Orchestra’s New Year performance to feature Italian artists

The performance will be held Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020 at 7:30 p.m. at Hole Memorial Auditorium. Repertoire will include Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 1, Coriolanus Overture” and Mozart’s “Bassoon Concerto in B flat Major, K. 191.” Italian artists Arturo Armellino and Luciano Corona will respectively serve as guest conductor and featured bassoonist for the evening's performances. The Beethoven work was chosen in honor of the celebrated composer's 250th birthday which occurs in 2020.

The guest artists included La Sierra in their U.S. tour during which they performed at Boulder, Colo. before traveling to Southern California. They arrived at La Sierra through their association with Dr. Dean Anderson, director of the La Sierra University Orchestra and whom they met last year when Anderson guest-conducted in Italy. A close collaboration ensued that has led to a cultural exchange program benefitting music students at La Sierra and in Italy. 

For more on the story, watch the La Sierra News video interview with all three musicians. 

Corona, a graduate of the Nicola Sala Conservatory of Music in Benevento, Italy, is completing a 2019 tour of Japan, Kazakhistan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Italy and the United States which has included performances of the Mozart bassoon concerto. Over the past 14 years he has performed as a soloist in more than 120 concerts in world-class venues including the Mozarteum in Salzburg, the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, and the Performing Arts in Shanghai.

Corona also serves as national vice president of Mozarteum Italy and is a bassoon professor at the Liceo Musicale in Airola and at the Conservatory "Tchaikovsky" in Nocera Terinese.

Armellino is also an oboist, pianist and choral conductor and is conductor of the Samnium Orchestra and the Young Orchestra of the Mozart Italia Association of Benevento. He is also principal conductor of Baohong Shanghai Culture Communication Co. Ltd., in collaboration with the Chinese Government. 

Armellino studied at several top music schools including the Conservatory of Naples, the Academy of Murgantina Morcone (BN) Campania Italy, the Accademia Pescarese Pescara Abruzzo Italy, the International University of La Rioja in Spain, and the University of Missouri School of Music. He has served as guest conductor and artist in a wide range of venues around the world including the Piazza Plebiscito in Naples; St. Peter’s Basilica, City of the Vatican; Castle Hall Llahol city of Prague, Czech Republic; Teatro Municipal of Lima, Peru; Teatro Carlos Gomes of Praia da Victoria Azores, Portugal; National Theatre of Barcelona Puerto La Crus, Venezuela; and numerous Grand Theaters in China among many others.

He has formed artistic partnerships with many noted artists including eminent film score composer Ennio Morricone, actress Vanessa Gravina, the Bernini Quartet Academy St. Cecilia, and actor and director Michele Placido. He is also president of Association Mozart Italy headquarters of Benevento, in collaboration with the prestigious Mozarteum in Salzburg – Austria and is a full professor at the Liceo Musicale G. Guacci of Benevento and the Liceo Musicale “Carafa Giustiniani” Cerreto Sannita Campania, Italy.

In addition to serving as director of orchestra studies at La Sierra University, Anderson has been the music director for the Dana Point Symphony for over five seasons and is also the artistic director for Symphony Irvine. He is frequently engaged as an orchestra clinician and has worked with youth ensembles from around the United States.

As a guest conductor he has led orchestras in various cities and countries around the world including the National Congress Chamber Orchestra in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the Hong Kong Chamber Orchestra, and the Grumo Festival Orchestra in Italy. He also holds the distinction as the first American to guest conduct the Ho Chi Minh City Ballet Symphony in Vietnam.

In 2015, he joined the faculty at the Montecito International Music Festival as the principal orchestra director. He also led the combined orchestras of La Sierra University and Symphony Irvine at Walt Disney Hall in the West Coast premiere of Marcos Galvany's operatic tableau “O My Son,” one of many operatic productions he has conducted. Anderson studied violin and conducting at the University of Missouri, Columbia. He earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at UCLA under the mentorship of Neal Stulberg.

Tickets at the door for the La Sierra University Orchestra concert are $5 students, $10 seniors, $15 general admission. Information is available at music@lasierra.edu and 951-785-2036.