Agnesi
International Music Competition
International Music Competition
Jury
Tiziana Scandaletti is a permanent teacher and Disciplinary Coordinator of Chamber Vocal Music at the "Giuseppe Verdi" Conservatory in Milan. Graduated with highest honours in Singing at the Conservatory of Vicenza and with distinction in Music History at the University of Padova, she furthered her studies with Nino Albarosa, René Clemencic, Alan Curtis, Virginio Puecher and Magda Olivero, establishing herself as one of Italy's leading interpreters of twentieth-century and contemporary vocal repertoire. Described by the Washington Post as "a big voice who projects both humour and theatricality vividly", she pursues an intense international concert career that has led her to collaborate with prestigious institutions such as Teatro alla Scala, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the MiTo SettembreMusica Festival, the Fondazione Arena di Verona, Teatro La Fenice in Venice, Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, Teatro Dal Verme, the Orchestra I Pomeriggi Musicali di Milano and the Orchestra della Toscana. She has performed in major theatres, festivals and universities across Europe, Asia and the Americas, including Berkeley University, Stanford University, Mannes College in New York, Sydney Conservatorium, the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, the Conservatories of Moscow and St. Petersburg, the Beijing Modern Music Festival and the Centro Cultural San Martín in Buenos Aires. Numerous composers have written works dedicated to her voice, including Ennio Morricone, Giacomo Manzoni, Giorgio Battistelli, Azio Corghi, Fabio Vacchi, Alessandro Solbiati, Riccardo Piacentini and Rossella Spinosa. Together with Riccardo Piacentini she forms the Duo Alterno, an internationally recognised ensemble for twentieth-century and contemporary vocality, with over six hundred concerts and masterclasses performed worldwide. Already Jury President of the Chamber Vocal Music Section in the first edition of the Agnesi International Music Competition, she returns to this role for 2026, confirming her precious bond with the project and bringing to the "Agnesi" her artistic authority, her international experience and a vision deeply rooted in vocal and chamber repertoire.
Italy
Italy
Mirko Guadagnini, tenor, thanks to his warm and versatile voice ranges from medieval and Baroque music to twentieth-century and contemporary repertoire, as well as lieder — of which he is one of Italy's foremost practitioners and advocates. His artistic career began in 1998 when he won the As.Li.Co. competition and made his debut with the company. Since then his career has been in constant ascent. He has performed the roles of Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi, Tom Rakewell in The Rake's Progress (Stravinsky), Fenton in Falstaff, Hortensio in Kiss Me Kate by Cole Porter, Aeneas in Dido and Aeneas by Purcell, Renaud in Armide by Gluck, Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, Count Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia by Paisiello, and Cassio in Otello by Verdi, among many others.... He has collaborated with world-renowned conductors including Riccardo Muti, Zubin Mehta, Myung-Whun Chung, John Eliot Gardiner, Roberto Abbado, Bruno Campanella, Claus Peter Flor, Kazushi Ono, Evelino Pidò, Donato Renzetti, Daniele Rustioni, Marcello Viotti, C. Boccadoro, and with directors of the calibre of B. Wilson, D. Michieletto, D. Abbado, P. Pizzi and W. Friedkin. His solo career has taken him to the world's most important theatres, including the Teatro alla Scala, the Châtelet in Paris, the National Theatre in Prague, the Teatro Regio in Turin, the Cuvilliés-Theater in Munich, the Opéra de Lyon, the Seoul Opera, the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, La Fenice in Venice, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Teatro Comunale in Bologna, the Teatro Verdi in