The Stauffer Academy presents its 2024-25 educational offer and opens the applications for the High Specialisation Courses.
For over forty years, the Stauffer Academy has promoted the specialised training of string musicians with exceptional artistic qualities to prepare them for international concert careers. To serve this mission, the Academy offers its students, admitted solely on the basis of their artistic promise, tuition-free training programmes led by celebrated musicians from all over the world. The academic programmes are centred on the main solo instrument courses taught by Salvatore Accardo (Violin), Bruno Giuranna (Viola and Chamber Music), and Antonio Meneses (Cello); Alberto Bocini succeeds Franco Petracchi as Professor of the Double Bass Course, which broadens its structure and introduces, alongside the traditional annual course, the Stauffer Performance Diploma, an integrated programme with masterclasses, workshops and special projects led by internationally renowned double bassists, including Renaud Garcia-Fons, Rick Stotijn, Matthew McDonald and Francesco Siragusa.
This innovation will also concern the String Quartet Course, taught by the Quartetto di Cremona, with the introduction of the Performance Diploma course and of diversified attendance modules to best meet the specific needs of chamber ensembles. Many important opportunities to perform and meet with great quartet players, including, next year: Marc Danel, Ori Kam and Günter Pichler.
Numerous masterclasses and artistic projects will enrich the educational offer: with Massimo Quarta, Marco Rizzi and Maxim Vengerov (Violin); Cynthia Phelps and Wenting Kang (Viola); Nicolas Alstaedt, Enrico Dindo and Giovanni Sollima (Cello); other great artists will be announced during the academic year.
The Concertmaster Course, focused on the role of the Orchestra Leader, continues and widens its scope: a group of ten selected students will have the opportunity to study alongside the Concertmasters from leading international symphonic orchestras: Noah Bendix-Balgley (Berliner Philharmoniker), Sheryl Staples (New York Philharmonic), Roman Simovic (London Symphony Orchestra), Vesko Eschkenazy (Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra), Andrea Obiso (Santa Cecilia National Academy in Rome), Laura Marzadori (La Scala Theatre in Milan) and Jiyoon Lee (Staatskapelle Berlin). The faculty also features conductors John Axelrod and Kolja Blacher, who will lead the Stauffer String Ensemble in two special concerts.
Academic activities include programmes of chamber music for strings and piano, with masterclasses and special initiatives, starting from the extraordinary presence of David Finckel and Wu Han, Artistic Directors of the Chamber Music Society at the Lincoln Center in New York, who will animate the Chamber Music Week from the 1st to the 5th October. Enrico Pace and Andrea Lucchesini will hold two masterclasses reserved to the students of solo instrument courses, while the young and versatile pianist Kit Armstrong will offer a play-in masterclass, performing together with selected students and chamber groups.
Not only courses: deeply committed to its mission, the Stauffer Academy offers its best students numerous opportunities to be involved in artistic projects, international residencies and concerts in Italy and abroad through a network of international collaborations with prestigious educational and artistic institutions, including the “Reina Sofía” High School of Music in Madrid, the Sorbonne University in Paris, the European Union Youth Orchestra, and numerous festivals and concert organizations.
