; Concours de Flute Jean-Pierre Rampal – Concours Internationaux de la Ville de Paris, Concert Artist Guild of New York (USA), Fischoff Chamber Music Competition of South Bend (USA) Beijing Flute competition (China).Apprezzato didatta ha tenuto Masterclass e Docenze

presso: Oslo Norges Musikkhogskole (Norway);Sibelius Academy in Helsinki (Finland); Cleveland Institute of Music (USA); Akron University (USA); Trinity college of music (UK); Mannes School of New York (USA); Singapore Conservatory (Singapore) Oberlin Conservatory (USA); Bankok University (Thailand); North Carolina University (USA); Universitad of Santiago(Chile); Taiwan University (Taiwan); Matan Project –Tel Aviv (Israel); Rostropovich Foundation (Vilnius, Lithuania).

Recent engagements include the recording of Bach’s sonatas for Decca with Ramin Bahrami, the world première of the new concerto dedicated to him by SOFIA GUBAIDULINA and participation to the concert for the 80th anniversary of Kzrysztof Penderecki with the Warsaw Philharmonic and Sinfonietta for flute and strings, a piece that he performs exclusively. For his work as a promoter of Music, he was awarded twice by the European Commissioner for Culture JAN FIGEL and by the French deputy minister for Culture (Prague University and Paris, Centre Pompidou).