Draft:Federico Bardazzi

Federico Bardazzi (born April 7, 1962, in Florence) is an Italian conductor and musician, specializing in early, baroque music, and Gregorian chant. He is also a choir director.

Biography
In 1975, he became a choir conductor and organist at the Pieve di Sant'Alessandro in Giogoli, where he conducted his first Gregorian chant Mass. In 1976, he assumed the role of organist and choir director at the Certosa of Florence. In 1981, he co-founded the Florence Chamber Orchestra (Orchestra da Camera Fiorentina).

In 1987, he graduated in Cello at the Florence Conservatory of Muisic and he continued his studies with André Navarra at the Chigiana Music Academy in Siena. in 1989 at the Chigiana Academy, he studied orchestral conducting with Myung Whun Chung. In 1993, he obtained his degree in orchestral conducting and delved into the study of Baroque music, following the productions of Philippe Herreweghe with the Collegium Vocale Gent and the La Chapelle Royale Orchestra. He studied Gregorian chant at the AISCGre in Cremona under, Johannes Göschl. In 1993, he founded the Ensemble San Felice

Opera
In 1995, he collaborated as a choir director on Jacopo Peri's Euridice, a co-production between the Teatro Comunale of Florence under the direction of Alan Curtis , in the same year he directed Acis e Galatea, a co-production with Kammeroper Frankfurt. In 2000, he directed Handel's Tamerlano in San Gimignano. In 2008, he directed Rodrigo by the same composer at the Lufthansa Festival in London, and featuring, among others, Susanna Rigacci. The production was presented in 2009 at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence. In 2010, he directed Handel's Giustino in Genoa and Brescia.

In 2013 and 2014, he directed Il Flaminio by Pergolesi in co-production with the Teatro Verdi in Pisa. In the same year, at the Teatro Goldoni in Florence, he directed Purcell's Fairy Queen for the Academy of the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. In 2015, he directed Scarlatti's Il trionfo dell'onore and Gazzaniga's Don Giovanni o sia il convitato di pietra    at the Festival Don Giovanni at the Teatro Verdi in Pisa. in the same year, he directed Puccini's Suor Angelica and Il barbiere di Siviglia. In 2018, he was involved in the opera Motezuma by Galuppi,  performed at the Puccini Festival and at the Salzburger Landestheater with the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg.

In 2019, he directed Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea. In 2020, in co-production with the Cantiere Internazionale d'Arte in Montepulciano, he presented Mozart's Don Giovanni - Gazzaniga, based on the Parisian version edited by Luigi Cherubini.

Since 2019 he dedicated himself to the digital transition in the opera sector and developed the Virtual Stage concept by Carla Zanin for a new format of production, research, and training in the opera theater, supported by the European Union. The main productions realized include L'Orfeo (2021), Il ritorno di Ulisse in patria  by Claudio Monteverdi (2022/2023), Don Giovanni (2021), Le nozze di Figaro by Mozart (2022), La Cenerentola by Rossini (2022), and L'elisir d'amore by Donizetti (2022). In 2023, he directed Orfeo & Lwanda aty the Kenyatta University in Nairobi as part of the European Project CAPHE-Communities and Artistic Participation in Hybrid Environment, which relates the myth of Orpheus and the legend of Lwanda Magere from the Luo community in a show with VR experiments that are live-streamed in a virtual environment on Second Life.

Sacred and Baroque Music
In 1995, he retrieved works by an anonymous 17th-century author from the archives of the National Central Library of Florence, San Filippo Neri. From 1996 onwards, he devoted himself to Johann Sebastian Bach productions with Baroque instruments, including the Mass in B minor and the complete Motets In 1997, he encountered the composer Arvo Pärt, drawing inspiration from him for a program centered around the Magnificat. The repertoire included Pärt's Sieben Magnificat Antiphonen and Magnificat from the Armenian and Georgian Middle Ages, progressing through Palestrina, Monteverdi, Gabrieli, contemporary works by Pärt. The program was performed during a tour in Germany.

