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INTRODUCTION
OPERA Charm finally met M° Francesco Ivan Ciampa after many attempts during the last three years. Undoubtedly one of the most affirmed conductors of his generation, M° Ciampa told us some of the secrets of his successful career, of keeping the balance between the personal and professional life, and his thoughts about the challenges of this vocation.
BIOGRAPHY
Born in Avellino in 1982, Francesco Ivan Ciampa graduated in orchestra conducting, composition and instrumentation for band at the "Santa Cecilia" Music Conservatory in Rome, then improved in the most important national and international academies and schools under the authoritative guidance of Carlo Maria Giulini and Bruno Aprea. Ciampa collaborated as Assistant to Maestro Antonio Pappano and to Maestro Daniel Oren. He has won numerous prizes and awards including the first National Arts Award 2010/2011 edition and the first absolute prize of the I National Competition for Conducting since M.I.U.R. He collaborated and is regularly invited to conduct at the most important theaters in the world such as Covent Garden - Royal Opera House, Bayerische Staatsoper of Munich, Deutsche Oper of Berlin, Arena di Verona, Staatsoper of Hamburg, Teatro di San Carlo, Teatro Regio in Parma, Teatro Fenice in Venice, Teatro Regio in Turin, Teatro Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and many others. Among the many direct orchestras we mention the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra of the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Orchestra of the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, Orchestra of the Teatro La Fenice, Orchestra of the Teatro Regio of Turin, Orchestra of the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, the "Arturo Toscanini" Philharmonic Orchestra of Parma, the Italian Youth Orchestra, the Opera Bastille Orchestra of Paris, the Deutsche Oper Berlin Orchestra, the Valencia Symphony Orchestra, Barcelona Symphony Orchestra. Ciampa conducted Italian and international productions, such as La Traviata at the Opera Bastille with the related publication of the Warner home video DVD in 2014, Nabucco at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, L'Elisir d'amore at the Colon in Buenos Aires, La Traviata at the Fenice of Venice and the Regio of Turin, Rigoletto and Madama Butterfly in Ancona, Attila in Bilbao, Turandot and Aida at the Arena di Verona and Nabucco in Tel Aviv. The undisputed protagonist in recent years of Italian Festivals dedicated to Puccini in Torre del Lago with Turandot and Madama Butterfly, and Verdi in Parma with Il Corsaro, I Masnadieri and Nabucco. He regularly supports the biggest names in international opera: Leo Nucci with the acclaimed productions of Macbeth and Simon Boccanegra in Piacenza; Diana Damrau in Paris, Barcelona, Genoa and Munich.
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INTERVIEW
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Alice Lechner comes from a music-loving family. Her first encounter with the opera universe was at the tender age of six. The grandeur of the stage productions and costumes, the backstage chatter, and last, but definitely not least, the music left her in awe, beginning with Mozart’s Don Giovanni. The overall feeling that opera awakens in anyone who gets a glimpse into this part of artistic eternity, that each and every day passes the test of time, was what drew her to stay and be a part of this world. The Opera House of Brașov became her second home, and the people who worked there were her second family.
Since then, Alice has devoted her spare time to maximising her musical knowledge through instrumental studies, studying both piano and violin for a short time. In the following years, her number one passion stepped out of the limelight and graciously gave way to Law Studies.
Since 2018 she has been studying Law at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași.
Her passion for opera, even if it is no longer her top professional priority in terms of career, it has most definitely become her priority during her free time. Wanting to experience the best of both worlds and extend her musical horizons, she regularly attends opera performances throughout Romania and abroad.
With OPERA Charm Magazine, Alice aims to nurture her creative side to help it flourish and bloom and to discover, alongside the magazine’s readers, the fascinatingly complex world of opera.
Currently, she is an LL.M. in Business Law at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași.
Oana Zamfir is a second year MA student at the “George Enescu” National University of Arts, at the Department of Musicology.
She studied violin for 12 years at the “Stefan Luchian” High School of Art in Botosani, later focusing on the theoretical aspects of music. In 2019 she completed her bachelor studies in Musicology as a student of the National Academy of Music “Gheorghe Dima” in Cluj-Napoca. Her research during 2018-2019 brought to the forefront elements of the archaic ritual within works of composers who activated during the communist period, giving her the opportunity to start a research internship at the “Carl von Ossietzky” University in Germany. In this context, she recorded conversations with members of the Sophie Drinker Institute in Bremen, and had access to documents directly from the Myriam Marbé archive.
Since 2019 she has been a teacher of Music Education and Theoretical Music Studies, making full use of interactive methods in the musical training of students and working, at the same time, with the children’s choir founded in the first year of her activity.
Her interests include pursuing a degree in interior design in 2020.
Alexandru Suciu inherited his passion for art growing up in a family of several generations of musicians. He began his musical studies at the “Augustin Bena” School of Music in Cluj, where he studied piano and guitar. Even though his main study direction was philological, his passion for music prevailed. He began his academical journey at the Faculty of Letters of the “Babeș-Bolyai” University, studying Comparative literature and English. He continued by studying Opera Singing at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Music Academy. He also graduated the Musical Education section, followed by Artistic Directing at the Musical Performing Arts department.
His multidisciplinary education opened the doors towards research, which is seen both through his participation in national and international conferences and symposia, such as the Salzburg Easter School PhD-forum, organized by the Salzburg Universität or the Silesian Meeting of Young Scholars, organized by the Institute of English at the University of Silesia, as well as the collaboration with Opera Charm Magazine.
During his student years, he won several prizes, including the Grand Prize at the “Paul Constantinescu” National Musical Interpretation Competition, the Romanian Composers and Musicologists’ Union Prize at the same competition, the First Prize and the Schubert Prize at the “Ada Ulubeanu” Competition.
He further developed his artistic skills by specializing in courses and masterclasses held by personalities such as Vittorio Terranova, Giuseppe Sabbatini, Marian Pop, Ines Salazar, Riccardo Zanellato, Paolo Bosisio, Valentina Farcaș and Manuel Lange in contexts such as the Internationale Sommerakademie für Operngesang Deutschlandsberg, Corso Internazionale di Canto Lirico I.M.C. Licata or the Europäische Akademie für Musik und darstellende Kunst Montepulciano. Besides his activity on-stage, he currently teaches Opera Singing Didactics, and Pedagogical Practice within the Department for Teacher Education and Training at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Music Academy.
Cristina is a 24 year-old Romanian soprano & a student at the National University of Music Bucharest, where she pursues the MA program in Vocal Performance.
She made her debut in Pamina from “Die Zauberflöte” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at only 19 years old at the Bucharest National Opera House, as a member of the Ludovic Spiess Experimental Opera Studio. Over the years she made her debut in roles such as Contessa d’Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Mimì & Musetta (La Bohème), Alice Ford (Falstaff), Erste Dame (Die Zauberflöte) in her university’s opera productions.
Her passion and experience extends in the field of choral music, too.
She has been part of our dream team since the fall of 2021. For a good period of time she took care of OPERA Charm’s social media and took you on the monthly journey through the history of opera through our Legends rubric – and a few times through the Theaters around the World rubric.
Her little soul rubric – from 2021 to present – is definitely the Conductors of the Future, where, every month, she gives you the chance to meet a young star of the world of conducting and, of course, to find out what’s the most charming feature of opera in these artists’ views.
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