Sestetto StradivariAccademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia

David Romano, Ruggiero Sfregola – violin Raffaele Mallozzi, David Bursack – viola Diego Romano, Sara Gentile – cello

Formed by musicians of the Orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Sestetto Stradivari was established in December 2001 on the occasion of the concert series organized as part of the International Exhibition “The Art of the Violin” held at Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome.

The ensemble’s chemistry, cohesion, and shared passion soon transformed what was meant to be a one-time event into a long-term artistic project. Today, the Sestetto performs regularly for major national and international concert institutions.

In recent years, the Sestetto has been invited by leading Italian associations such as:

Associazione Alessandro Scarlatti in Naples; Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia; Festival Paganiniano di Carro (where they premiered SELAH, a new commission by Alessandra Bellino); Amici della Musica in Montegranaro, Florence, and Udine; Opera del Duomo in Florence; Concerti d’Altamarca; Suoni delle Dolomiti Festival – invited by Mario Brunello, they performed in the stunning Laghetti di Bombasel valley before an audience of 1,000; Accademia Musicale Chigiana; Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari; Teatro Mercadante in Altamura; Teatrino di Palazzo Reale in Naples; MiTo Festival (concerts in Milan and Casale Monferrato); Ameria Festival in Amelia; Maggio della Musica Festival in Naples; Ravello International Festival; Amici della Musica in Verona; Concerti della Normale di Pisa; Associazione Appassionata in Macerata; and Società dei Concerti Lucchese.

The Sestetto has taken part in several editions of La Notte Bianca and La Notte dei Musei in Rome, performing at Palazzo Braschi and Palazzo Barberini, to great critical and public acclaim.

Their international activity has also been intense: they have performed in some of the most prestigious halls of Latin America — in Argentina at the Teatro El Círculo in Rosario, the Colosseum of Buenos Aires, and the Teatro del Bicentenario in San Juan; in Brazil at the Teatro Amazonas in Manaus and the Palácio das Artes in Belo Horizonte, where they were special guests of the “Na copa na Italia” cultural events for the Football World Cup; and in Uruguay at the magnificent Teatro Solís.

In China, they have played at the Chongqing Guotai Arts Centre, Shanghai Oriental Art Center, Shanghai City Theatre, Jinjiang Cultural Center, Yangzhou Concert Hall, Beijing Sunrise Concert Hall, Mong Man Wai Hall, Tsinghua University, and the Beijing Concert Hall.

In Spain, they have appeared at the Palau de la Música in Valencia, Auditori de la Vall d’Uixó in Castellón, and Palau Altea in Alicante.

Among their most recent engagements are a 19-date tour in Germany, in the most prestigious venues of the Kammer Musik Circle (to be repeated in the current season), the Villa Pennisi in Musica Festival in Acireale, Amici della Musica in Foggia, and the opening of I Suoni delle Dolomiti Festival with Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony in Michael Gottard Fischer’s 1811 arrangement for string sextet.

Deeply committed to contemporary music and to the mission of expanding the repertoire for string sextet, the Sestetto Stradivari has premiered works written for them by Alessandra Bellino, Fabio Massimo Capogrosso, and Riccardo Panfili.

Their debut album, released by VDM Records and featuring the sextets by Tchaikovsky and Schoenberg, was shortlisted for the 2015 Grammy Awards. In March 2018, they released a CD of Brahms’s two sextets on the Novantiqua label.

The Sestetto Stradivari is regularly invited to give chamber music masterclasses and serves as Ensemble in Residence at Villa Pennisi in Musica in Acireale, Catania.

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