ANTONMARIO SEMOLINI
Antonmario Semolini (1946) was born in Siena into a musical family (his father was a violinist). Thanks to his eclectic musical learning as a flautist, composer and conductor, he can be considered in that restricted group of the most authoritative interpreters of our time. His performances - expression of great analytic exactness supported by excellent musicality - have given him estimation and friendship of artists such as: Sergiu Celibidache, Luciano Chailly, Franco Donatoni, Lothar Faber, Oleh Krysa, Franco Gulli, Franco Mannino, Lovro von Matacic, Paolo Renosto, Donato Renzetti, Salvatore Sciarrino…
Fine artist, cultured and at the same time aristocratically reserved (he opposes an obstinate refusal to recordings if not live), as a flute concert player - pupil of Arturo Danesin, François Perret and Severino Gazzelloni. During his brilliant career as a flautist he has been dedicatee of more than sixty compositions and authoritative tributes from personalities such as Massimo Mila: “Semolini sets domineeringly himself in the front lines of flute concerts treading in Gazzelloni’s wake” - Eugenio Montale: “Listening to him, a marvel. Semolini: irony and culture that blend well with the expression of his art.” - Severino Gazzelloni: “Semolini is a personage. If he did not exist, we should have had to invent him” - Ugo Nespolo: “Restless personality, full of shades, Semolini uses music as a blasting charge, which, in its terrible deflagration, totally involves and does not spare him” - Enzo Restagno: “Semolini with his golden flute plays with such a smoothness and a grace, that he can transform those somewhat anonymous pentagrams”.
In the 1990s he entered a new career as a conductor and his renowned colleague Giuseppe Sinopoli comments: “Antonmario is an original interpreter, both nervous and sensitive, disliking anything which is only formal and official and interested in music only when true expression of life”.
In June 2000 he was invited by the Regione Toscana as the main conductor of a wide orchestral group which has been created in the region of Lucca with acknowledgement and funding of the Social European Fund. After this appointment he favoured in his performances the precious symphonic repertoire of authors who originated in the Lucchesia (Region of Lucca), such as: Boccherini, Puccini, Catalani, Luporini and Giani Luporini.
Following the success gained in 2006 with the operetta “Eine Nacht in Venedig” by Johann Strauss Jr. he has found a new path that has brought him near this alluring world of which he is now one of the most original divulgers, having more than 20 operettas to his credit. “Sparkling” has been defined his interpretation of “Die Fledermaus”, Strauss Jr.’s masterpiece at the Teatro Dante Alighieri in Ravenna. Semolini’s passion for this refined musical genre can be summarized as follows: “The operetta is a sunbeam kept in a jewel-case full of music, poetry, feeling”.
For two years he has been permanent director of the Catalani Symphonic Orchestra, for four years of the Symphonic Orchestra of Alfa Teatro and currently is first guest conductor of the Antidogma Chamber Orchestra and of the European Antidogma Ensemble, of the Futurmusika Ensemble, of the Running Flutes Orchestra and of the I Virtuosi dell'Accademia di San Giovanni. Guest director of important international events, In México in 2015 he conducted the Orquesta Sinfònica de Chiapas at the Hermanos Domínguez theater in San Cristóbal de las Casas and at the Emilio Rabasa theater in Tuxtla Gutiérrez with the first performance of the "Concierto nr. 2 para marimba y orquesta" by R. Peña Quesada and, in 2016, he received a real triumph at the head of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Nuevo León - in the presence of over 7,500 people - in the closing concert of the IX edition of the Festival Internacional de Santa Lucía in Monterrey, together with an outstanding soloist: the English violinist Charlie Siem. In Italy he regularly collaborates with the MiTo Settembremusica international festival and with the ancient and contemporary music festival ANTIDOGMA, and has performed in various theaters: Regio of Turin, Giglio of Lucca, Dante Alighieri of Ravenna, Theater of the city of Alba, Alfieri of Torino, Theater of the city of Aosta, Manzoni of Monza, Carignano of Turin, Hall of the Turin Conservatory, Alfateatro of Turin, Politeama Rossetti and Verdi Theater of Trieste, Roman Theater and New Theater of Spoleto, Auditorium of the Rai of Turin, Carlo Felice of Genoa ... He has also toured in Germany, Brazil, Czechoslovakia, Egypt, Slovenia, Spain, France, Greece, Hungary, Kenya, Israel, México, Nigeria, Poland, Romania, Switzerland, etc.
In 2019 he was awarded the prestigious “Publio Elvio Pertinace” Culture Award (28th edition) which had previously been awarded only to one other musician, the famous violinist Salvatore Accardo.
(written by Amedeo Pettenati)
Brief curriculum & references
“I started studying music at the age of seventeen and at twenty I held the first of many concerts: I haven't stopped since then!”
Antonmario Semolini
“I have known Maestro Antonmario Semolini for many years, during which I had the opportunity of appreciating his musical and cultural qualities.
He was a great flutist, but it is in orchestra direction that he was able to fully exploit his qualities as a witty, educated and sensitive musician.
Passion and intellectual curiosity have allowed him to explore and face a very wide repertoire.”
Prof. Enzo Restagno
“Antonmario is an original interpreter, both nervous and sensitive, disliking anything which is only formal and official and interested in music only when true expression of life.”
Maestro Giuseppe Sinopoli
