COSTEA / MERCURIO

Michela Costea e Antonio Mercurio, rispettivamente primo violino di spalla e primo contrabbasso dell’Orchestra Arturo Toscanini di Parma.

Il Duo nasce a Parma nel 2020 grazie alla già positiva collaborazione professionale all’interno dell’orchestra.

L’obiettivo è quello di trovare un dialogo timbrico e sonoro tra due strumenti a corda apparentemente distanti, ma che in realtà, proprio da questo incontro,  rafforzano le proprie caratteristiche strumentali e melodiche. Il continuo ricercarsi tra le estensioni del pentagramma permette di colmare i vuoti di ottave mancanti, lasciando all’esperienza uditiva una ricchezza sonora contrappuntista e armonica in continua evoluzione.

Il brani proposti sono frutto di una costante ricerca, data la non vasta letteratura per questa formazione, che spazia della musica classica a quella contemporanea, proponendo nuove opere grazie alle collaborazioni con giovani compositori, e brani musicali più trasversali, adattati alle sole 8 corde del Duo.

ENGLISH VERSION

Michela Costea and Antonio Mercurio, respectively principal violin and principal double bass of the prestigious Arturo Toscanini Orchestra of Parma, Italy.

The Duo was born in Parma in 2020 thanks to the already positive professional collaboration within the orchestra.

The aim is to find a timbral and sonorous dialogue between two string instruments that are apparently distant from each other, but which in reality, precisely from this encounter, strengthen their own instrumental and melodic characteristics. The continuous search between the extensions of the stave allows the gaps of missing octaves to be filled, leaving the auditory experience with a contrapuntal and harmonic sound richness in continuous evolution.

The pieces on offer are the result of constant research, given the non-exhaustive literature for this formation, ranging from classical to contemporary music, proposing new works thanks to collaborations with young composers, and more transversal pieces of music, adapted to the Duo’s only 8 strings.

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MIHAELA COSTEA

She graduated in violin with top marks and honours from both the ‘O. Bancila’ School of Art in her hometown and the ‘Rossini’ Conservatory in Pesaro. He then attended the Scuola di Alto Perfezionamento Musicale in Saluzzo and the W. Stauffer Academy in Cremona. He deepened his solo repertoire with S. Accardo, M. Sirbu, V. Brodski, G. Prencipe and L. Pirvu.

In Romania, she won the ‘Mozart Competition’ and ‘Lira d’Oro’ competitions for young musicians, as well as sixteen national competitions, and gave numerous concerts as a soloist and in duo with the piano.

In 1993, she moved to Italy, and in the following years she won the International Competition of Biella (Lorenzo Perosi), the competitions of Stresa, Macerata Feltria, the competition “Un violino per sognare”, the Mozart Competition, and several auditions for first violin.

He has been a member of the Orchestra da Camera Italiana founded by Salvatore Accardo and has collaborated as first shoulder violin with the Orchestra della Suisse Romande, the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London, the Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Orchestra del San Carlo in Naples, the Orchestra Filarmonica Veneta in Treviso, the Orchestra del Festival di Riva del Garda and the Orchestra Internazionale d’Italia.

From January 2000 to date, he has held the position of first violin and soloist with the Orchestra Regionale dell’Emilia Romagna and the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini.

From 2002 to 2005, she was second violinist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Charles Dutoit invited her from 2006 to 2008 to participate as violin and chamber music teacher at the C.I.S.M.A. (Canton International Summer Music Academy in China), then for the same role at the Lindenbaum Festival in Seoul Korea.

In 2007, she played second violin at the Stanislavsky Orchestra in Moscow at the invitation of Franco Zeffirelli. The following year she was first violin accompanist at the Fondacao Calouste Gulbenkian in Lisbon at the invitation of Lawrence Foster.

She recorded a DVD as a duo with pianist Victor Derevianko (music by Paganini, Tartini, Bach, Fauré), a CD as soloist with the Orchestra Filarmonica di Latina (music by Sarasate and Saint-Saens) and a CD as soloist with the Orchestra Internazionale di Italia (music by Wieniavsky and Enescu).

In 2009, he recorded with the Gulbenkian Foundation Orchestra, under the conducted by L. Foster, Bartók’s Rhapsodies No. 1 and No. 2 for violin and orchestra performing under the direction of distinguished conductors andworld-renowned musicians.  Of notable importance is the care and research into the 20th century repertoire that has made her the protagonist of important performances of solo violin concertos by Weill, Barber, Bernstein and Korngold.

In December 2015 and 2017, she performed with the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini, conducted by Francesco Lanzillotta, in the Concert for Violin ‘Red Violin’ by Corigliano and in January 2016 he performed with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra Bartòk’s Rhapsodies No. 1 and No. 2 under the direction by Lawrence Foster. He plays regularly with M° Victor Derevianko and prof. Diana Cahanescu (first cello of the Filarmonica Toscanini) under the name Trio Rainessance.

He held Masterclasses in Iasi (Romania), Urbino and since 2015 in Corniglio (PR). Mihaela Costea plays a Matteo Goffriller violin, from the year 1690.