Orchestra of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino | Teatro del Maggio

Orchestra of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino

Founded in 1928 by Vittorio Gui as the Stabile Orchestrale Fiorentina, from its inception the Orchestra plays in concerts and operas of the Teatro Comunale. Today it is still considered one of the finest orchestras both by conductors and public.

In 1933, at the birth of the Festival, takes the actual name of Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. After Gui, Mario Rossi became music director in 1937, and after the war, Bruno Bartoletti was given the position.

Major chapters in the history of the Orchestra are the musical direction of Riccardo Muti (1969 – 1981) and that of Zubin Mehta, Principal Conductor since 1985, who every season conducts major symphonic and operatic productions. In the course of its history the Orchestra has been led by some of the greatest conductors such as Victor De Sabata, Antonio Guarnieri, Gino Marinuzzi, Gianandrea Gavazzeni, Tullio Serafin, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Bruno Walter, Otto Klemperer, Issay Dobrowen, Jonel Perlea, Erich Kleiber, Arthur Rodzinski, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Herbert von Karajan, Leonard Bernstein, Thomas Schippers, Claudio Abbado, Lorin Maazel, Carlo Maria Giulini, Georges Prêtre, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Carlos Kleiber, Georg Solti, Riccardo Chailly, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Seiji Ozawa and Daniele Gatti.

With the orchestra have conducted their works, often in world premieres, famous composers such as Richard Strauss, Pietro Mascagni, Ildebrando Pizzetti, Paul Hindemith, Igor Stravinskij, Goffredo Petrassi, Luigi Dallapiccola, Krzysztof Penderecki and Luciano Berio.

Since the fifties, the Orchestra made numerous recordings, also for radio and television, which received major awards including, in 1990, the Grammy Award. The eightieth anniversary of the foundation receives the Fiorino d’Oro of the City of Florence.

THE ORCHESTRA

First violins
Domenico Pierini (violino di spalla)
Ladislao Horváth (concertino con obbligo di spalla e del terzo posto)
Lorenzo Fuoco (concertino)
Gianrico Righele (concertino)
Luisa Bellitto
Luigi Cozzolino
Emilio Di Stefano
Simone Ferrari
Annalisa Garzia
Nicola Grassi
Laura Mariannelli
Leonardo Matucci
Fabio Montini
Boriana Nakeva
Anna Noferini
Angel Andrea Tavani

Second violins
Marco Zurlo (I)
Alessandro Alinari (I)
Alberto Boccacci (II)
Luigi Papagni (II)
Orietta Bacci
Laura Bologna
Mihai Chendimenu
Corinne Curtaz
Cosetta Michelagnoli
Carmela Panariello
Rossella Pieri
Giacomo Rafanelli
Sergio Rizzelli
Tommaso Vannucci

Violas
Igor Polesitzky (I)
Jörg Winkler (I)
Lia Previtali (II)
Herber Dézi (II)
Andrea Pani
Stefano Rizzelli
Flavio Flaminio
Antonio Pavani
Naomi Yanagawa
Cristiana Buralli
Donatella Ballo
Michela Bernacchi

Cellos
Patrizio Serino (I)*
Michele Tazzari (II)
Elida Pali (II)
Simão Pedro Alcoforado Barreira
Beatrice Guarducci
Anna Pegoretti
Renato Insinna
Wiktor Jasman
Sara Nanni

Double basses
Riccardo Donati (I)
Marco Martelli (I)
Renato Pegoraro (II)
Fabrizio Petrucci (II)
Stefano Cerri
Romeo Pegoraro
Nicola Domeniconi

Harp
Susanna Bertuccioli (I)

Flutes
Gregorio Tuninetti (I)
Alessia Sordini

Piccolo
Nicola Mazzanti

Oboes
Alberto Negroni (I)
Marco Salvatori (I)
Alessandro Potenza

Cor anglais
Massimiliano Salmi

Clarinets  
Riccardo Crocilla (I)
Giovanni Riccucci (I)
Leonardo Cremonini

Piccolo clarinet
Paolo Pistolesi

Bassoon
Stefano Vicentini (I)
Raffaele Giannotti (I)
Gianluca Saccomani
Francesco Furlanich

Contrabassoon
Stefano Laccu

French horns
Luca Benucci (I)
Gianfranco Dini (I)
Alberto Serpente
Alberto Simonelli
Stefano Mangini

Trumpets
Andrea Dell’Ira (I)
Claudio Quintavalla (I)
Marco Crusca
Emanuele Antoniucci

Trombones
Fabiano Fiorenzani (I)
Andrea G. D’Amico
Massimo Castagnino

Bass trombone 
Gabriele Malloggi

Tuba 
Mario Barsotti

Timpani

Fausto Cesare Bombardieri (I)
Gregory Lecoeur (I)

Percussions

Lorenzo D’Attoma

Organizative secretary of the orchestra 

Luca Mannucci

In italics members with fixed-term contract up to 12 months.