Barbieri opens the PPO's 2009 calendar

Noted Italian conductor and former music director and principal conductor of the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra (PPO) Ruggero Barbieri opens the new year with a concert titled “Glimpses of Europe,” slated on Jan. 16, 2009 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Main Theater at 8 p.m. The concert is presented in cooperation with the Czech Embassy on the occasion of the Czech Republic’s Presidency of the European Union.

Barbieri’s international career embraces both the symphonic and operatic repertoires. He has conducted several well-known orchestras such as the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, the Klagenfurt Symphony Orchestra (Austria), the Paris Sinfonietta, the National Symphony Orchestra of Argentina, the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, the RTVE Symphony Orchestra (Radio Television Orchestra of Madrid), the Pomeriggi Musicali Symphony Orchestra of Milan, among others.

From 1991-1995, Barbieri was assistant conductor for Maestro Aldo Ceccato with the National Orchestra and Chorus of Spain, as well as for Maestros Donato Renzetti and Thomas Bricetti. He was the founder of the Orchestra Citta di Bergamo and was principal conductor of the Orchestra Stabile di Bergamo until 1991. 

In 1997, Barbieri made his Asian debut as opera conductor with Puccini’s Madama Butterfly at the CCP, followed by Don Giovanni (1999) and Il Trovatore in Singapore (2001). As PPO Music Director, he toured the group through Europe in 2001 performing in Austria, the Czech Republic and Spain. The orchestra also took part in the “Asia Orchestras Festival Week 2002” in Tokyo, Japan. Barbieri’s enthusiasm for coaching young singers brought him to Canada’s Opera Nuova in Edmonton in 2004, where he conducted Cosi Fan Tutte, Falstaff and Hansel und Gretel. In 2007, Barbieri founded and became the artistic director of the “First International Singing Competition” in Citta di Sarnico with noted soprano Mara Zampieri, as well as the “First International Chamber Music Festival” in Bergamo and Province. At present, Barbieri is a board member of Canada’s “The Opera Project.”

A photo exhibit of outstanding personalities of Czech Music will be on view at the CCP Main Theater Lobby from Jan. 13 to 16, 2009.

For the Jan. 16 concert, Barbieri will conduct Sibelius’ Finlandia, Liszt’s Les Preludes, Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 and Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 in E minor from The New World (op. 95).  

Ticket prices: P1,000/800/500/P350/200, with discounts available to students, senior citizens and groups. For inquiries and subscriptions, please call the CCP Marketing Department (832-1125 loc. 1806) or the CCP Box Office (832-3704) or Ticketworld at National Bookstore (891-9999) or visit www.culturalcenter.gov.ph.