New York Chamber Music Festival is pleased to present the New York Rectal Debut of the phenomenal Italian saxophone & piano DUO TADDEI-NICOLARDI (Jacopo Taddei, saxophone and Luigi Nicolardi, piano), winners of multiple international competitions, and already on the way to a sensational career.Don’t miss the New York Recital Debut of these two amazing young musicians!

In the program:

Takashi Yoshimatsu – Fuzzy Bird Sonata  for alto saxophone and piano
Roberto Molinelli – Pictures from New York  for alto saxophone, tenor saxophone and piano
Piet Swerts – Klonos  for alto saxophone and piano
Alessandro Solbiati – Elan (2018)  for soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone and piano   WORLD PREMIERE
Michael Nyman – Shaping the curve  for soprano saxophone and piano
Paul Creston  – Sonata Op. 19  for alto saxophone and piano
Graham Fitkin  – Gate  for soprano saxophone and piano

Artists’ bios:

JACOPO TADDEI, saxophone
Born in 1996 in Portoferraio (island of Elba, Italy), Jacopo Taddei began his musical studies at age eight, and was admitted with the highest grade for studies at the Conservatory in Livorno. He subsequently studied at G. Rossini Conservatory in Pesaro, in the class of Federico Mondelci,  where  he graduated Summa cum Laude and with Honourable Mention. In March 2017, he obtained Master’s degree in Saxophone, Summa with honours, with Mario Marzi at the Conservatory G. Verdi in Milano. He has participated in masterclasses with Mario Marzi, Jean Michel Goury, Francisco Martinez, Lars Mlekush, Anders Paulsson, Jean Marie Londeix, Gerard Mc Chrystal, Claude Delangle .
To date, Jacopo Taddei is the absolute winner of twenty two first prizes as soloist, in international competitions, from 2006 to 2017. Among these, to name just a few, are the Prize Claudio Abbado, the Prize of Conservatorio of Milano edition 2015, the Prize Soroptimist International, Elba Festival Prize 2016. In June 2017, in the Chamber of Deputies, the Medal of the Chamber of Deputies was given to Jacopo by the President of the Chamber of Deputies in Montecitorio – as a recognition of his talent.
In 2015 Jacopo was awarded at Umbria Jazz Clinics a scholarship to study at Berklee College of Music in Boston. In 2016, with another audition at Berklee College in Boston, he obtained a scholarsip of $120,000. He was then selected, among six hundred students, to perform at the Berklee Performance Center with All Jazz Stars.
Jacopo is also an active chamber musician. He founded in 2014 a duo together with pianist Luigi Antonio Nicolardi.  The Taddei-Nicolardi duo won Premio Salieri-Zinetti International Chamber Music Competition and the New York Recital Debut award, International Prize Enrica Cremonesi, International Competition Luigi Nono – Jacopo was distinguished by special prize “Young Soloist Città di Venaria Reale- International Chamber Competition Coop Musica Award, Prize Academia Servorum Scientiae, Honourable Mention at Competition of Società Umanitaria, I° Prize XL Edition of F. Cilea Prize for Chamber Music. With the Taddei-Nicolardi ensemble Jacopo has had performances in prestigious concert halls – at Teatro Filodrammatici in Milano, Teatro Spazio89, Festival Tra lago e monti, Sala degli Specchi alla GAM, Sala Verdi Milano, Expo Milano 2015,  Società Umanitaria,  Philharmonic Academy of Rome, French Cultural Center Grenoble of Naples, Academy Ludus tonalis.  Since 2015 Jacopo has appeared at festivals and events also in a duo with an accordionist  and, separately, in a duo with a guitarist, in concerts in Italy and Switzerland.
Jacopo has appeared as soloist with numerous orchestras: at Sala Verdi in Milan (directed by Yoichi Sugiyama), at Teatro Argentina in Rome (directed by Bruno Aprea), with the Italian Conservatories Orchestra, with the Moscow Soloists Orchestra (conducted by Yuri Bashmet), at the University of Milan with the UniMi Orchestra (conducted by Daniel Smith). He performed under the baton of Antonio Pappano at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome with the Orchestra of the National Academy of Santa Cecilia, and under the direction of Daniele Gatti at the Teatro of Arcimboldi with the Filarmonica della Scala. Jacopo has performed at  Dal Verme Theater with I Pomeriggi Musicali and with the Divertimento Ensemble Orchestra at Teatro Litta, collaborating as soloist for premiere performances. He regularly performs for the Concert Society at the Giorgio Gaber Auditorium in Milan, Fondazione Orestiadi di Gibellina, Festival Homage to Umbria-Assisi in the World, Auditorium of Cherubini Conservatory in Florence, Anfossi Foundation in Palazzo Tursi in Genoa, University for Foreigners of Perugia, Sala dei Giganti in Palazzo Liviano for the Friends of Music of Padua. For many years he has been an artist of Jeunesses Musicales, representing that organization at many festivals. Jacopo frequently appears at the national channel  RAIRadio3 in the program “Piazza Verdi” with live solo recitals and interviews. During the academic year 2015/16, Jacopo was Professor of Saxophone at Musical Courses at the G. Verdi Conservatory in Milan.

LUIGI NICOLARDI, piano
Born in 1986 in Lecce, Southern Italy, he began his studies with Maria Grazia Lioy and Oronzo Contaldo, graduating from the Tito Schipa Conservatory. Later he specialized in chamber music with Francesco Libetta in Lecce and Emanuela Piemonti in Milan, where now he lives. Over the years he has attended masterclasses with Aldo Ciccolini, Pietro De Maria, Franco Scala and Vincenzo Balzani. He has collaborated with musicians such as pianists Paolo Gorini, Roberto Esposito and Scipione Sangiovanni, percussionist Lorenzo D’Erasmo, conductors Marcello Panni, Mauro Bonifacio and Sandro Gorli, violinists Matteo Calosci and Aylen Pritchin, composers Francesco Maggio and Alessandro Solbiati, saxophonist-clarinettist Felice Clemente. He participated in the recording of The Complete Symphonic Poems of Liszt (Nireo), works for piano six hands by Czerny (Nireo), and contemporary music works of Bruno Maderna (LimenMusic). He performed at the opening concert of Piano City Milano 2015 with the German composer Hauschka, and during Alberta Ferretti’s private runway show in Paris. In the last years he has developed an affinity for 20th Century music, performing works of Bruno Maderna, Béla Bartók and George Antheil at the Milano Music Festival. In 2014 he founded the award-winning Duo Taddei-Nicolardi with Italian saxophonist Jacopo Taddei, with whom he has appeared at prominent festivals and events, such as Coop Lombardia, Società Umanitaria, Società dei Concerti, Serate Musicali, Gioventù Musicale and Expo Milano 2015.
In addition to music, Luigi Antonio Nicolardi is an enthusiastic junior high school teacher. The work he did with his students on a project about the problem with school-bullying, won an award at the Venice Biennale.