Also in 1997, he produced Andrea Cavallari's Apocalypse with choreography and dance by Virgilio Sieni and conducted Mozart's Requiem   in a version curated through the analysis of Joseph Eybler's historical version and contemporary versions by Richard Maunder, Franz Beyer, and Robert Levin. In 1998, he began work on Carissimi's oratorios. In 1999, he proposed the project of medieval music El cant de la Sibilla. Also in 1999, he was invited to conduct in the Florence Baptistery the Mass on the Aria di Fiorenza by Frescobaldi  for O flos colende, a Sacred Music festival of the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore.

Subsequently, he conducted Johann Sebastian Bach's Kirchenmusik: in 2003 and 2004, the Lutheran Masses in F major and G minor; in 2004, he performed the Berliner Messe at the Auditorium Santo Stefano al Ponte, and in the same year, in the Basilica di Santa Trinita, with the reconstruction of the Gregorian liturgy. In 2005 and 2007, he worked on the Johannespassion, in 2006 and 2008 on the Weinachts oratorium and the Öster oratorium. In 2008, he proposed the first modern performance of the Vespers of Stiava  once again with the reconstruction of the liturgy in Gregorian chant; the concert took place in the Basilica di San Lorenzo for the Amici della Musica di Firenze.

He dedicated himself to various versions of Leçons des ténèbres: by Couperin in 2004 and 2005, by Michel-Richard Delalande in 2007, presented with liturgical reconstruction through the inclusion of psalmody and Gregorian responsories. In this line, in 2008, he performed the Lamentations of Jan Dismas Zelenka. In 2009, he founded the Baroque Ensemble of Maggio Fiorentino Formazione, he then conducted the complete Brandenburg Concertos by Bach In 2010, in collaboration with the University of Padua, he created a program of Scottish Renaissance music from a manuscript by Thomas Wade: the concert was replicated in the following years at various festivals and congresses in Italy and abroad. In 2011, at the Teatro della Pergola for the Amici della Musica di Firenze, he conducted Monteverdi's Vespers of the Blessed Virgin presented with the reconstruction of the liturgy in Gregorian chant. In the same year, he dedicated himself to broken singing, creating with Gabriele Giacomelli on the organ a monographic program on Frescobaldi with chants from the liturgy in canto fratto taken from manuscripts of the 14th century kept in Santa Felicita in Florence.

In 2012, he directed Handel's Messiah for Maggio Fiorentino Formazione ; in the same year, O flos colende invited him to the Florence Cathedral to perform once again the Mass on the Aria di Fiorenza by Frescobaldi,  this time with the reconstruction of the liturgy in Gregorian chant. In 2012, he reprised Buxtehude's Membra Jesu Nostri in the Cathedral of Massa. In 2013 and 2014, again Messiah in Poland and Hungary; Handel's oratorio was once again performed in Florence in 2019. In 2017, he performed and recorded Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle.

Medieval Music and Gregorian Chant
In 2002, he presented the liturgical drama Quem queritis,   arranged from Florentine manuscripts in stage versioni. In 2003, he co-founded the Festival in canto gregoriano in Florence.

Starting in 2006, he began a musical research project focused on the manuscripts of Hildegard von Bingen  , proposing a liturgical reconstruction of  the 3rd Notturno aIn 2007, together with Enzo Ventroni, he organized the Congress   of the AISCgre (International Association for Gregorian Chant Studies), which brought researchers and choirs from around the world to Florence.

From 2002 to 2006, he was a member of the National Board of Directors, and from 2009 to 2015, he served on the International Board of Directors of the AISCGre. During this period, he performed medieval music programs at festivals in Italy and abroad, in venues such as the Cathedral of Brussels, the Church of St. Andrew in Cologne, the Baptistery of Florence, and the Eglise de Notre Dame in Poët Laval.

In 2000, he created the program Nigra sum sed Formosa, based on the cult of Mary in monasteries and courts, featuring the Cantigas de Santa Maria by Alfonso X and the vesper of Mary in Gregorian chant.

In 2008, he conducted research at the University of Tor Vergata on San Zanobi in collaboration with Giacomo Baroffio, Agostino Ziino.

