XXIII International Brass Festival Italian Brass Week
24-31 July 2022
Italian Brass Week 2022
Florence, July 24-30
Arezzo, July 31 Arezzo Brass Day
For this edition, the following activities will be guaranteed to all festival subscribers included in the membership-membership fee that must be paid at the time of your Application:
- Liability insurance for all participants (does not include theft and damage to property tools 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. 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 take lessons;
- 2 30-minute lessons with each teacher that can be scheduled through an app that will be forwarded to you once registration has been regularized;
- July 24 registration, orientation, Wings to Talent award, possible tests for all students;
- From 25 to 30 August every day from 8.15 am the Breathing Gym which will take place outdoors;
- From 25 to 30 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;
- The diplomas will be delivered on 31 July, participation is the one relating to the winners of the Wings to Talent 2022 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. The procedure will be repeated every 48 hours in accordance with the law;
- Daily measurement of body temperature at the entrance;
- Maintaining interpersonal distance and mandatory use of a 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
July 24 - 31stPrincipal 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.
Stefan de Leval Jezierski
July 24 - 31stBerliner Philarmoniker and Karajan Academy
For Stefan de Leval Jezierski there were two good reasons to change from the trumpet to the horn: he was infatuated with the way the larger instrument sounded and looked. Moreover, the wind orchestra of his school needed a horn player; his favourite composer, Mozart, wrote more for the horn than for the trumpet; and, not least, the professional prospects with this instrument seemed better.
The native Bostonian was trained at the North Carolina School of Arts and by Myron Bloom at the Cleveland Institute of Music. During his studies he was already performing in concerts and on tours with the Cleveland Orchestra. Before he took the high horn position with the Berliner Philharmoniker in 1978, he had spent two years as principal horn of the Kassel Staatstheater. As a soloist and chamber musician, Stefan de Leval Jezierski appears at leading international music festivals in Europe, Asia and North America. He is one of the founding members of the Scharoun Ensemble of Berlin.
Moreover, he has taught for a number of years in the Orchestra Academy of the Berliner Philharmoniker and as honorary professor at the Shanghai Conservatory. Jezierski has a jazz band, has played for over 20 years on the tennis team of the Grunewald Tennis Club, and is also greatly interested in art.
Giovanni Hoffer
July 28 - 31stInternational Jazz Soloist
Giovanni Hoffer was born in Lecco (Italy) in 1972.
In 1991 he took his French horn diploma at Milan’s Conservatoire G.Verdi under the guidance of Master Michele Berrino.
He began his career playing with the main italian orchestras, including the Scala Philharmonica, the “G.Verdi” Symphonic Milan, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Orchestra, the R.A.I. Orchestra in Milan, the Italian Swiss Confederation Orchestra. He also played in many international tours (Japan, Australia, South America), working with world famous directors like Riccardo Muti, Lorin Maazel, George Pretre, Eliahu Inbal and many more.
A Jazz and Pop Music lover from the start, he took part in some television programmes on Mediaset channels working with Master Peppe Vessicchio. He also played in different pop music recordings working with artists like Antonella Ruggero, Francesco Renga and Niccolò Fabi.
He has beem living in Bologna since 1999, and has been working with the Teatro Comunale di Bologna Foundation since then. Master Teo Ciaravella also invited him to take part in the Dams Jazz Orchestra and he started collaborating both as musician and composer.
At the beginning of 2006, after the encounter with Lele Veronesi, he started the Hofferquattro project. Here, with the faith and dedication of Lele Veronesi (drums), Maurizio de Gasperi (piano rhodes) and Andrea Taravelli (electric bass) experimented the French horn’s potentials, tackling some standard jazz and mainly some compositions by Giovanni Hoffer himself.
At present he is also playing in some Live Dj Set collaborations, improvising jazz phrasing with lounge, chill out and Jazz house productions, a unique experience also thanks to original unobtainable musical compositions and to performances using a sea shell as a musical instrument.
Emanuele Urso
July 24 - 31stPrincipal Horn at Teatro alla Scala in Milano
Born in Conversano in 1990, Emanuele Urso studied French horn at the Nino Rota of Monopoli in the class of Maestro Musio, graduating with full marks in 2009.
He gratuated in 2014 with full marks the Master's Degree in French Horn at the Conservatory B. Maderna under the guidance of M° Benucci. He later perfected himself at the prestigious Buchmann - Mehta School of Music in Tel Aviv with M ° Abadi and in 2019 at the Advanced Specialization Courses of the Fondazione Scuola di Musica di Fiesole O.N.L.U.S.
Over the years, great professionals of his instrument have also contributed to his training such as: Dale Clevenger, Sarah Willis, Stefan de Leval Jezierski, Stefan Dohr, Hermann Baumann, Will Sanders, William VerMulen, Radovan Vlatkovic, David Bonet, Giovanni Hoffer, Luca Benucci, Jonathan Williams, Frank Lloyd, R. Miele, U. Favaro, Roger Bobo, Frøydis Ree Wekre, Markus Maskuniitty, André Cazalet, Elies Moncholì Cervero, Giuliano Sommerhalder, Daniel Perantoni, Johannes Hinterholzer, David Cooper, Rodolfo Epelde.
There are many appearances in First Horn Orchestras such as: RAI National Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Israel Symphony Orchestra and Opera House of Tel Aviv, Suzhou Symphony Orchestra, Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra, Israel Chamber Orchestra, Academy Orchestra of the Jugend Gustav Mahler Orchestra, Jalisco Philharmonic Orchestra, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Girona Orchestra, Haydn Orchestra of Bolzano and Trento, LaFil Orchestra, Leonora Orchestra, Municipal Orchestra Teatro Verdi of Salerno, Orchestra lyric symphonic foundation Petruzzelli Theater of Bari, in which he held the role permanently until 2019, Orchestra of the Municipal Theater of Bologna, ICO Tito Schipa Orchestra of Lecce, National Orchestra of the Conservatories of Italy, International Orchestra of Italy, Orchestra of the "Carlo Felice" Theater of Genoa, Orchestra "B. Maderna ”of Cesena, Orchestra of the Experimental Lyric Theater of Spoleto, J-futura Orchestra of Trento, Ensemble“ 05 ”, Ico Tito Schipa Orchestra of Lecce, Orchester der Tiroler Festspiele Erl.
Winner of a long list of solo prizes and national and international competitions in chamber ensembles, he has been a soloist protagonist in concerts and festivals such as, recently, the Ravenna Festival. Despite his young age, part of his activity is also passionately dedicated to teaching: he held Master Classes in Orchestral Practice and Solo Repertoire in Sao Paulo (Brazil) and Lima (Perú), and is Coach Wind and Brass Preparer for Orchestracademy and the Apulian Youth Symphony Orchestra since 2018.