Florence, the Teatro Comunale in Florence, the Grand Théâtre de Genève, the Teatro Comunale in Modena, the Seattle Theatre, the Opéra de Montpellier, the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid and the Teatro dell'Opera in Rome. His concert activity is equally intense, with world-renowned orchestras including the Orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala, Radio France, the Freiburger Barockorchester, the Mozarteum Orchester, the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, the Accademia Bizantina, Europa Galante, Les Arts Florissants, La Venexiana, the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Orchestra Verdi, I Pomeriggi Musicali, the Orchestra della Valle d'Itria and the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano. In the Baroque repertoire he made his debut in 1991 with the Te Deum by M.A. Charpentier. Since then he has given countless concerts and opera performances, including over 50 performances of Handel's Messiah, the Mass in B minor and numerous cantatas by J.S. Bach, as well as the rediscovery and world premiere performances of madrigals by Giulio Cesare Monteverdi, works by B. Marini, B. Marcello and other composers of the Renaissance and Baroque period. He made his debut at the Teatro alla Scala in 2005 in Handel's Rinaldo conducted by Ottavio Dantone, returning in 2011 and 2015 for Il ritorno di Ulisse in patria and L'Incoronazione di Poppea by C. Monteverdi, conducted by Rinaldo Alessandrini and directed by B. Wilson. He won the Grammy Award, the Choc du Monde and the Premio Amadeus with L'Orfeo by C. Monteverdi (La Venexiana, Claudio Cavina, Glossa) as the best Baroque opera recording of 2008. He has deepened his knowledge of the vast Baroque repertoire with great masters including John Eliot Gardiner, William Christie, Ivor Bolton, Rinaldo Alessandrini, René Jacobs, Ottavio Dantone, Fabio Biondi, A. De Marchi, Frieder Bernius, Giovanni Antonini, Enrico Onofri, Claudio Cavina and Peter Neumann. Mirko Guadagnini is the only Italian tenor of his generation to have sung, performed and recorded the three principal roles (Orfeo, Ulisse, Nerone) of the Monteverdi trilogy with great conductors such as William Christie, Claudio Cavina and Rinaldo Alessandrini. For the Opera Festival of Bassano del Grappa he also performed the role of Tancredi in Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda by Giorgio Battistelli "D'après Claudio Monteverdi", conducted by Marco Angius and directed by Mario Martone. He has an extensive repertoire of masses and oratorios from the Baroque period to modern music, including Handel's Messiah, the complete sacred works of Mozart performed with the Orchestra da Camera di Mantova and Umberto Benedetti Michelangeli, and Britten's Serenade and Les Illuminations with the Orchestra Sinfonica Verdi di Milano. To mark the Britten anniversaries he performed numerous concerts including recitals devoted to the British composer at the Sale Apollinee of the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, the War Requiem Op. 66 in Milan during the 2014 Symphonic Season of the Orchestra LaVerdi (Zhang Xian, conductor), subsequently performed in 2018 in Korea with the Daejeon Philharmonic Orchestra (James Judd, conductor), and Orpheus Britannicus in Britten's reworking for Mito SettembreMusica (2022). He sang at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in The Makropulos Affair / Janek conducted by Zubin Mehta and directed by W. Friedkin, and in Mozart's Idomeneo, conducted by Gianluca Capuano and directed by Damiano Michieletto, in the Theater an der Wien production. Guadagnini also boasts an extraordinary specialisation in the lieder repertoire. In 2007 he founded the Festival Liederìadi, the only lieder festival in Italy, of which he is Artistic Director, which has hosted the finest interpreters of this repertoire at international level and in which virtually all the best-known and lesser-known song