Gianmaria Griglio
Music Director of “An Opera Odyssey“, winner of a scholarship at Bard College and a fellowship at the Wagner Stiftung of Bayreuth, Gianmaria Griglio has been invited at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in Florida, with only four other conductors in the United States, as Associate Artist, and at the end of the Master in conducting at Bard College he has been offered by Leon Botstein the position of Assistant Conductor at the American Symphony Orchestra.
An advocate of contemporary music, Mr. Griglio took part at the first world recording of music by American composer Irwin Bazelon, under the supervision of Harold Farberman, for the “Albany Records” label and conducted several world premieres like, in 2004, the new opera by Harold Farberman, “The song of Eddie”, which then became a candidate to the Pulitzer prize 2005.
Gianmaria Griglio studied violin with Massimo Marin and Philipe Bride, graduating at the “Guido Cantelli” conservatory of Novara in 1997. At the same time he studied composition with Marco Minetti and Larry Wallach, conducting with Gilberto Serembe at the Academy of music in Pescara, and with Harold Farberman in the United States.
Mr. Griglio worked with many orchestras, like the American Symphony Orchestra, the Bard Festival Chamber Players, the One World Symphony Orchestra – orchestra with which he signed his debut as a composer -, the Irish Youth Orchestra, the Orchestra of Sofia, the Orchestra Filarmonica Veneta, the Chamber Orchestra of Genova, the Ensemble Baroque de Provence, the Orchestra Filarmonica Italiana, the APM Orchestra of Saluzzo, the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra “Carlo Coccia”, the Astana Chamber Orchestra of Yokohama.
As a composer, Mr. Griglio had the world premiere of his first opera “Camille Claudel” in 2013. Commissioned and produced by International Opera Theater, “Camille Claudel” was one of the finalists at the 2012 Flourish Competition in London and received an honorable mention award by the Boston Metro Opera. Mr.Griglio is currently working on his second opera based on the life of Caravaggio.
In 2008 he has been invited as a guest conductor to teach at the Bard Summer Institute in the United States. In 2009 he conducted the world premiere of “Jago” by Carlo Pedini for the International Opera Theater of Philadelphia, of which he has subsequently been nominated Musical Director. In August 2010 he conducted the world premiere of Efrain Amaya‘s new opera, “La bisbetica domata”, after Shakespeare’s “The taming of the shrew”. Mr. Griglio has then been invited to perform the very same opera at the 2011 edition of the prestigious International Festival of Culture of Bergamo, Italy.
Mr. Griglio made his debut in Philadelphia in November 2010 with the world premiere of the “Decameron”, a new opera commissioned by the American Composer Forum to seven Philadelphia composers. The opera featured the winners of the First International Lyric Competition “Città di Saluzzo”, held in September 2010, for which Mr. Griglio serves as Artistic Director. Decameron was then brought in tour to Italy in summer 2011, again under Mr. Griglio’s baton.
In 2012 he premiered the opera “Buffalo Soldier”, by Carlo Pedini and served as Artistic Director of the second International Lyric competition “Città di Saluzzo”, in collaboration with the Viotti Competition of Vercelli. In 2013 he conducted a new production of “Jago” in the United States and Italy and the world premiere of his own opera “Camille Claudel”.
Mr. Griglio has been awarded a fellowship by the Wagner Stiftung of Bayreuth for the 2010 Bayreuther Festspiele.
Mr. Griglio worked in prestigious halls around the world, obtaining unanimous acclaim of both critic and public, like the “Richard B. Fisher” Center for the Performing Arts, the Teatro Filarmonico of Verona and the Palais des Congres of Montecarlo working with such artists as Harold Farberman, Leon Botstein, Francesca Zambello, Beth Greenberg, Joanne Akalaitis, Alexandre Kravets, Sandro Laffranchini, William Ferguson, Giampiero Sobrino, Anna Pirozzi.
In 2016, with soprano Violetta Lazin, he founded ARTax Music, a new company based in The Hague, Netherlands.