Music, Performers, and Experts Participating

The Veneto-Venice Music Week Festival, honoring Palladio’s years in the Veneto and Venice, draws together a select group of emerging international vocalists, chosen by audition, and a talented ensemble of treble boys. This group of singers will be in residence at Palladio’s Villa Saraceno, located outside Venice, for a structured week of intense musical training, rehearsals, and performances. Experts in Italian Renaissance music of the period will provide vocal coaching, master classes, and instruction in Italian. The vocal ensembles will perform as Palladium Musicum Cantorum and Pueri Cantores Palladio.

The prestigious Conservatorio di Musica di Padova Cesare Pollini participating in the Festival in collaboration with Palladium Musicum, Inc. – has selected a group of outstanding student instrumentalists – a string quintet and a brass quintet – which will also perform during the Festival.

The Artistic Director for the Festival will be James Weeks, founder, composer and conductor of Exaudi, and a recognized specialist in music of the Italian Renaissance period. Artistic Advisor and vocal coach for the Festival week will be Ian Partridge, CBE, Royal Academy of Music, London. Staff will also include Christopher Bucknall, Artistic Coordinator, Claudia Dumschat, Director, Pueri Cantores Palladio, and Tony Corradini, Rome, vocal coach.

Highlights of the Festival will include the world premieres of three works, commissioned for the Festival in honor of Palladio:

Marco Gemmani, Chapel Master, St. Mark’s Basilica, Venice
Sacred Mass in Honor of the 500th Year of the Birth of Palladio
Composed for double choirs and brass,
to be premiered at Palladio’s San Giorgio, Maggiore, Venice, Saturday, July 19, 4:30 pm

Antonio Eros Negri, composer and conductor, Milan

The Villa Rotunda Suite
4 movement concerto devoted to Palladio’s major villas, composed for
double quintet of strings and brass, to be premiered at Palladio’s
Villa Poiana, Poiana Maggiore, Thursday, July 17, 7:30 pm

Villa Saraceno Songs
a song cycle of madrigals for treble voices devoted to the stories in
the frescoes of Palladio’s Villa Saraceno, to be premiered at Palladio‘s
Villa Saraceno, Finale di Agugliaro, Friday, July 18, 7:30 pm

Two lectures will be presented devoted to examining Palladio’s legacy and achievements:

Professor Guido Beltramini, Director, Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura Andrea Palladio, Vicenza

John Bucknall, Architect, RIBA, project leader for the British Landmark Trust on the Villa Saraceno restoration.

The music performed throughout the Festival week will be drawn from the 16th Century Northern Italian Renaissance period and the Venetian School of composers, including Andrea Gabrieli (ca.1510-1586), Giovanni Gabrieli (ca.1557-1612), Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643), Andrian Willaert (1490-1562), Jacques Arcadelt (ca.1505-1568), Cipriano de Rore (1516-1565), and Orlando di Lasso (1532-1594).