cycles from the Romantic period to the twentieth century have been performed. He is also one of the most sought-after interpreters of contemporary works. In this field he has performed multiple roles in operas by the finest Italian contemporary composers, including: Azio Corghi – Don Giovanni / Il Dissoluto Assolto (role of Don Ottavio) on a text by José Saramago (Teatro San Carlo in Lisbon and new production at the Teatro alla Scala, 2006); Ivan Fedele – Antigone (role of Haemon – Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Premio Abbiati 2007); Hans Werner Henze – Phaedra (role of Hippolytus – Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Premio Abbiati 2008); Matteo D'Amico – Patto di sangue (directed by Daniele Abbado – Maggio Musicale Fiorentino 2009); Filippo del Corno – Non guardate al domani (Teatro Elfo Puccini, Milan 2008); Claudio Ambrosini – Killer di parole (directed by Francesco Micheli – Teatro La Fenice, Venice 2010); Brian Current – Airlines Icarus (Verbania, 2011); Filippo Del Corno – Le remède de fortune (Teatro Strehler, Milan 2012); Karl Heinz Stockhausen – Stimmung (Los Angeles, Bologna Festival 2014); Mauro Montalbetti – Corpi eretici (Festival Aperto, Reggio Emilia, 2015); Claudio Galante – Il labbro della Lady (Teatro Comunale di Modena, 2015); Filippo Perocco – Acquagranda (Teatro La Fenice, Venice 2016); Mauro Montalbetti – Still Requies (Teatro dell'Arte, Milan – International Festival of Sacred Music, Pordenone – Teatro Grande, Brescia 2018); Ivan Fedele – Thanatoséros (Auditorium Parco della Musica, Rome, 2019); Antonio Giacometti – Cronache del Bambino Anatra (Cantiere Internazionale d'Arte di Montepulciano, 2023). His discography includes: Affetti Musici by G.C. Monteverdi (Astrée, 1993), Euridice by J. Peri (Pavane Records, 1997), Missa Solemnis pro defunctis by L. Da Viadana (Stradivarius, 1997), L'Arianna by Benedetto Marcello (Chandos, 1999), Memet by G.B. Sammartini (Dynamic, 2001), Sacred Cantatas by G.B. Sammartini (Naxos, 2006), Passio Secundum Joannem by F. Feo (2010), Stabat Mater by J. Haydn (Discantica, 2010), La Susanna by A. Stradella (Brilliant Classics, 2011), Il Novello Giasone by F. Cavalli (Bongiovanni, 2012), Salve Regina by C. Monteverdi (Brilliant Classics, 2012), Travestimenti by C. Monteverdi (Brilliant Classics, 2016), Shakespeare Sonnets by M. Castelnuovo-Tedesco (Brilliant Classics, 2017), Requiem–Magnificat with works by Domenico and Alessandro Scarlatti and Herbert Howells (Urania Records, 2021). In the second part of his artistic career he has also embarked on Baroque repertoire projects as a MAESTRO CONCERTATORE. In 2016 he produced and conducted the opera Amadigi di Gaula by G.F. Handel at the Piccolo Teatro Studio in Milan, followed from 2017 by the Monteverdi project, devoted to the complete performance of C. Monteverdi's Books of Madrigals. In the Baroque field he is Artistic Director of the NovAntica series and has founded the Intende Voci Ensemble, a vocal ensemble of Baroque specialists dedicated to the repertoire of the 17th, 18th and 20th centuries, with whom he has recorded for the Urania Records label, including two CDs of music by Alessandro and Domenico Scarlatti and the world premiere of the Gloria for 8 voices by Antonio Caldara in collaboration with the Orchestra da Camera Canova. He is founder, president and Artistic Director of the Associazione Liederìadi ETS, with which since 2007 he has organised the Festival Liederìadi in Milan — the first and only lieder festival in Italy — and NovAntica, a series dedicated to Baroque and twentieth-century music. He is founder and director of the vocal ensemble Intende Voci. He is the creator of the "Auditorium in Musica" project, a listening-formation course covering repertoires ranging from the Baroque to the contemporary, held at the Auditorium Stefano Cerri in Milan. He is a lecturer in Renaissance and Baroque Singing at the A. Vivaldi Conservatoire in Alessandria.
