The Orchestra

Violin director: Marco Lorenzini

Marco Lorenzini studied violin with Maestro Roberto Michelucci at the Conservatorio di Firenze, from where he graduated in 1981. He went on to study viola at the Conservatorio Morlacci di Perugia. He has worked extensively with the major symphony orchestras of Tuscany playing under the direction of famous conductors and soloists. For more than 20 years he has held the position of concertmaster soloist of the Florence Chamber Orchestra. During this time, he has played at several prestigious music festivals in Brasil, Malta, Slovenia and Poland. Many of these concerts have been transmitted on television and radio. Lorenzini is the first violin of the Ensamble Michelangelo, he has composed numerous pieces of chamber and soloist music.
He is one the most brillant musician among today’s generation.

Italian pianist and conductor: Cristiano Manzoni

Cristiano Manzoni, is internationally known as a specialist in the field of opera, coaching, and vocal accompaniment. He is a faculty member in the opera department at the Accademia Europea di Firenze, in Florence, Italy, where he teaches the courses of Italian Operatic Repertory and Operaworkshop. He is also collaborative pianist in the class of conducting at the Conservatory L.Cherubini in Florence since 2000.

Maestro Mazoni is music director and collaborator for many singers, opera companies, and educational programs, including the Teatro Comunale and Teatro Verdi di Firenze, Accademia Musicale Chigiana di Siena, Teatro Verdi di Pisa, Giglio di Lucca, Goldoni di Livorno, e Camerata di Prato. For more than ten years he was music director and principal coach for the St. Mark’s Opera Company in Florence, which has staged productions of Barber of Seville, Cenerentola, Marriage of Figaro, Così fan tutte, Don Giovanni, Il Trovatore, Un ballo in Maschera, La Bohème, La Traviata, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, Manon Lescaut, Gianni Schicchi, L’elisir d’amore, Don Pasquale, Lucia di Lammermoor, among others.

He has collaborated in concerts with Andrea Boccelli, Susanna Rigacci, Katia Ricciarelli Giuseppe Baratti, Marco Stecchi, Eduardo Aladrén, Fiorenza Cedolins, Maria Dragoni and Leonardo de Lisi, among many others. 

Maestro Manzoni has also accompanied masterclasses held by Raina Kabaiwanska and Bernadette Manca di Nissa at the Academy Chigiana in Siena, as well as masterclasses with Gayletha Nichols (Met Opera), Giancarlo Montanaro, Liliana Poli, Giuseppe Baratti, in addition with Fiorenza Cedolins and Alessandro Corbelli at Maggio Formazione in Florence.

Maestro Manzoni has performed and taught internationally in Mexico, the United States, and across Europe. In 2002 and 2003 he held a series of critically acclaimed concerts at the Theatre of the Republic of Santiago de Queretaro (Mexico) as well as offering masterclasses for opera singers at the University of Music of Queretaro. In 2004 he was vocal coach at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Formazione and collaborated on the staging of Rossini’s Viaggio a Reims by Rossini, which was performed in the Boboli Gardens in Florence under the artistic direction of Zubin Mehta. In 2008 he spent six months in the USA where he worked as vocal coach at Indiana University, collaborating with the classes of Carol Vaness, Patricia Wise, and Carlos Montané. In the USA, he concertized in New York (Julliard School), Chicago, Minneapolis, and Miami. In 2009, he was invited to prepare a production of Così fan tutte at the Frost School of Music in Miami.

He has also taught courses/masterclasses and young artists program at: the Daniel Ferro Vocal Program(2010-2020) Academy of Music – Minsk Belorussia(2014) Rimsky-Korsakov St. Petersburg State Conservatory-Russia(2015), Conservatory of Alexandria(2018-2021), Elon University(2020), OperaLucca (2023 and 2024)

Maestro Manzoni obtained his degree in piano with Maestro G. Fricelli and vocal chamber music at the “Cherubini” Conservatory of Music in Florence with Maestro L. De Lisi with highest grades and honors.