Bach, J S - Violin Sonatas - Montanari, Stefano (violin)
After obtaining a diploma cum laude in violin and piano, Stefano Montanari then received a specialist diploma in chamber music under Maestro Pier Narciso Masi at the Music Academy of Florence, and a solo diploma under Maestro Carlo Chiarappa at the Swiss-Italian School of Music in Lugano. His interest in historical research with philological aims led him to focus his attention on the study of contemporary performance practice using authentic instruments. Since 1995 he has been leader of the Accademia Bizantina of Ravenna under the direction of Maestro Ottavio Dantone.
He is also leader of the Joseph Joachim Quartet, which specialises in historically informed performances of quartets of the eighteenth and nineteenth century played on period instruments. He has held masterclasses in Baroque violin and chamber music for the Arturo Toscanini Foundation of Parma, the Giaochino Rossini Conservatory of Music in Pesaro, and the Piacenza Conservatory.
He performs with the leading exponents in the field of early music, and in particular with Christophe Rousset and his ensemble Les Talens Lyriques.
He is currently also Konzertmeister of Concerto Köln.
He has recorded with such labels as Fonè, Frequenz, Denon, Opus 111, Erato, Virgin, Tactus, Astrée, Thymalus, Simphonia, La bottega discantica, Arts, and Decca. From 1993 to 1999 he taught at the Swiss-Italian School of Music of Lugano. He currently teaches Baroque violin at the International Academy of Music in Milan, the Bruno Maderna Conservatory in Cesena (second-level course), and the Dall’Abaco Conservatory in Verona.
In the autumn of 2006, as part of the opera season of the orchestra I pomeriggi musicali di Milano (in collaboration with the As.Li. Co.), he will conduct Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro.
Stefano Montanari, violin
Christophe Rousset, harpsichord