Luca Ciammarughi studied piano at the G. Verdi Conservatory in Milan, graduating with highest honours in the class of Paolo Bordoni and subsequently obtaining, with distinction, the academic diploma in chamber vocal music in the class of Stelia Doz. As a concert pianist he has performed at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Mito Settembre Musica, Taormina Arte, La Verdi, Mantova Chamber Music Festival, Società dei Concerti di Milano, Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, Festival Guadalquivir in Spain, European Union Youth Orchestra, Salle Cortot in Paris, Piano City Milano and many other institutions. His recordings of Schubert's Sonatas D 894 and D 960 received unanimous critical acclaim. He has been a guest on RAI Radio Tre on several occasions, performing live a wide repertoire ranging from Rameau to Reynaldo Hahn. For ten years he has been on air daily on Radio Classica: his programme "Il pianista" has become a reference point in the Italian music education landscape. A contributor to the magazine MUSICA, he is also editorial director of the ClassicaViva network. He has written thirty entries for the Guida alla musica da concerto published by Zecchini Editore and published with LIM in Lucca the monographic volume Le ultime sonate di Schubert – Contesto Testo Interpretazione, as well as essays on Schumann's lieder and the mélodies of Poulenc and Debussy. He composed the music for the short films Elsa's kitchen and Anna e Marcel, screened at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
Italy
Italy
Elena De Simone, winner of numerous singing competitions, has debuted some of the most important mezzo-soprano roles, including: Carmen in the opera of the same name by G. Bizet, Flora in "La Traviata", Maddalena in "Rigoletto", Amneris in "Aida" and Azucena in "Il Trovatore" by G. Verdi, Suzuki in Madama Butterfly and Frugola in "Il Tabarro" by G. Puccini, Adalgisa in "Norma" and Romeo in "I Capuleti e i Montecchi" by V. Bellini, Rosina in "Il Barbiere di Siviglia", Angelina in "La Cenerentola", Clarina in "La Cambiale di Matrimonio" by G. Rossini, Cherubino in "Le Nozze di Figaro", Dorabella in "Così Fan Tutte" and Donna Elvira in "Don Giovanni" by W. A. Mozart. She has collaborated with internationally renowned conductors such as Claudio Desderi, Leone Magiera, Roberto Zarpellon and Luca Mosca, who entrusted her with the role of Amando in his unpublished opera "L'Uomo di Vetro" and that of Ria, with whom she performed at the Teatro Comunale in Treviso in the opera "Aura". She subsequently specialised in Baroque opera. Passionate about 18th-century opera, she has interpreted several roles from the buffo repertoire, including Eugenia in "Il Filosofo di Campagna" by B. Galuppi, Dirindina in "Dirindina" by D. Scarlatti, Vespetta in "Il Pimpinone" by T. Albinoni, Fidalma in "Il Matrimonio Segreto" by D. Cimarosa, and Mergellina in "L'uccellatrice" by N. Jommelli. She recorded the DVDs of the intermezzos Dirindina and Pimpinone for the Dynamic record label. She then devoted herself to transcribing unpublished late Baroque music, bringing to light several arias of undoubted musicological interest, among them "Parto ma tu ben mio" by A. Hasse. In 2018 she recorded a CD of unpublished arias by A. Hasse for the Tactus record label. In 2020, for the three-hundredth anniversary of the birth of Maria Teresa Agnesi, she recorded "Arie con istromenti" of 1749 for Tactus. She was invited by the Agnesi Festival to perform unpublished arias by the Lombard composer. She has been a guest on the programme Ridotto dell'Opera, presented by musicologist Giorgio Appolonia, on Radio Svizzera (Rete Due), on Venice Classic Radio, interviewed by Massimo Lombardi, and on the programme "Musica Maestro", interviewed by Armando Torno. Her voice reached BBC Radio Three with an aria by Maria Teresa Agnesi from the CD "Arie con istromenti 1749". In 2021 she recorded for Tactus the CD "Arie dall'opera Sofonisba" by Maria Teresa Agnesi, which received 5 stars from the Spanish magazine "Ritmo" and the American magazine "Fanfare".
