Vivaldi Celebration at Planting Fields

Vivaldi Celebration at Planting Fields SOLD OUT!
with Artistic Director, Maestro Enrico Fagone and Lorenzo Mazzamuto, Violinist, Chamber Players International
August 24, 2024
1 – 4pm
Adults: $5, Children (under 7): Free, $8.00 Parking fee per vehicle.
Reservations required. All tickets final sale. Rain or shine.

Join Planting Fields Foundation, Chamber Players International, Maestro Enrico Fagone, and Violinist Lorenzo Mazzamuto for an unforgettable afternoon of music and conversation as they present Antonio Vivaldi’s iconic masterpiece, The Four Seasons, in the picturesque surroundings of Planting Fields. This enchanting setting provides the perfect backdrop for Maestro Fagone’s insightful commentary on the ways in which Vivaldi’s music has inspired generations of composers, from Mozart to modern-day musicians. He’ll also delve into the connection between Vivaldi’s love of nature and the ecological themes and motifs that appear throughout his work. 

Bring a comfortable chair, blanket, and picnic basket to make yourself at home while you enjoy the performance. Food truck vendors will be on site, offering a range of delicious options to satisfy your cravings. Please note that Coe Hall will be closed for the event, but restrooms will be available at the Main Greenhouse. 

This is an event you don’t want to miss – come prepared for an unforgettable evening of music, conversation, and natural beauty! 

Program Schedule
1 – 2:30pm: Musical Performance  
Maestro Fagone, Lorenzo Mazzamuto, and Chamber Players International perform The Four Seasons 
Please note this concert will last for approximately 90 minutes without an interval. 
2:30 – 4pm: Commentary 
Planting Fields Arboretum Director Vincent Simeone will provide a brief introduction and Maestro Fagone will talk about Vivaldi’s impact on global music, nature, and ecology.

For questions, please email Lilly McGurk, Stewardship Director, at lmcgurk@plantingfields.org.

About Enrico Fagone, Artistic Director
Maestro Fagone is the only Italian conductor nominated for the 2023 Grammy Awards in Los Angeles for classical music and has been defined by the classical music press as one of today’s most promising conductors at the international level.

Music Director and Artistic Director of the Long Island Concert Orchestra in New York, he is regularly invited to conduct orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, the RAI National Symphony Orchestra of Turin, the Milan Symphony Orchestra, the Sicilian Symphony Orchestra, the Teatro Petruzzelli of Bari, the Teatro Lirico of Cagliari, the Marche Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hungarian State Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of Padua and Veneto, the Italian Virtuosi, the Mendelssohn Chamber Orchestra, the Savaria Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Serbian National Theatre, the FOI Opera Orchestra Italian (Festival Verdi, Teatro Regio di Parma) and the Krakow Philharmonic.

After graduating in double bass studies, he dedicated himself to studying orchestral conducting at the “Claudio Abbado” Civic School in Milan and with Daniele Agiman at the Parma Academy for the operatic repertoire. He completed his training with the legendary Mo Jorma Panula in Helsinki, which inspired him to pursue his conducting career.

About Lorenzo Mazzamuto, Violinist
Born in Italy, Lorenzo Mazzamuto graduated in 2005 from the Vincenzo Bellini Musical Institute of Catania with the highest scores and honors as a student of Maestro Vito Imperato. In June 2013 he graduated from the Moscow State Conservatory “P. I. Tchaikovsky” with the highest scores in the class of the Russian “Artist of the People” Sergey Girshenko. He has played in White Hall, Conference Hall, Rachmaninov Hall, Small Hall and Big Hall of the Moscow “P.I. Tchaikovsky” Conservatory. In 2020 Lorenzo got his second master’s degree in String Pedagogy in the studio of Maestro E. Schmieder at Temple University, Philadelphia (Pennsylvania).

He had his solo debut with an orchestra at the age of nine performing a Vivaldi Concerto and has taken part in over 30 national and international musical competitions, obtaining in all, either first prize or absolute first prize.

International competitions include: “Bernardo Santaniello” (Salerno), “Rovere D’Oro” (Imperia), “Vincenzo Scaramuzza” (Cosenza), “Aretusae” (Syracuse), “Valle del Barocco” (Ragusa), “Mario Fillioley” Siracusa finalist at the TIM International Music Tournament (Roma), and 3rd prize at the “Andrea Postacchini” (Ascoli Piceno).

National competitions include: “A.M.A. Calabria” (Cosenza), “Luca Campochiaro” (Catania), “Vanna Spadafora” (Messina), and “Benedetto Albanese” (Palermo) where he was awarded absolute first prize and the bursary in all categories and divisions, and it also is noteworthy one of the four finalists at the All-Italian Conservatory Competition in Rome. In December 2018 Lorenzo won the string section for “Concerto Competition” at Temple University, and most recently in April 2019, was awarded first prize for the adult division and was a recipient of all the special prizes at the International “Global Music Partnership Competition” (New Jersey).

About Antonio Vivaldi and The Four Seasons
Antonio Vivaldi (born March 4, 1678, Venice, Republic of Vencie [Italy] died July 28, 1741, Vienna Austria) was an Italian composer and violinist who left a decisive mark on the form of the concerto and the style of late Baroque instrumental music. He made his first known appearance playing alongside his father, Giovanni Battista, in the basilica in 1696, at age eighteen.

Today there are over 500 concerti by Vivaldi that survive. More than 300 are concerti for solo instruments with string orchestra and continuo. Vivaldi perfected the form of what would become the classical three-movement concerto. The energy, passion, and lyricism of Vivaldi’s concerti their instrumental color and simple dramatic effects rapidly passed into the general language of music. His concerti were taken as models of form by many late Baroque composers, including Johann Sebastian Bach, who transcribed ten of them for keyboard instruments. The highly virtuosic style of Vivaldi’s writing for the solo violin in concerti reflects his own renowned technical command of that instrument.

The Four Seasons were written about 1720 and published in 1725 (Amsterdam) and is considered the best known of Vivaldi’s works. Unusually for the time, Vivaldi published the concerti with accompanying poems that elucidated what it was each season that his music was intended to evoke. It provides one of the earliest and most detailed examples of what was later called program music, music with a narrative element.

The Vivaldi Celebration at Planting Fields is co-sponsored by Chamber Players International and Ron and Pam Phipps.