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ANDREA DE CARLO's biography

Considered today’s leading performance expert of the music of Alessandro Stradella, Andrea De Carlo was born in Rome where he began his musical career as a jazz bass player. In tandem with his studies on the double bass, he graduated from theUniversity “La Sapienza” in Rome with a degree in physics.  

Following his studies at the university, he performed as principal double bassist with the Orchestra Teatro Massimo di Palermo, the Orchestra Regionale Toscana, and the Orchestra Regionale del Lazio.
 
His introduction to the viola da gamba, was serendipitous and became all encompassing to the extent that he abandoned the bass to study viol with Paolo Pandolfo, virtuoso performer and professor of viola da gamba at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis.  Andrea has performed in Italy and internationally with important early music ensembles including Elyma (Gabriel Garrido), the consort of viols Labyrinto (Paolo Pandolfo), Concerto Italiano (Rinaldo Alessandrini), La grande Ecurie et la Chambre du Roi (J.C.  Malgoire), and appears in over forty recordings with these groups.
 
In 2005, De Carlo founded Ensemble Mare Nostrum, which began its life as a consort of viols, but shortly thereafter expanded to explore a wider and more diverse repertoire. Today performances consist primarily of music of the Roman Baroque, particularly the vocal music of Alessandro Stradella (1639-1682).  Working with primary sources and studying the vocal technique of earlier centuries, De Carlo has uncovered a relationship between language, affetti, and the nature of sound that provides a new perspective on the aesthetic of seventeenth-century vocal music. 

 

In 2018 De Carlo conducted the Philarmonic Orchestra Arturo Toscanini of Parma with a program dedicated to G. F. Haendel and J. P. Rameau; in 2020 he started a collaboration with the Theater Carlo Felice of Genova conducing the opening of the
opera season 2020/21 with the opera Il Trespolo Tutore by A. Stradella with the direction of Paolo Gavazzeni and Piero Maranghi,  scenes by Leila Fteita and costumes by Nicoletta Ceccolini, followed in 2021 by the oratorio S. G. Battista by A. Stradella with his Ensemble Mare Nostrum and the orchestra of the theatre. In March and May 2022 he conducted the orchestra of the Carlo Felice Theater for two concerts of series “Mozart l’italiano” with a program with instrumental music by A. Stradella, A. Scar
latti and two symphonies by W. A. Mozart.
In October 2022 he conducted I Cameristi della Scala of Milano in a program dedicated to A. Stradella.

MARE NOSTRUM in few words 

 

Ensemble MARE NOSTRUM, a roman ensemble directed by Andrea De Carlo, is one of the most original and surprising baroque ensembles, already a reference to the Roman Baroque music and especially the works of the great composer Alessandro Stradella.

 

Founded in 2005, the Ensemble Mare Nostrum begins as a "Consort of Viols".  But the ensemble opens immediately to a wider repertoire, to explore  the relationship between language, affetti and nature of sounds. The personal research of Andrea De Carlo in this field opens new prospects in technique and aesthetic of  17th c. vocal music.

Music for "Consort of Viols" but also the interpretation of works for organ and harpsichord - a common practice in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries - has led the Ensemble Mare Nostrum to different projects: an original orchestration of ORGELBUCHLEIN by J. S. Bach for MA Recordings (USA) receives the unanimous applause of the international critic, and the Diapason "Decouverte" in the French magazine DIAPASON (May 2011). A CD dedicated to French polyphony LE CONCERT DES VIOLES for the label RICERCAR (OUTHERE) is awarded with 5 Diapason (January 2010), and  “Coup de coeur” 2010 by the Charles Cros Academy in Paris.

 

In 2012 is released  for  the label ALPHA (OUTHERE) the Cd "NUEVA ESPANA", a journey between the Spanish and Mexican music from the Renaissance to modern times.

 

In 2012 EMN begins to dedicate to roman music with the Cd "IL CONCERTO DELLE VIOLE BARBERINI" together with the Ensemble Vox Luminis for the label RICERCAR (OUTHERE), followed by a CD of roman unknown cantatas by Marco Marazzoli for the label ARCANA (OUTHERE) "OCCHI BELLI, OCCHI NERI."

The 2013 saw the birth of THE STRADELLA PROJECT, a CDs collection for the label ARCANA (OUTHERE) dedicated to the works of this great composer, recorded in the International Festival Alessandro Stradella Nepi (Italy), his native town.

The first release, a world premiere recording, is the Serenade of Alessandro Stradella "LA FORZA DELLE STELLE" (5 Diapason), followed by the world premiere recording of the oratorio S. GIOVANNI CRISOSTOMO  (5 Diapason) 2014, the world premiere recording of the oratorio S. EDITTA, VERGINE E MONACA, REGINA D'INGHILITERRA in 2016 (5 Diapason), the oratorio S. PELAGIA in 2017 (5 Diapason) and the very first opera by Stradella, LA DORICLEA with the ensemble Il Pomo d'Oro In 2018 (5 Diapason) and Preis Der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik 1.2020 for the OPERA.

  

In 2020 the ensemble released the opera IL TRESPOLO TUTORE (Diapason Découverte), Longlist Preis Der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik 2021, and in 2021 the new and unknown opera by Stradella, AMARE E FINGERE, Longlist  Preis Der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik 2022.

Ensemble Mare Nostrum has performed at major international festivals such as TAGE ALTER MUSIK HERNE (Germany), DE BIJLOKE, Gent (Belgium), Festival Internacional de Ubeda y Baeza (Spain), MAISON DE RADIO FRANCE, Paris (France), Festival Internacional de Musica Sacra in Quito (Ecuador), Academie Bach Arques-la-Bataille (France), Festival de Saint Michel en Tierrache, (France), Festival de Sablé (France), Festival Internacional Cervantino (Mexico), FONTDOUCE Festival (France), Festival Concertes d'été in Saint Germain (Switzerland), Festival LES NUITES BAROQUES in Le Touquet (France), Festival IZMIR (Turkey), I Concerti del Quirinale (Italy), Festival Noites de Queluz (Portugal), Stockholm Early Music festival (Sweden), Festival Zamek Krolekski Warsaw (Poland).

In December 2021 collaborated with the orchestra of the Teatro Carlo Felice of Genova for the performance of the oratorio S. G. Battista by A. Stradella.


Coming soon are Il Teatro del Mondo, a monographic programme on the figure of the castrato Marcantonio Orrigoni, protagonist of Stradella's last Genoese operas, the oratorio Ester, liberatrice del popolo ebreo and the two versions of the operetta La Circe, composed by a very young Stradella.
 

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