Giampiero Sobrino is a famous clarinettist and Director of Arena di Verona

A week before Easter, on 11 April at 19.00 h, Sofia Opera and Ballet is inviting the audience to a special event with the participation of the famous clarinettist Giampiero Sobrino. He is Artistic Director of Arena di Verona. He has given concerts with great success all over the world.

Giampiero Sobrino was born in Piemonte, Italy. He graduated with honours from the Conservatory of Alessandria. He has participated in significant international clarinet competitions in Genua, Rome, Palmi, Ancona, Turin, Colmar and Paris.  At 20 years of age he was appointed first clarinet soloist of the Orchestra Sinfonica della RAI di Torino and in the Philharmonic in the same city, a post he held continuously until 1994. Since 2004 he held the same post in the Orchestra of the Fondazione Arena di Verona.

Giampiero Sobrino has collaborated with the greatest conductors and musicians, including Sir Georg Solti, Leonard Bernstein, James Levine, Mstislav Rostropovich, Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Muti, Wolfgang Sawallich, Zubin Mehta, Giuseppe Sinopoli and Pierre Boulez.

He has performed on stages in Rome, Naples, Verona, Monaco, Trieste, Zagreb, St. Petersburg, Hamilton and Bangkok. His repertoire includes works by Mozart, Salieri, Donizetti, Mercadante, Ponchielli, Weber, Rossini, Bruch, Debussy and others. He has presented the first performances of concertos by Vacchi, Colla, Galante and Bacalov.
He was chosen first clarinettist of the Philharmonic Orchestra Lisbon for a big international tour, as well as clarinettist-soloist of Venice Biennale, Prague Mozart Festival, Turin Musical September, Paris Autumn Festival, Panathinaikos Festival, Samobor Music Festival and New York International Festival of the Arts, in Alicante and in Ex-an-Provence. He has taught at conservatories and music schools and given master classes in Italy, France, Spain and Canada. He has taken part in many concerts and recordings of chamber music.

Among his recent appearances are participations with the New England Symphony at Carnegie Hall, with the Orchestras of Mexico and Athens, with the Philharmonics of Kiev, Toronto, Württemberg and Peking, with the Montreal Chamber Orchestra and Camerata Bohemica – Prague.  He has given concerts in Avignon, Prague, Taipei, Budapest, Montevideo, Nancy, Bratislava, Stockholm and Zurich.

For his first meeting with the Sofia audience Giampiero Sobrino has chosen works by Rossini, Donizetti, and Verdi/Bassi. We will hear the overture from the opera “Wilhelm Tell”, overture and prelude from “Macbeth” and Fantasy for clarinet from “Rigoletto”.

“Easter at the Opera” in its second part includes the opera “Cavalleria rusticana” by Mascagni. Participants are the soloists Radostina Nikolaeva, Martin Iliev, Rumyana Petrova, Biser Georgiev, Tsveta Sarambelieva, chorus and orchestra of Sofia Opera and Ballet. Conductor will be the known from the gala concert of Alexandrina Pendatchanska in December 2013 Damian Iorio.