VENICE BAROQUE ORCHESTRA

Founded in 1997 by Baroque scholar and harpsichordist Andrea Marcon, the Venice Baroque Orchestra is recognized as one of the premier ensembles devoted to period instrument performance. The Orchestra has received wide critical acclaim for its concert and opera performances throughout North America, Europe, South America, Japan and Korea.

Highlights of the 2011-12 season included the opening of the Bruge Concertgebouw season with Vivaldi's Stabat Mater and Gloria; concerts in Lisbon and France with soprano Patricia Petibon; concert performances of their pasticcio of Metastasio's L'Olimpiade in London, Dijon, Brussels, Paris, Athens, Rome and Siena, performances with violinist Giuliano Carmignola at the Enescu Festival, the Gstaad and Dubrovnik festivals, and in Geneva and Fenetrange; and concerts in Italy and Russia with mezzo-soprano Romina Basso and with Simone Kermes in Poland, as well as performances of Baroque multi-instrument concertos throughout Europe.

Committed to the rediscovery of 17th- and 18th-century masterpieces, the VBO has given the modern-day premieres of Francesco Cavalli's L'Orione, Vivaldi's Atenaide, Andromeda liberata, Benedetto Marcello's La morte d'Adone and Il trionfo della poesia e della musica, and Boccherini's La Clementina. With Teatro La Fenice in Venice, the Orchestra has staged Cimarosa's L'Olimpiade, Handel's Siroe, and Galuppi's L'Olimpiade, and reprised Siroe at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York in its first full staging in the United States.

The Orchestra's first disc for Naive, a pasticcio of Metastasio's L'Olimpiade featuring the recording premieres of many 18th-century opera arias, was released in 2012 and has been awarded Choc du Monde de la Musique. The VBO has an extensive discography with Sony and Deutsche Grammophon. Their world-premiere recording of Andromeda liberata for DG was followed by two recordings of violin concertos with Giuliano Carmignola; an album of Vivaldi sinfonias and concertos for strings; Vivaldi motets and arias with soprano Simone Kermes, two discs with Ms. Kozena-Handel arias and Vivaldi arias; Vivaldi concertos for two violins with Viktoria Mullova and Giuliano Carmignola, and Italian arias with Ms. Petibon.

In addition to frequent radio broadcast of their concerts, the Orchestra have been seen worldwide through several television specials, including films by the BBC, ARTE, NTR (Netherlands), and NHK. They have been the subject of three recent video recordings, in Romania, Croatia, Lisbon. Their performances will also be featured on Swiss TV in an upcoming documentary on Vivaldi.

Friends of Music Concert Repertoire:

Vivaldi

Sinfonia, "Le Senna festeggiante," RV 693

Concerto in G Minor for two cellos, RV 531

Concerto in F Major for basson, RV 488

Concerto in D Major for strings, RV 121

Concerto in C Major for piccolo, RV 443

Vivaldi

Sinfonia in A Major for strings, RV 158

Concerto in F Major for flute, RV 439

Albinoni - Sinfonia in F Major

Giminiani - Concerto in F Major for two oboes, Opus IX, No. 3