NICOLA VALENTINI
Nicola Valentini is the conductor and founder of “Dolce Concento” ensemble. In 2017 and 2018, he was the associate conductor of the orchestra of Friuli Venezia Giulia region known as “Mitteleuropa Orchestra”. Valentini is one of the most talented and brilliant young conductors in Italy. His encounter with Ottavio Dantone and the experience with the early music ensemble at the “Accademia Bizantina” in Ravenna, his hometown, deeply marked his education, which he started at an early age, and sparked his lifelong interest in Baroque performance techniques.
He studied Latin, Greek and Philosophy. Then, he graduated in cello at the Conservatory of Parma under the guidance of E. Contini and studied composition with F. Agostinelli and conducting with G. Serembe in Parma, Pescara and Faenza. He also dedicated himself to constant in-depth analysis of the vocal and instrumental repertoire of the seventeenth and eighteenth century under the guidance of Ottavio Dantone, hence working on the scores of renown authors, as well as on unpublished ones. He has collaborated to the organization of concerts and recording sessions, and to the staging of oratories and operas.
In his role as an assistant, Valentini took part in important productions at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Teatro La Fenice in Venice, Teatro Comunale in Ferrara, Teatro Alighieri in Ravenna, Metropole of Lausanne, Opéra National du Rhin in Strasbourg, Palau de Les Arts in Valencia, Teatro Campoamor in Oviedo, and Glyndebourne and Salzburg Festivals.
In December 2010, he successfully made his debut on the podium. Ever since, he has given concerts all around Europe as a conductor and a cellist. He has conducted orchestras on both modern and period instruments. Among them: the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Opera Orchestre National Montpellier, I Pomeriggi Musicali in Milan, Haydn Orchestra in Bozen, Philharmonic Orchestra in Brno, Orchestra Toscanini in Parma, Orchestra Sinfonica Principato de Asturia in Oviedo, Virtuosi Brunenses, Orchestra Sinfonica Rossini in Pesaro and Filharmonie in Brno.
In July 2012, at the Staatstheater Oper in Nuremberg, he debuted as an opera conductor in Ezio by C. W. Gluck. Then, he conducted Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia and La Cenerentola at the Campoamor Theatre in Oviedo, Jovellanos in Gijòn and Gayarre in Pamplona.
In 2014, he created his own ensemble, Dolce Concento, whose members play on period instruments and aims to the performance of not only the Baroque, but also the classical and romantic repertoires. In 2017, by conducting Dolce Concento, he debuted at the Teatro Claudio Abbado in Ferrara in Gluck’s Alceste. He gained great success also the following year with the staging of Esther, the first English oratory by G.F. Handel.
In 2013, Valentini collaborated for the first time with the Accademia di Bel Canto in Modena, of which he was the musical director in 2014-2015, managed by famous soprano Mirella Freni.
In those years, he studied the 19th century opera repertoire in depth, especially the bel canto style. During the celebrations of Rossini’s year, he conducted Stabat Mater in a tour which started in Pesaro and continued in several cities.
2019 began with Valentini’s debut on the podium of the Haydn Orchestra in Bozen, and then continued in Florence with the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino with a new concert format in which the conductor also told the audience about Mozart’s journeys in Italy. He also conducted for the first time an opera by Puccini, Madama Butterfly, in the new staging at prestigious Theater Basel in Switzerland.
For 20 years, Nicola Valentini has constantly devoted himself to the activity as a transcriber and an editor of published and unpublished operas, oratories, symphonies, concerts, arias and overtures for international entities such the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Teatre Metropole in Lausanne, “De sono” association in Turin, Ut-Orpheus and Cose belle d’Italia in Milan.
In collaboration with Orpheus cultural association, the G.B. Maramotti university for adults, the Mariani association in Ravenna and the Bald’anza association in Ferrara, he is developing a number of teaching activities for students of all ages.
The favor of critics and the warm welcome of the public has brought the international attention towards him, and, despite his young age, he is considered an experienced and knowledgeable conductor for the baroque, classical and bel canto repertoires: “A new and engaging impulse” has been recently said to characterize his performance of the bel canto and romantic repertoires.
DOLCE CONCENTO ENSEMBLE
The Dol
ce Concento Ensemble was created out of the artistic collaboration of Nicola Valentini (conductor) with Andrea Vassalle (violinist), two musicians who decided to share their academic experience to develop a project aiming at rediscovering new sounds in classical and Romantic vocal music played using period instruments. Following the route started by their teachers, among whom are Ottavio Dantone, Federico Guglielmo and Alessandro Moccia, the work on operas, oratories and cantatas is carried out showing great respect for early music codices without renouncing a modern reading with the specific purpose of involving contemporary audiences. The repertoire of the Ensemble ranges from the Baroque period of Italian Schools, which made opera famous in Europe, to Gluck, Mozart, Bellini and Donizzetti.
After its debut in 2015 at the Ravenna Festival, Dolce Concento has performed in numerous Italian cities including Milan, Modena, Ferrara, Turin and San Marino, and they immediately enjoyed greater and greater favour from the audience and critics as one of the best Italian emerging groups.
In March 2017, still under Nicola Valentini’s conducting, the ensemble conceived and staged Alceste by C.W. Gluck at the Teatro Comunale “Claudio Abbado” in Ferrara for the celebration of the 250th anniversary from its first performance in Italy.
In October 2021, Dolce Concento opened the prestigious opera season at the Teatro Alighieri in Ravenna, with a new production of Haydn’s Uninhabited Island, for which they obtained great success with the audience and critics.
Besides concerts, the Ensemble is committed to teaching. From school year 2015-2016, several concert-lessons for children and adults have been organized with the aim to spread guided listening to live music.