He reconstructed the entire office and mass from the 14th century dedicated to the saint. The program was performed in Italy and abroad, and an essay was produced on this topic. In particular, in 2011, the program was performed at the Galleria Tretyakov in Moscow as part of the twinning between the Diocese of Florence and the Patriarchate of Moscow.

In 2009, he performed the complete works of Francesco Landini in contrafacta version, with sacred texts rediscovered in some Florentine manuscripts from the Marucelliana Library and the National Library of Florence. The project was curated in collaboration with the University of Bergen.

In 2015, he directed La Musica della Commedia. The project was performed throughout Italy and Europe and in 2015 at the Ravenna Festival and in the Florence Cathedral, in a show featuring Alessio Boni, in co-production with the Teatro della Pergola and the Opera of Santa Maria del Fiore.

In 2015, he performed the Passio Sancti Miniatis, an opera recovered through research on the Antiphonary of the Archbishopric of Florence (ca. 1250). In 2017, he directed and recorded a theatrical and musical performance titled Ildegarda la Sibilla del Reno by Cristina Borgogni in the Florence Cathedral.

Also in 2017, he reconstructed and recorded the celebration of Easter at San Marco in Venice with the program Monteverdi & Gabrieli.

In 2018, he was invited by Katia Bach, a direct descendant of Johann Sebastian Bach, to give a lecture-concert titled Dante & Bob Dylan  at the Marucelliana Library in Florence. This event marked the beginning of a new project on the figure of St. Francis of Assisi, curated by Carla Zanin with texts by Cristina Borgogni. The project includes medieval lauds and dances, ethno-inspired pieces, and international pop songs.

In 2019, he curated the music and conducted at Santa Croce and San Miniato al Monte in Florence for "Umiliana, " a semi-staged theatrical piece dedicated to the figure of Blessed Umiliana de' Cerchi, a Franciscan tertiary from Florence in the 13th century.

Teaching Activities
Nel 1991, he founded the Centro Studi Musica Siena with the violinist Chiara Cetica and the flutist Giovanna Mazzini. In the same year, he also founded the Accademia San Felice (formerly known as Accademia di San Leonardo in Arcetri) with Chiara Cetica, flutist Paola Mattei, and the Italo-American composer Andrea Cavallari. In 1993, he began teaching at the Bellini Conservatory in Palermo, and in 2003, he started teaching at the Marenzio Conservatory in Brescia. In 2007, he was invited by Fiamma Nicolodi to offer a course on Gregorian chant and medieval music at the University of Florence.

In 2009, he was appointed director of the courses at Maggio Fiorentino Formazione, initiating a collaboration with Carla Zanin and Paolo Bellocci, leading to the establishment of the Opera Network Association. This association developed multiple training programs funded by the European Social Fund (FSE) for both artistic and technical professions in lyric theater. In 2015, Opera Network became a CVCL Examination Center of the University for Foreigners of Perugia and began numerous projects in collaboration with Chinese and American conservatories, academies, and universities in the fields of music, art, and the Italian language. From 2015 to 2021, he served as the director of the Training Agency of the Puccini Festival Foundation with Paolo Bellocci. In 2012, he taught at the Puccini Conservatory in La Spezia, where, since 2021, he has been the Coordinator of International Relations and Projects for CAPHE -Communities and Artistic Participation in Hybrid Environment (Horizons Europe 2022–2026) and IMSV-In Media Stat Virtus (Erasmus+ 2021–2024). He is also a member of the academic council and the research committee.

In 2021, he collaborated with the Opera Studio Bel Canto in Foggia as a teacher and director for numerous productions at the Umberto Giordano Theater in Foggia and the historic Garibaldi Theater in Lucera. Additionally, over the years, he has organized various masterclasses both in Italy and abroad, focusing on orchestral conducting and baroque, Gregorian, and operatic repertoires.

