Wanda Landowska Festival & Competition
MASTERCLASS
CLAUDIO ASTRONIO - HARPSICHORD
& CHAMBER MUSIC
“Non star soggetto a battuta…”
What’s in and behind the scores of Harpsichord’s music from 1500 to contemporary
The course is open to students of all levels and ages interested in studying the stylistic and interpretive aspects of Baroque music, as well as basso continuo performance practice and improvisation for those interested. The programme is free.
The lessons are individual, but it is strongly recommended that each participant attends all the others' lessons to maximise the benefit of the course. At the end of the course, there will be a public performance by the participants. At the end of the course, a certificate will be issued to all participants who have attended the course.
Terlizzi, May 6 & 7 2024
Church of Madonna di Costantinopoli, Via Gioacchino Gesmundo n. 25
Assistant NIJOLÄ– DOROTÄ–JA BENIUŠYTÄ–
Instruments available during the Masterclass by Atelier Cembali Ciocca:
Italian Harpsichord copy after Grimaldi
French Harpsichord copy after Blanchet
German Harpsichord copy after Mietke
Registration fee - € 20
Individual course fee - € 100
Free of charge for student auditors
Maximum number of participants - 8
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Payment of the registration fee should be made by bank transfer payable to:
Associazione Culturale Terra Gialla
Banca Popolare di Bari - di Ruvo di Puglia
Iban: IT57 L054 2441 6500 0000 1007 253
Bic: BPBAIT3B
Object: Registration HARPSICHORD Masterclass 2024
Once the maximum number of students has been reached for each course, the registration will be on the waiting list.
Application and info: wl.harpsichordcompetition@gmail.com
Application Deadline: April 30th 2024
CLAUDIO ASTRONIO
The music shimmers, sparkles and dances; Astronio’s ability to convey the character and emotional dynamic of a vocal line is incredibly beautiful, sensitive, and deeply touching without bordering on cloying sentimentality….
Handel, Arias for Harpsichord - Fanfare, Jan 2013 USA
Claudio Astronio is an eclectic musician: he is harpsichordist and organist and conductor. He actually conducts mainly his early instruments ensemble “Harmonices Mundi” and performed regularly by the most prestigious festivals in Europe, the USA, Japan, Mexico and Canada. He has performed and conducted with such musicians as Emma Kirkby, Max Van Egmond, Dan Laurin, Gemma Bertagnolli, Susanne Ryden and Gustav Leonhardt. He has participated in numerous radio and television broadcasts all over the world: his several harpsichord and organ recordings have received many international awards from magazines like Musica, CD Classica, Amadeus, Musica, Classic Voice, Alte Musik Aktuelle, Diapason (Diapason d’Or 2003), Repertoire, Le monde de la musique (“Choc”, July 2001), El Paìs, Ritmo, Diverdi, Goldberg, Continuo and Fanfare and Gramophone.
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In 2007 his debut as opera conductor with Gluck’s “Orfeo e Euridice” produced by Ravenna Festival, directed by Graham Vick and a stage version of Bach’s Matthaeus Passion in a dance project with the choreographer Ismael Ivo and with the London dance company of Henry Oguike as well.
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After the worldwide success of the recordings Wilhelm Friedemann Bach Harpsichord Concerts and the Oratorio di San Giovanni Battista by Alessandro Stradella (“This may be the finest recording to date of a vocal work by Stradella” New Olde, USA), he recently published for Brilliant Classics the Italian Arias and the Duets of the same author together with Emma Kirkby, Susanne Ryden, Martin Oro and Lisandro Abadie, which have been awarded as CD of the Month by the magazine MUSICA, and the duetti with Emma Kirkby and Sergio Foresti.
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In 2017 Brilliant Classics published the world premiere recording of the Complete Works for Keyboard by Wilhelm Friedemann Bach which gained several prizes, CD of the month and CD of the year in the USA, and was nominated for Grammy Awards.
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Since 2012 is principal conductor of the THERESIA youth baroque orchestra, mainly performing classic and pre-romantic symphonic repertoire with early instruments. Among his musical interests are also Jazz and pop music; recently he released with the jazz-singer Maria Pia de Vito, Michel Godard and Paolo Fresu the crossover CD “Coplas a lo divino” among early music and improvisation together with other recent projects like “Napoli!” with Maria Pia and Michel, and Le chant du Serpent with Michel Godard, Lucas Niggli and Fanny Paccoud. His last two projects with the singer Laura Catrani face contemporary with baroque and are called “Highlands& Sea” and “Flowing Water”.
He held masterclasses in Tokyo, Oberlin Conservatoire and other Academies in Europe, USA, Japan and has been guest teacher at the Royal College of Music in London: is member of the Doctorate Commission Board at Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and currently teaches harpsichord, historical keyboards and chamber music at the Conservatorio “A. Scontrino” in Trapani, where he’s also member of Academic Council . Very active with Erasmus+ project and former member of the board of directors of the REMA (Reseau Europeen de Musique anciénne).
He is member of the artistic commission of Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition in Bolzano, and founding member and artistic director of the early music festival “Antiqua” in Bolzano in the frame of Bolzanofestivalbozen.