Agostino Orizio
was a pupil of Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli and activity throughout Europe. He owes the beginning of his conducting career to meeting Hermann Scherchen. Founder of the International Piano Festival of Brescia and Bergamo and of the Orchestra Gasprao da Salò (currently the Orchestra del Festival Internazionale di Brescia e Bergamo), he has enjoyed enthusiastic success in Itaky, Poland, Romania, the United States, and has recently directed the orchestra on a triumphant tour of the Soviet Union. He has conducted numerous important orchestral groups and his performances have been broadcast many times on radio and television throughout the world. Currently, Maestro Orizio, with the “Orchestra del Festival Internazionale di Brescia e Bergamo” is recording for Foné.

Pietro Borgonovo
began his oboe studies in Milan and subsequently went on to further studies in Freiburg with Heinz Hollinger. His career as a soloist began in 1975, and he has since taken part in major international music festivals. In the past he has taught at the conservatories in Bolzano and Genova and currently holds the chair of advanced oboe studies at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole. Since 1978, he has been principal oboe in the Symphony Orchestra of the RAI in Turin.

Vincenzo Mariozzi
studied at the Conservatorio di S. Cecilia in Rome with Maestro Gambacurta. He held the position of first clarinet at the Teatro Massimo orchestra in Palermo and is currently principal clarinet of the “Orchestra Stabile dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia”. In 1967 he won a prize at the Geneva International Competition. He has been a soloist under dome of the world’s most important conductors, among them Previtali, Ceccato, Marriner, Maag, Sawallisch and Sinopoli. At the present he holds the chair of clariner at the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia.

Rino Vernizzi
trained at the Conservatorio Arrigo Boito in Parma under Enzo Muccetti. The winner of five competitions. he has played first bassoon with the most important Italian orchestras. He works intensively in Italy and abroad with some of today’s most important conductors. He has made six records, the most recent of which being Antonio Vivaldi’s Bassoon Concerto with the Orchestra da Camera di Santa Cecilia in Rome.

Marcello Rota
obtained his diploma in 1974 in Alessandria under the guidance of Giacomo Zoppi, and since 1977 he has been first horn in the Orchestra della RAI in Turin. He studied conducting with Igor Markevitch and Franco Ferrara. He has been active both as soloist and as conductor with many groups including “I Solisti del Vivaldi”, “I Solisti della RAI”, “L’Orchestra da Camera di Padova”, and with symphony orchestras including the Philarmonic Orchestra of Hamburg. A teacher at the ECC sponsered school of Alto Perfezionamento in Saluzzo he has recently recorded Mozart’s Duetti Inediti, K 487, playing both the parts.

Ernesto Merlini
gained his diploma in organ, composition for organ, choral music and choral conducting as well as harpsichord at the conservatory of Piacenza. He has taken part in the most important international organ festivals and has to his name a huge number of concerts in Italy and abroad. The harpsichord player with the Orchestra del Festival Internazionale di Brescia e Bergamo, he has also collaborated with the Solisti Veneti under Claudio Scimone and with the Scaligeri. He teaches at the Conservatory of Piacenza.

Marco Rizzi
was born in Milan in 1967 and trained at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory under Giuseppe Magnani. He has won many national and international competitions and since 1984, he has been a member of the European Community Youth Orchestra. In spite of his youth, he has already behind him a long concert career as a soloist and as a member of important orchestras including L’Orchestra dell’Angelicum of Milan, the Orchestra Sinfonica della RAI of Mlilan, the Orchestra del Festival Internazionale of Brescia and Bergamo.

The “Orchestra del Festival Internazionale di Brescia e Bergamo
was founded by Agostino Orizio under the name of “Orchestra Gasparo da Salò” and is this year celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary. In 1964, it became the official chamber orchestra of the “Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli” International Piano Festival. Since then, while still fulfilling its “established” commitment of accompanying the soloist of Piano Festival, the orchestra, directed by Agostino Orizio and made up of instrumentalists of established reputations, has been internationally active, dedicating particular attention to eighteen century works, unpublished pieces, or rare performances. It has been a guest of the world’s most important musical organizations among which Hunter College in New York, Constitution Hall in Washington, the Leningrad Philarmonic, the Conservatories of Moscow, Strasbourg and Prague, the Beethovensaal in Bonn, the Wiener Konzerthaus, the Bratislav Festival, the Salle Gaveau in Paris, the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Fenice in Venice, the Accademia Filarmonica in Rome, etc. for more than a thousand concerts. It has played at the Vatican in the presence of Pope Paul VI with the participation of Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, and Strasbourg for the Council of Europe. It has made many broadcasts for some of the most important radio and television networks in the world.