Bruno Giuranna
One of the great performers of his generation, Bruno Giuranna is equally well-known as soloist, conductor, chamber musician and teacher. A founder member of "I Musici" and of the legendary "Italian String Trio" he has visited every corner of the world in the course of a long career devoted to music. His recordings have received many nominations, both as soloist and as conductor, and he has performed the viola concerto repertoire with the world's top conductors and orchestras. As a teacher he has held the position of Prince's Consort Professor of Viola at the Royal Academy of Music in London and the viola chair at the Hochschule der Kunste in Berlin, and he maintains close relations with the Fondazione Stauffer at Cremona, where he has taught for more than twenty-five years and with the Accademia Chigiana in Siena. He has conducted masterclasses all over the world, and has been frequently invited to Marlboro in the USA and to Prussia Cove in England. Here musicians gather to play chamber music in the company of established maestri and gifted young players, a format of musicians playing "primus inter pares" that encourages the transfer through the generations of the great musical traditions of the past. More...
Pietro Horvath
Ladislau Petru Horvath represents the fifth generation of musicians in a Transilvanian family. He started the study of violin at the age of five under his father's guidance. After graduating at the Music Academy George Enescu in Bucharest he continued perfecting his art with prestigious masters like Modest Iftinchi, Stefan Gheorghiu, Heinz Schunk, Semion Snitkovski, Stefan Ruha and György Kurtàg. He was awarded several first prizes in national music competitions in his homeland as a gifted soloist and chamber musician. Since 1990 he has lived in Florence expressing his musical talent in various fields. As a concert master he has earned a brilliant reputation with conductors like Zubin Mehta, Seiji Ozawa, Georges Pretre, James Conlon, playing mainly with the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Orchestra, but also as guest concert master with the Solisti Fiorentini, the Academy of Santa Cecilia Orchestra in Rome, Teatro Massimo in Palermo, the Carlo Felice Theatre in Genova, the International Orchestra of Italy. A versatile artist, Horvath has also devoted much time to chamber music: his Consonanza Ensemble has been invited to important music festivals in Italy (Puccini and Sorrento Festivals), Portugal, Greece, and Osaka-Japan. His early interest in conducting stimulated him to participate as a young auditor at Sergiu Celibidache’s lectures and orchestra rehearsals in Bucharest (1977-78). He studied conducting with Constantin Bugeanu (1985-88) and Piero Bellugi (2004). As master of violin and orchestra he has taught for the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole, the Orchestra Giovanile Italiana, the Conservatory Luigi Cherubini in Florence, the Accademia del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Pescara Musical Academy.
Roger Low
Roger Low began his formal study of the cello with Leslie Parnas of Boston University, where he was principal cellist of the Boston Youth Symphony. He subsequently studied with David Soyer (of the Guarnieri String Quartet) at the Curtis Institute of Music and with Leonard Rose at the Juilliard School. Mr. Low made his New York debut at Carnegie Recital Hall as winner of the 1977 Artist International Competition. The First Prize winner of the National Arts Club Competition for cello in 1979, he has appeared as soloist with the Virtuoso Ensemble of Long Island, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and the North Carolina Symphony. Roger has played in the States, Europe and the Far East with such groups as the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Omega Ensemble of New York, the San Antonio Chamber Players, the Speculum Musicae of New York, the New Haven String Quartet, the Taipei Chamber Players, Musica Ricercata of Florence, I Solisti di Firenze, the Consonanza Ensemble of Florence, the Borodin String Quartet and La Musica International Chamber Music Festival of Sarasota, Florida (Bruno Guiranna, director). Since l984 he has acted as both first and assistant first cellist with the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Orchestra of Florence, under the direction of Zubin Mehta. In this capacity he has also played with such conductors as Seiji Ozawa, Riccardo Muti, Lorin Maazel, Carlos Kleiber, Georg Solti, Antal Dorati, Georges Pretre.