We would like to inform all visitors that the concert of the Orchestra Sinfonica del Conservatorio Vincenzo Bellini di Catania, which will be held on Monday, 22 July, at 9.00 pm, has been moved to the Marjan Kozina Hall in the Slovenian Philharmonic due to bad weather forecast. A change of tickets is required due to the change of location. Exchanges are only possible at the Križanke Box Office (Trg francoske revolucije 2) from 18 July to Monday 22 July during box office hours, or until 7.00 pm on Monday. Ticket holders should bring their original tickets and receipt with them.

Programme:
Vincenzo Bellini:
“Eccomi in lieta vesta”, Giulietta’s aria from I Capuleti e i Montecchi
“Qui la voce…Vien, diletto”, Elvira’s aria from I Puritani
Sinfonia from Norma
“Casta Diva”, Norma’s aria from Norma
Saverio Mercadante: Homage to Bellini, Sinfonia for Grand Orchestra
Vincenzo Bellini: “Ah! non credea mirarti”, Amine’s aria from La sonnambula
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Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36

The Italian pianist and conductor Epifanio Comis studied with eminent musicians such as Agatella Catania, Lazar Berman and Piero Rattalino. Today he is known for organising numerous masterclasses at important institutions in New York, Warsaw, Mons, Paris, Moscow and Bucharest, and also teaches at the Ljubljana Festival Masterclasses. Furthermore, he is the director of and a professor at the Catania Vincenzo Bellini Conservatory, where in 2020 he founded the very active Orchestra Sinfonica del Conservatorio Vincenzo Bellini di Catania (Catania Vincenzo Bellini Conservatory Symphonic Orchestra), which includes teachers and students from the Etnea Musical Association. The orchestra has prepared a varied programme for its Ljubljana concert with the opening Sinfonia  from Vincenzo Bellini’s opera Norma  and continuing with a selection of his most popular arias. The latter will be sung by the soprano Serena Sáenz, winner of the second prize at the Operalia international opera competition in 2022. The first half of the programme will end with a work by Saverio Mercadante, one of the leading Italian opera composers of his day, whose style influenced Giuseppe Verdi. After the interval the concert will continue with a performance of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 in F minor,  a work that moves between classical structure and the symphonic poem form pioneered by Franz Liszt.

• the orchestra’s home city is the birthplace of the Romantic composer Vincenzo Bellini
• the orchestra frequently performs works by Bellini, Puccini and Rossini – along with works by other composers such as Tchaikovsky and Johann Strauss II – at Catania’s Teatro Massimo
• Epifanio Comis has performed at many of the world’s most prestigious venues, including Carnegie Hall in New York
• in 2013 Epifanio Comis became the first winner of the Sergei Rachmaninov International Award
• soprano Serena Sáenz won the Montserrat Caballé International Singing Competition in 2021
• Serena Sáenz has appeared at prestigious venues including the Berliner Staatsoper (Berlin State Opera), Wiener Staatsoper (Vienna State Opera) and the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona