Excellence in music: the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini

The Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini, which in 2012 celebrates the 10th anniversary of its founding, is the point of excellence for the musical activity of the Fondazione Arturo Toscanini, performing excellence matured in the over thirty years of experience of the Orchestra Regionale dell'Emilia Romagna and in the musical tradition of the past whose roots can be found in the Orchestra Ducale re-established in Parma by Niccolò Paganini in 1835-36 and which remained at the top of Italian orchestras for the forty years that followed.

Today one of Italy’s leading symphony orchestras, the Filarmonica has performed under the direction of numerous renowned conductors, including Charles Dutoit, Eliahu Inbal, Lawrence Foster, Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Michail Jurowski, Dmitrij Kitajenko, Emmanuel Krivine, Yoel Levi, Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, Zubin Mehta, Krzysztof Penderecki, Michel Plasson, Georges Prêtre, Mstislav Rostropovich, Pinchas Steinberg, Jeffrey Tate and Yuri Temirkanov. It has received enthusiastic public and critical acclaim in its debuts and return performances in major concert halls throughout the world, among which Washington, D.C., New York, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Hamburg, Moscow, Lucerne, Budapest, Bucharest, Warsaw, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Osaka, Peking, Shanghai and Canton.

In Italy, the concert given on January 16, 2008 will long remain in the memories of all, the date in which the orchestra, making its triumphant debut at La Scala, closed the national celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the death of Arturo Toscanini.

Among the many soloists who have performed with the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini are Maxim Vengerov, Sergej Krylov, Vladimir Spivakov, Uto Ughi, Salvatore Accardo, Shlomo Mintz, Stanislav Bunin, Misha Maisky, Steven Isserlis, Natalia Gutman, Mario Brunello, Mariella Devia, Placido Domingo, Anna Caterina Antonacci, Mike Patton, Lucio Dalla, Juan Diego Flórez, Sonia Ganassi, Sharon Isbin, Andrea Lucchesini, Ivo Pogorelich and Jean-Yves Thibaudet.

A process of on-going innovation in its musical program, together with a rigorous artistic approach, has recently led to a broadening of its repertory that ranges from the classics of the 19th century and musical frontiers of the 20th century, up to current-day avant-garde works. Accompanying this initiative has been the invitation extended to a new group of conductors, all part of the younger generation, already acclaimed on an international level.

Since 2006 to the present, this has seen the enthusiastic successes on the podium of the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini of such names as Kazushi Ono, who on January 1, 2012 became its Principal Guest Conductor, Vladimir Jurowski, Carlo Rizzi, Tugan Sokhiev, Juraj Valčuha, Tomas Netopil, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Michele Mariotti, Lawrence Renes, Wayne Marshall, Tan Dun, Asher Fisch, Stéphane Dèneve, Pietari Inkinen, Christian Arming, Roberto Abbado, John Axelrod and James Conlon.

In 2012, following the success of its year-end tour in China, it has performed in April and May at the Lugano Festival in Switzerland and at the Ludwigshafen Festival in Germany .

Touring Partner

Partner Istituzionale della Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini

Kazushi Ono, principal guest conductor

Described as ‘one of the most fascinating musical minds of our era’ and ‘a phenomenon’ (Le Figaro) Kazushi Ono has held the position of Principal Conductor of the Opéra de Lyon since the start of the 08/09 season.  His current tenure has included new, award winning and critically acclaimed productions of Prokofiev’s The Gambler and Berg’s Lulu and Stravinksy's  Le Rossignol. This season Kazushi Ono and the Opéra de Lyon will present Shostakovich’s The Nose and Wagner’s Parisfal. 

Kazushi Ono’s career has involved a number of high profile positions including Principal Conductor of the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra (1992-2001) and General Music Director of the Badisches Staatstheater (1996-2002). In 2002, Kazushi Ono succeeded Antonio Pappano as Music Director of La Monnaie, Brussels, where his debut production of Strauss's Elektra was described by the Süddeutsche Zeitung as ‘the miracle of Brussels.’  He enjoyed six highly successful seasons at La Monnaie before moving to Opéra de Lyon. He is also Conductor Laureate of Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. These positions are testimony to the importance he places on devoting time to building foundations and forging strong relationships with orchestras.

In addition to these tenures, Kazushi Ono has been guest conductor with some of the world’s leading international orchestras such as the Boston Symphony,Rotterdam Philharmonic, Atlanta Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus, City of Birmingham Symphony, London Philharmonic, London Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic, and Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. Together with radio orchestras such as Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Vienna Radio Symphony, Danish, Netherlands and Finnish Radio he has also conducted numerous German radio orchestras including Hamburg, Freiburg, Stuttgart, Frankfurt and Köln as well as BBC Symphony and BBC National Orchestra of Wales. 

Kazushi Ono has conducted almost all of Wagner’s operas, most notably the complete Ring Cycle at the Karlsruhe Opera during his tenure there from 1996-2002 as well as several operatic world premieres including Luca Francesconi’s Ballata, Toshio Hosokawa’s Hanjo and Philippe Boesmans’s Julie. He will return to the Met Opera this season following his successful debut there with Verdi’s Aïda in 2007. His recent guest opera appearances include Stravinsky’s Le Rossignol at the Festival d’Aix – en – Provence, Strauss’s Elektra at Deutsche Oper Berlin, Verdi’s Macbeth at La Scala, Hänsel und Gretel at Glyndebourne and a new production of Szymanowski’s King Roger at Opéra de Paris. Kazushi Ono will return to Aix- en- Provence this summer for a production of Shostakovich’s The Nose.

Kazushi Ono also has a strong affection for the theatre and works not only with established opera directors such as Luc Bondy, Peter Stein, Laurent Pelly and David McVicar but has also enjoyed collaborations with artists outside the traditional opera field such as the visual artist Jan Fabre, choreographer Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker and film director François Girard.

His varied catalogue of CD recordings demonstrates his wide repertoire, ranging from Chin (Deutsche Grammophon), Gubaidulina, Britten, Turnage and Rihm to Shostakovich, Mahler, Strauss and Tchaikovsky.  Other recent recordings include a 2009 Decca DVD of the acclaimed production of Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel filmed with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at Glyndebourne as well as releases from the Opus Arte label featuring productions of Verdi’s Aïda and Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, both with La Monnaie, Brussels.

Winner of the 3rd Arturo Toscanini International Conducting Competition (Parma 1987), he is Principal Guest Conductor of Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini since  January 2012.