XXII International Brass Festival Italian Brass Week
From 1st until 8th August 2021
Italian Brass Week 2021
for this edition, all festival members will be guaranteed the following activities included in the membership fee that must be paid at the time of your "Application" at the festival:
- RC insurance of all participants (does not include theft and damage to instruments and personal effects)
- Student Secretariat active for every need - available every day for further information about Hotels, Restaurants and everything you need to feel good in Florence. The students' Tutors will be your contact persons for any doubts and needs during the festival. On the first day they will make you discover the beauty and grandeur of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino theater, they will indicate the protocol to be observed and show you the different classrooms where you will teach.
- 2 Lessons of 30 minutes with each teacher that can be fixed through an app that will be forwarded to you once registration is regular
- From 2 to 7 August every day from 8.15 am the Breathing Gym which will take place outdoors
- From 2 to 7 August every day there will be singing and chamber music lessons for which the ensemble must be selected
- During the festival there will be two concerts, of which a happening, where you will be the protagonists
- Free admission to evening concerts where the artists of the Italian Brass Week will perform
- On August 8, the diplomas of merit will be delivered, participation is the one relating to the winners of the Wings to Talent 2021 award.
Anti-contagion protocol:
Italian Brass Week cares about your safety and To ensure the safety of everything and prevent coronavirus contagion, compliance with simple rules of conduct is required, such as:
- At the beginning of the festival you will find a station where you can perform the serological test, if you want to perform the test yourself, it must not be earlier than 48 before the start of the festival
- Daily measurement of body temperature at the entrance
- Maintaining interpersonal distance and mandatory use of the mask
Please refer to the competent health authorities regarding the health regulations that students arriving from abroad will have to follow.
20
200 membership fee (tutti) 300 tuition fee
Luca Benucci
Principal Horn, Orchestra Maggio Musicale Fiorentino
Luca Benucci’s vast performing and didactic career spans over 25 years and has left an indelible mark on the international music scene. Championing all genres of music under the batons of the most notable Orchestral Directors of our time, developing unique and varied Jazz, Chamber and Solo programs collaborating closely with Jazz and Classical Virtuosi and Pop/Rock stars alike, and by innovating new pedagogical approaches to performance and practice methodology, Mr. Benucci has positively influenced and enriched the lives of numerous professionals, amateurs, students, and audience members throughout the world.
Mr. Benucci has been invited to play as Guest Principal Horn in many prestigious Orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Berliner Philharmoniker, Staatskapelle Solisten Berlin, Super World Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, Teatro alla Scala di Milano, Orchestra Sinfonica di Barcelona, and the Radio Orchestra Svizzera Italiana. He still holds the full-time position of principal horn in the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Orchestra since 1995, under direction of Zubin Mehta.
When he isn’t working in the Orchestra, many of his other projects are done in collaboration with artists and musicians in chamber groups such as the Nuovo Quintetto Italiano, Italian Brass Ensemble, and the Brass Dimension Ensemble.
In addition to his musical work, Mr. Benucci founded and acts as artistic director of the Italian Brass Week, an annual international brass symposium and festival now in its 21st season, and the Italian Brass Academy in order to provide easily accessible world-class education to students from both Italy and around the globe. He has also established musical organisations and groups such as the Italian Chamber Orchestra, Mimesis Formazione, Maggio Formazione, Sardinia Brass Festival, Santa Fiora in Musica, Note di Viaggio, and Meet the Soloists - a project that brings Principal players and Soloists from the Maggio Musicale together for intimate and informal concerts and lectures.
As a highly sought after instructor, Mr. Benucci has held masterclasses in the most acclaimed Universities and Conservatories in the world, including Boston University, Roosevelt University, Juilliard School of Music, Curtis Institute of Music, Boston Conservatory, Indiana University, Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music, Ankara University, Ionian University of Corfu, Maastricht Conservatory, Barcelona Conservatory, Tel-Aviv and Jaffa Universities, Musashino Music College of Tokyo, and the Shanghai Conservatory. He has also been invited as a guest teacher to international Brass Festivals in Hiroshima, Yamagata, Costa Rica, and Spain.