Direction of Cultural Projects
1996 Caleidoscopio: Accademia San Felice – European Union

1997 Leonardo Mobility: Accademia San Felice – European Union ISFOL

2003 Festival in canto gregoriano – incontri internazionali di Firenze: Ensemble San Felice, Viri Galilaei, Capitolo Metropolitano Fiorentino

2009 CSSR – Corso di specializzazione per Scenografi Realizzatori: Maggio Fiorentino Formazione – FSE Provincia di Firenze

2009 CSCL – Corso di Specializzazione per Cantanti Lirici: Maggio Fiorentino Formazione – FSE Provincia di Firenze

2010 INFARS: Maggio Fiorentino Formazione – FSE Provincia di Firenze

2010 CFT – Centri Formativi Territoriali 1: Maggio Fiorentino Formazione - FSE Provincia di Firenze

2011 Opera Futura, Maggio Fiorentino Formazione - FSE Regione Toscana 2012 FICF – Florence International Choir Festival - Ensemble San Felice

2012 CFT – Centri Formativi Territoriali 2: Maggio Fiorentino Formazione - FSE Provincia di Firenze

2014 Festival in canto armonico: Ensemble San Felice, Pueri cantores della Cattedrale di Sarzana

2014 Illumino - Tecnico delle attività di illuminazione di spettacoli teatrali ed eventi dal vivo: Teatro Metastasio Prato - FSE Provincia di Firenze

2014 Cantus Posterius: Ensemble San Felice - Unione Europea ISFOL 2014 Vet Music Pro: Ensemble San Felice - Unione Europea ISFOL

2016 ALI – Autonomia, Lavoro, Inclusione: Opera Network, SdS Firenze nord ovest - FSE Regione Toscana

2016 VAL.O.RE – Valutazione, Occupazione, Reti, Reti e percorsi di sostegno al lavoro per persone disabili e vulnerabili: Opera Network, SdS Versilia - FSE Regione Toscana

2017 Erasmusicplus: Ensemble San Felice - Unione Europea INAPP

2017 SAEST - Scenografo per l'Allestimento di Eventi e Spettacoli Teatrali: Opera Network, Fondazione Festival Pucciniano - FSE Regione Toscana

2017 Programma Culturale Sportivo per giovani calciatori: Opera Network - Xilingol Vocational College, Mongolia Interna (Cina)

2018 Music Pro: Opera Network, Ensemble San Felice, Fondazione Festival Pucciniano - FSE Regione Toscana

2018 Sound & Light: Opera Network, Ensemble San Felice, Fondazione Festival Pucciniano - FSE Regione Toscana

2019 DIPAS - Direttore di Palcoscenico e Allestimento dello Spettacolo: Opera Network, Ensemble San Felice, CSM&A - Centro Studi Musica & Arte – FSE Regione Toscana

2021 MOSAICO, Digital Job and Green Job sectors

2021 MI.FORM.O Ensemble San Felice Academy of Arts Szczecin and the European Academy of Florence, funded by the Erasmus + Programme

2021 VIRTUAL STAGE Ensemble San Felice, Erasmus + partners including Silesian Theatre Opava CZ, ESME Sudria Lyon, Tisseurs de Sons Lyon, Heliosfero Amsterdam

2022 LSO – Lets Sing Opera Creative Europe and Erasmus + Ensemble San Felice, Sofia Opera & Ballet, Silesian Theatre of Opava, and Experience Erasmus +  AEF-Accademia Europea di Firenze, Ensemble San Felice, and Prokopios Arts Festival

2022 IFTS DMS - Digital Media Specialist project with Opera Network, Ensemble San Felice, and CSM&A - Centro Studi Musica & Arte, funded by the European Social Fund (FSE) of the Tuscany Region

2022 Metamorphoses - Digital Aesthetic for the Next Music Training project, in collaboration with Ensemble San Felice, ESME Sudria, GRAME Lyon, Giunti Florence, Hellenic Opera Corporation, Fundacja Akademia Muzyki Dawnej Szczecin, Promusica Malaga

2023 CAPHE-Communities and Artistic Participation in Hybrid Environment Horizon Europe Program Action Marie Curie project with Opera Network, Conservatorio Puccini La Spezia, Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Kenyatta University in Nairobi, Polish Institute of Aesthetics, University of Athens. The project is transdisciplinary and focuses on the hybridity between physical and virtual reality, between digital and aesthetics, and its impact on communities.

