I Musici (pronounced ), also known as I Musici di Roma, is an Italian

chamber orchestra Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numbe ...

from Rome formed in 1951. They are well known for their interpretations of

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

and other works, particularly

Antonio Vivaldi Antonio Lucio Vivaldi (4 March 1678 – 28 July 1741) was an Italian composer, virtuoso violinist and impresario of Baroque music. Regarded as one of the greatest Baroque composers, Vivaldi's influence during his lifetime was widespread a ...

and

Tomaso Albinoni Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni (8 June 1671 – 17 January 1751) was an Italian composer of the Baroque era. His output includes operas, concertos, sonatas for one to six instruments, sinfonias, and solo cantatas. While famous in his day as an opera comp ...

. Among their engagements, the original chamber orchestra completed acclaimed tours of Southern Africa 1956, and again in 1967, with a few replacement performersPhoto 1956, original "I Musici" chamber orchestra acclaimed tour of Southern Africa, and again 1967 (with a few new faces)
Classicalmusicianstoza.blogspot.ca In the 1970s, I Musici recorded the first classical

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

and, later, the group was the first to record a compact disc for the

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...

label. One of their founding members and first violin,

Felix Ayo Felix Ayo Losada (born July 1, 1933, Sestao, Spain) is a Spanish born, naturalised Italian, violinist. He is renowned as a founder of the Italian ensemble I Musici; as an internationally renowned violinist, who is often a soloist, and is a perf ...

, is still an active violinist as of 2017.

Instrumentation

I Musici consists of a group of string instruments and one

harpsichord A harpsichord ( it, clavicembalo; french: clavecin; german: Cembalo; es, clavecín; pt, cravo; nl, klavecimbel; pl, klawesyn) is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. This activates a row of levers that turn a trigger mechanism ...

. The strings include six

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

s, two

viola The viola ( , also , ) is a string instrument that is bow (music), bowed, plucked, or played with varying techniques. Slightly larger than a violin, it has a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of ...

s, two

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

s, and one

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

Members

I Musici is a conductorless ensemble; the relationships among the twelve musicians enable great harmony in their music-making. I Musici today *Violins: Antonio Anselmi, Marco Serino, Ettore Pellegrino, Pasquale Pellegrino, Francesca Vicari, Gian Luca Apostoli *Viola: Massimo Paris, Silvio Di Rocco *Celli: Vito Paternoster, Pietro Bosna *Double bass: Roberto Gambioli *Harpsichord: Francesco Buccarella Former members *Violins:

Salvatore Accardo Salvatore Accardo (; Knight Grand Cross born 26 September 1941 in Turin, northern Italy) is an Italian violinist and conductor, who is known for his interpretations of the works of Niccolò Paganini. Accardo owns one Stradivarius violin, the "Ha ...

, Federico Agostini,

, Arnaldo Apostoli, Claudio Buccarella,

Pina Carmirelli Pina Carmirelli (23 January 1914 in Varzi – 27 February 1993 in Capena) was an Italian violinist. She started studying music and playing in public when she was very young. She was a pupil of Michelangelo Abbado, and graduated from the Mila ...

, Italo Colandrea, Anna Maria Cotogni, Walter Gallozzi, Roberto Michelucci, Antonio Salvatore, Virgil Simons,

Mariana Sirbu Mariana may refer to: Literature * ''Mariana'' (Dickens novel), a 1940 novel by Monica Dickens * ''Mariana'' (poem), a poem by Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson * ''Mariana'' (Vaz novel), a 1997 novel by Katherine Vaz Music *"Mariana", a so ...

, Franco Tamponi, Luciano Vicari *Violas: Dino Asciolla, Aldo Bennici, Paolo Centurioni, Carmen Franco, Alfonso Ghedin,

Bruno Giuranna Bruno Giuranna (born 6 April 1933 in Milan) is an Italian violist. Giuranna was also responsible for a transcription of Bach's Goldberg Variations The ''Goldberg Variations'', BWV 988, is a musical composition for keyboard by Johann Se ...

*Celli: Enzo Altobelli, Mario Centurione, Francesco Strano *Double bass: Lucio Buccarella *Harpsichord: Maria Teresa Garatti

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Musici, I Chamber orchestras Italian orchestras Musical groups established in 1951 1951 establishments in Italy Deutsche Grammophon artists