In his spare time, Luca is an avid chef and gastronome and loves to spend time with his two sons, Giacomo and Niccolò.
Mr. Benucci play with STOMVI, YAMAHA, HOLTON, MOENNIG instruments.
Dale Clevenger
Horn Professor and Conductor
He started playing trumpet at age 11 and switched to horn at age 13. Clevenger's father was President of the Chattanooga Opera Association, and he was exposed to live orchestral music at an early age. He attended Chattanooga High School, aka "City High" when the band program was under the leadership of Richard Casavant, a scholar of marching band history. Clevenger received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, in 1962. Clevenger considers Arnold Jacobs and Adolph Herseth, former principal brass instrumentalists of the CSO, to be his mentors.
Clevenger has performed with many ensembles worldwide, including the Berlin Philharmonic (under Daniel Barenboim). He has taken part in many music festivals including the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Florida Music Festival, Sarasota, Marrowstone Music Festival, Bellingham, Washington, and Affinis Music Festival, Japan.
He won a Grammy Award for "The Antiphonal Music of Gabrieli," which he recorded with members of the Chicago Symphony brass section, as well as the brass sections of the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Cleveland Orchestra His recording of Mozart's horn concertos was named Record of the Year in Hungary on the European label Hungaraton. He also was a featured soloist in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's Grammy-winning Strauss Wind Concertos album, on which he plays Strauss's first horn concerto, as well as Andante for horn and piano in C major with Daniel Barenboim accompanying on piano.
In 2003, Clevenger premiered John William's Concerto for Horn and Orchestra, a work written for him.
In addition to performing, Clevenger is an experienced conductor. He was the Music Director of the Elmhurst Symphony Orchestra from 1981 to 1995. He has expanded his conducting career with numerous orchestras in North and Central America, Europe, Asia, and Australia, recently leading the Orquestra Sinfonica de Castilla y Leon with Daniel Barenboim as soloist.
Dale Clevenger is President of the Italian Brass Week and teaches at Indiana University.
Matías Piñeira
Principal Horn Münchner Philharmonic
Solo Horn of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, born on 7 July 1989 in Santiago de Chile. At the age of 7 he took his first steps in the horn with his grandfather Antenor Piñeira, integrating the same year to the Orfeón de bomberos de Chile.
In 2000 he began his studies with Maestro Edward Brown and joined the National Youth Symphony Orchestra as a guest.
Later Matías began his formal studies with Maestro Brown at the Institute of Music of the Catholic University of Chile. During which Mattia received several scholarships such as "Beca Jorge Peña Henn" and "Beca Amigos del Teatro Municipal". He participated in the concert season of the Symphony Orchestra of Chile on the solo children program.
In 2005 he performed as a soloist in the symphonic youth orchestra. The following year he is invited to participate in the Campos do Jordão winter festival, Brazil where he received lessons from musicians such as Wolfgang Gaag and Jean-Pierre Berry among others.
In 2008, at the age of 19, he won the solo horn competition of the Symphony Orchestra of Chile, having already been a permanent member for five years. In the same year he received an invitation to take private lessons with Maestro Ignacio García, as a soloist of the State Opera of Berlin, Germany. Before leaving Chile, Matias received good reviews by winning prizes awarded for playing as a soloist with the Symphony Orchestra of Chile, by critics and also prizes awarded by his colleagues of that orchestra such as "Lo mejor de la Temporada de Conciertos".
In 2014 he is part of the Orchestral Academy of the Berlin State Opera, together with which he has made several international tours under the guidance of maestro Daniel Barenboim.
In March 2015, prepared by Ignacio García, he won the solo horn position in the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, Germany, currently led by maestro Valery Gergiev.
