Domus Artium, Music with Renowned Musicians in Noble Homes in Rome: What's New in 2023

Posted by Rowena Dumlao Rowena Dumlao - Giardina 1/06/2023

Domus Artium, Music with Renowned Musicians in Noble Homes in Rome: What's New in 2023

At a recent press conference in the Italian Ministry of Culture, the new season of Domius Artium was presented with novelties for the year 2023. Domus Artium, conceived by Barrett Wissman, is a series of prestigious cultural events focused on classical music performed by internationally-acclaimed soloists, transpiring in historical patrician homes belonging to noble families in Rome and its surroundings with the participation of excellent chefs and winemakers.

Its first appointment in November of 2021 was at Castello Odescalchi in Bracciano hosted by Maria Pace Odescalchi with internationally-renowned artists, pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet and cellist Nina Kotova. The guest chef was Antonio Ziantoni of Michelin-starred Zia in Rome and the wines provided by Marchesi Antinori from Tuscany. The whole year of 2022 was filled with a rich program of more musical events in noble residences around the capital.

For the second programming season starting on the 27th of January 2023, Domus Artium introduces novelties, moving from private homes to public spaces, institutional buildings, high-profile museums and musical venues. Monumental venues that release even more charm thanks to the unusual combination of majesty, high artistic value and the intimate emotion of chamber music performances signed by some of the most famous international performers, usually performing on the most important stages around the world. There will be five evenings of great music and great art in a setting of locations in sixteenth-century Rome of great magniloquence and iconicity.

"I met Barrett Wissman almost twenty years ago in Cortona when he organized the Tuscan Sun Festival and I immediately understood who I was dealing with and the level of artists it was able to mobilize. I am therefore very happy that for Domus Artium he has chosen Rome and to be part of it both from a personal and institutional point of view of the Ministry that I represent here today and that has decided to grant patronage precisely because the event reflects those values that are so important and strategic for support and promote the rich cultural heritage of our country, that made in Italy of culture that continues to make us great in the world," declared Undersecretary of Culture Vittorio Sgarbi.

The novelties this year open in fact to one of the most important academic realities in the world of great music with 3 appointments in Imola in the splendid setting of the Rocca Sforzesca in collaboration with one of the most authoritative musical institutions on the international scene, the International Academy of Imola, School of Higher Musical Education. Apart from this, Domus Artium also came up with a new operation, the "Imola a Roma”, a parallel review of a monthly concert with tickets at prices that will allow valid students, and the last classes of the Academy to perform in concerts (dates still to be fixed) in Rome at the Teatro Flaiano, a small twentieth-century theater a stone's throw away from the Pantheon and Piazza Venezia. This operation was conceived with a view to give young musicians the opportunity to enter wider circuits beyond those of the Academy.

"The debut of Domus Artium last year," declares Barrett Wissman, "was a great challenge and at the same time a strong emotion, coinciding moreover with the rebirth of live performances. The second year with an articulated program and in venues of this prestige means that we have grasped and stimulated a widespread demand for culture and beauty and we have also found the willingness to open up to unusual experiences from the institutions. In this sense, in addition to the individual partner institutions, I am grateful to the Parco della Musica and the Ministry for their support and trust."

The program begins on 27 January at the Aula Magna of Palazzo della Cancelleria in Rome with internationally-renowned cellist Nina Kotova and Josu de Solaun, a Spanish pianist who is a winner of the renowned competitions Enescu and Iturbi and has performed with orchestras and in recitals throughout the world. The performance will then be replicated the day after, the 28th, in Imola.

On 20 February, Angela Gheorghiu will be playing at the Sala Sinopoli of Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome. She is an opera icon with an extraordinary stage presence, diva par excellence, who has attracted attention not only for her very passionate temperament and strong stage presence, but also for a refined acting made up of chiseled phrasing and expressiveness. To accompany her, Maestro Gianluca Marcianò for the Foundation Lerici Culture Ets in collaboration with which Domus Artium organizes a Gàla that same evening.

On March 14 the prodigious talent of Pinchas Zukerman and his trio find maximum expression in the scenario of Palazzo Colonna in Rome. Zuckerman is a celebrated violin and viola soloist, conductor, and chamber musician with a career encompassing five decades. The performance will be repeated with a concert and a masterclass the following day, the 15th, in Imola.

The new season will also host well- known Canadian pianist Hélène Mercier who will perform alongside violin and cello star Renaud Capuçon and Kian Soltans. Also with them is the principal clarinet of the Paris Orchestra since 1981, Pascal Moraguès. The quartet will compete in the execution of a very dense program dedicated to the Quatuor pour la fin du temps, mystical masterpiece by Olivier Messiaen written by the composer during his imprisonment in a German camp in 1941, one of the finest examples of chamber music of the 20th century.

While Midori, the great Japanese musician will be at the Casino dell'Aurora of Villa Boncompagni Ludovisi on the 26th of May with a recital of music for solo violin by Bach. Princess Boncompagni Ludovisi will open the doors. Replica of the event will be held in Imola on the 27th.