Mandolinist to Perform with Orchestra

Celebrated mandolinist Carlo Aonzo will return to campus to collaborate with the Truman Chamber Orchestra and faculty to perform music by Vivaldi, Paradisi, Hummel and Webern.

A free concert open to the public will take place at 8 p.m. April 1 in the Ophelia Parrish Performance Hall.

Aonzo performs regularly in Europe and the United States where he has established himself as a principal proponent of the classical mandolin. A graduate with honors from the C. Pollini Conservatory in Padua, Aonzo has played with the Philharmonic Orchestra of La Scala in Milan, the Pomeriggi Musicali of Milan, the Symphony Orchestra of Emilia Romagna, the Carlo Felice Theatre of Genoa, the Lirico Theatre of Cagliari, the Symphony Orchestra of Cannes and the Nashville Chamber Orchestra.

Among his awards are the Vivaldi first prize at the Vittorio Pitzianti National Mandolin Competition in Venice and first prize at the Walnut Valley National Mandolin Contest in Winfield, Kan. Each year he organizes and teaches at an international mandolin workshop in New York, and in 2006 he began the International Italian Academy for the Mandolin. He gives presentations on the iconography of the mandolin at institutions such as Yale University, Boston University and the National Instrument Museum in Rome.