Official Website: www.oidi.com

AWARD-WINNING ITALIAN ORCHESTRA MAKES CANADIAN DEBUT IN NOVEMBER 2008

Italy’s flagship ensemble, the Orchestra Internazionale d’Italia, will visit Canada for the first time in November 2008.  Canadian maestro Kerry Stratton will conduct the Orchestra in Toronto, Montreal and eight other centres. 

Joining them for the tour is award-winning Italian classical guitarist Claudio Marcotulli, in the Concierto de Aranjuez for Guitar and Orchestra  by Spanish composer Joaquin Rodrigo.

Founded in 1986, the Orchestra has performed throughout Europe, in Central and South America and in Asia, in festivals and concert halls, giving more than 900 symphonic concerts and performing for important opera festival productions.   Many of the world’s greatest conductors and soloists have appeared as guests.  In 1997, it received the European Prize for Culture as Symphonic Orchestra.  Home base is the ancient and beautiful city of Fermo near the Adriatic Sea in central Italy’s Marche region.  It is also orchestra-in-residence at the Teatro Ventidio Basso in Ascoli Piceno. 

The Orchestra comes to Canada direct from Italy, where it is giving a number of concerts under Maestro Stratton including Fermo, Ascoli Piceno, Pesaro and San Giorgio.  It will perform in Toronto and Montreal as well as in the smaller Ontario centres of Lindsay, Port Hope, Welland, Milton, Markham, Orillia, Barrie and Richmond Hill. The tour is organized by International Touring Productions.

Italian guitarist Claudio Marcotulli, soloist for the Canadian tour, is considered one of the most distinguished guitarists of his generation, both for the quality of his performances and his intriguing choice of repertoire. He won the 1984 Concours René Bartoli in France and first prize in Spain’s F. Tarrega Competition.  Marcotulli has enjoyed worldwide tours and recorded CDs of operatic melodies and Vivaldi concertos on the Ópera Tres label. This tour marks his Canadian debut.

For more information on the Orchestra Internazionale d'Italia in English or Italian, visit www.oidi.com