Discography

 * 1998 Johann Sebastian Bach Mass in B minor. Ensemble San Felice, Planet Sound.
 * 1999 Johann Sebastian Bach Six German Motets, Ensemble San Felice, Planet Sound
 * 1999 Andrea Cavallari Selfportrait, Ensemble San Felice, Capstone
 * 2000 Girolamo Frescobaldi Mass on the Air of Florence, Ensemble San Felice, Bongiovanni
 * 2001 I am black but beautiful: The Cult of Mary between Monastery and Court, Cantigas de Santa Maria and Gregorian Chant, Ensemble San Felice, Bongiovanni
 * 2003 I would cruelly return: Neapolitan Villanelle from the sixteenth century, Ensemble San Felice conducted by Giangiacomo Pinardi, viola da gamba and Calabrian lyre, Tactus
 * 2004 Quem queritis: A liturgical drama in medieval Florence, Ensemble San Felice, Tactus
 * 2008 Giacomo Carissimi Sacred Oratories: Vanity of Vanities, Story of Job, Judgment of Solomon, Ensemble San Felice, Bongiovanni
 * 2010 Francesco Maria Stiava Vespers of Saint Cecilia, Ensemble San Felice, Clavis
 * 2011 Hildegard von Bingen, the Sibyl of the Rhine, O Church Pray: Morning in the First Nocturne, Symphony of Heavenly Harmony, Book of Divine Works, Ensemble San Felice, Brilliant Classics
 * 2013 Music for Saint Zanobi in Florence of the Fourteenth Century, Feast of Saint Zenobius at Mass, Ensemble San Felice, Bongiovanni
 * 2015 The Music of the Comedy, Ensemble San Felice, Classic Voice - Antiqua
 * 2015 Francesco Landini, sung as, lauds and contrafacta in Florence of the Fourteenth Century, Ensemble San Felice, Bongiovanni
 * 2016 Office of Saint Minias, Ensemble San Felice, Bongiovanni
 * 2016 Claudio Monteverdi Vespers of the Blessed Virgin (1610), Ensemble San Felice, Brilliant Classics
 * 2017 The Song of the Sibyl, Ensemble San Felice, Pueri Cantores of the Cathedral of Sarzana, Brilliant Classics
 * 2018 Monteverdi & Gabrieli Easter Celebration Venice 1600, Ensemble San Felice, Capriccio Armonico Ensemble, Brilliant Classics
 * 2019 Giacomo Carissimi Sacred Oratories: The Last Judgment, Jephthah, Ensemble San Felice, Pueri Cantores of the Cathedral of Sarzana, Bongiovanni
 * 2020 Claudio Monteverdi L'incoronazione di Poppea, Ensemble San Felice, Bongiovanni
 * 2021 Dante, Orpheus, and the Kthònios Journey - Claudio Monteverdi Orpheus, Ensemble San Felice, Bongiovanni
 * 2023 Claudio Monteverdi Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria, Ensemble San Felice, Bongiovanni

DVD

 * 2004 Giacomo Carissimi Sacred Oratories, VANITY OF VANITIES, Ensemble San Felice, conducted by Federico Bardazzi
 * 2010 Hildegard von Bingen, Symphony of the Harmony of Celestial Revelations, Ensemble San Felice, conducted by Federico Bardazzi
 * 2013 The Fairy Queen - Henry Purcell, Opera Network, Teatro Goldoni in Florence
 * 2014 Antonio Vivaldi The Four Seasons, on cello Federico Bardazzi
 * 2015 Giovanni Battista Pergolesi Flaminio, Opera Network
 * 2015 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Requiem K 626, supported by the European Union
 * 2015 The Music of the Comedy, Ensemble San Felice, Classic Voice - Antiqua
 * 2017 Gioachino Rossini Petite Messe Solennelle
 * 2020 Claudio Monteverdi L'incoronazione di Poppea
 * 2022 George Frideric Handel Messiah
 * 2023 Claudio Monteverdi Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria, Ensemble San Felice, Bongiovanni