Claudia Mariano graduated with highest honours in piano and chamber vocal music at the G. Verdi Conservatory in Milan. She specialised in Lied accompanying at the Hochschule für Musik und Theatre "F. Mendelssohn" in Leipzig, deepening her knowledge of the German operatic repertoire at the "OperaHaus" of the same city. In the field of lieder she also attended numerous masterclasses held by Irwin Gage, Helmut Deutsch, Karl-Peter Kammerlander, Françoise Ogeas, Guido Salvetti, Stelia Doz and Lidia Stix. Active in the concert field for almost 30 years, she has performed in hundreds of concerts and recitals in Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany and Japan, including the Salle Cortot in Paris, the Grosser Saal in Leipzig, Uhara Hall in Kobe and Hyogo Performing Arts Center in Nishinomiya (Japan), the Bibiena in Mantua, the Donizetti in Bergamo, the Theatres Delle Erbe, Verdi, Smeraldo and Nazionale in Milan, the GAM in Turin, the G. Puccini in Merano, the Sociale in Como, the Sangiorgi in Catania, the San Girolamo in Lucca, the Sala dei Teatini in Piacenza and many others. Awarded at the International Lied Competition "Cobelli" in Brescia, she has been assistant to numerous opera singers including Vittorio Terranova, Francesca Patanè, Denia Mazzola Gavazzeni, Fiorenza Cedolins and others in recitals, masterclasses and vocal training courses, as well as official pianist at the International Lyric Singing Competitions "Città di Brescia", "Note d'estate a Campolieto" – CB, "Opera In…Canto" in Milan, "La Città Sonora" in Cinisello Balsamo (MI) and "Terre di Fiesche" – Novi Ligure AL. She has recorded for Radio Popolare and RAI Radio Tre (Milan) and for the labels "Fabbri Classica", "Artistica Boccherini" and "Auditorium". As a collaborative pianist she has worked in numerous theatres including the Teatro Del Giglio in Lucca, Alighieri in Ravenna, Verdi in Pisa, Ponchielli in Cremona, Romolo Valli in Reggio Emilia, Comunale and La Pergola in Florence, Borgatti in Cento, Politeama in Piacenza, Lirico in Magenta, Giuditta Pasta in Saronno, Al Massimo in Palermo, Metropolitan in Catania, Alfieri in Turin and the Municipal Theatres of Chiasso, Alessandria, Lugano, Cagli, Vercelli, Varese, Forlì, Gorizia, Mestre and many others. From 2015 to 2018 she collaborated with the Milano Pavarotti Restaurant and Museum, performing weekly with artists of the Pavarotti Foundation in Modena, while from 2018 to 2020 she was accompanying pianist and musical assistant of the SOI (Scuola dell'opera italiana of Fiorenza Cedolins). In 2020 she received the Coach Award at the Opera Intl New York Competition (China section, Wuhan). She currently teaches Piano Accompanying at the "Perosi" Conservatory in Campobasso.
Italy
The Vocal Chamber Music section of the Agnesi International Music Competition is dedicated to solo singers and chamber ensembles of two to six members wishing to engage with one of the most refined repertoires in musical literature. Open to performers of any nationality, it rewards not only technical excellence but interpretative maturity, musical rapport and the ability to narrate through word and sound.
The regulations of the Vocal Chamber Music section of the Agnesi International Music Competition offer every performer clear, accessible and rewarding conditions of participation. The section is open to soloists and chamber ensembles of two to six members, of any nationality and aged between 18 and 36. The programme is freely chosen, in accordance with the regulations.
The Vocal Chamber Music section of the Agnesi International Music Competition rewards not only technique and precision, but the ability to move, communicate and create an authentic dialogue between performers. Its recognitions — scholarships, prize concerts and special prizes dedicated to interpretative personality and ensemble quality — offer real visibility and opportunities. Discover all the prizes and let yourself be inspired.
