Two performances in New Delhi and Kolkata
As part of their India tour, the Italian duo of mandolinist Carlo Aonzo and classical guitarist Lorenzo Bernardi will be performing at the Italian Embassy Cultural Centre, New Delhi on 21 February at 7pm.
They will also be giving a concert at the Victoria Memorial in Kolkata on 28 February, 6.30pm organized by the Classical Guitar Society of Calcutta in association with the Italian Embassy Cultural Centre, New Delhi.
Carlo Aonzo is an internationally renowned Italian mandolin performer. Born in the town of Savona, Italy – home to the “Circolo Mandolinistico G. Verdi” – Aonzo grew up immersed in music. After graduating with honors from the conservatory in Padua (1993), he played for several prestigious institutions like the Philharmonic Orchestra of La Scala in Milan (Italy), the Nashville Chamber Orchestra (USA), the McGill Chamber Orchestra in Montreal (Canada), the Philharmonia of San Petersburg (Russia), the Minsk Chamber Soloist (Belarus), Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival (Germany).
Among his several awards are the first prize at the Concorso Internazionale “Pitzianti” in Venice (1993) including the “Vivaldi” special mention, and first prize at the Walnut Valley National Mandolin Contest in Winfield Kansas (1997).
As a researcher, he has been working on the history of his instrument and collaborated with the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. He has also given presentations on the iconography of the mandolin at renowned institutions all over the world including Dartmouth College, St. John’s University in New York, Boston University, New England Conservatory, Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, Vanderbilt College of Nashville, Vancouver Italian Cultural Centre, Berio Library in Genoa and National Instrument Museum in Rome.
He often appears in national Radio and TV programs and in December 2018 he performed at Carnegie Hall in New York.
Born in Trento in 1994, Lorenzo Bernardi graduated from the Conservatory F.A Bonporti in his hometown 2015. He then continued his studies under the guidance of Emanuele Buono at the Conservatorio L. Canepa in Sassari, obtaining a Master’s degree with honors. Thanks to a scholarship offered by the European community, he further specialized at Conservatorio de Musica Manuel Castillo in Seville, Spain, under the guidance of internationally renowned Professor and guitarist Francisco Bernier.
As a soloist, but also as a member of chamber ensembles and with orchestra, Bernardi has performed in numerous national and international events. Between 2016 and 2019 he performed in prestigious events of international importance in Spain, USA, Argentina, Cile, Panama, Costa Rica, Bahrain, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam and India where he has also been invited as a jury member of music competitions.
Apart from his frequent collaborations with Carlo Aonzo, Bernardi plays regularly with Vietnamese guitar star Thu Le with whom he has traveled to many countries presenting “A Trip to Italy”, a project which aims to take the audience on an imaginary journey through Italian regions an musical styles.