This unique and exciting program brings together for the first time in our region, a world renowned group of Tango dancers with a world renowned Tango Music ensemble – performing together.
Andres Bravo, Sarita Apel, Walter Perez and Leonardo Sadella are electrifying Tango dancers with international credentials.
Meanwhile, the famed Tango instrumental duo of Giampaolo Bandini (guitar) and Cesare Chiacchiaretta (Bandoneon/Accordion), LICO guest artists, are famous throughout the Tango and Concert Music world as well.
Additionally, the above dancers and the instrumental duo will be further supported by Long Island Concert Orchestra. Bela Horvath, Concert Master.
Giampaolo Bandini is now considered among the best Italian guitarists on the international scene. In 2003 he received the nomination as the best Italian guitarist of the year from the readers of the Guitar magazine. Brilliantly graduating with the highest marks at only nineteen years, he owes his musical training to Maestro Giovanni Puddu. On the chamber side he was trained at the prestigious Piano Academy of Imola studying with musicians such as Pier Narciso Masi, Alexander Lonquich, Dario De Rosa, Maureen Jones and Franco Gulli, obtaining the Master’s Degree as the best chamber ensemble.
Giampaolo Bandini was a member of the only guitar duo that managed to enter the roll of honor of the most prestigious national and international chamber music competitions, reporting on every occasion the 1st absolute prize: XI “Città di Caltanissetta” Competition ( member of the Federation of Geneva International Competitions) 1995; Perugia Classico, Prize “City of Gubbio”, Competition “F.Cilea” City of Palmi, Selection A.R.A.M.-Rome, National Selection Youth Musical of Italy.
Since 1990 he has been a guest, both as a soloist and in various chamber ensembles, of the most important Italian and foreign concert institutions (Carnegie Hall in New York, Musikhalle in Hamburg, International Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, Ravello Festival, Teatro Regio di Parma, IRCAM in Paris, Warsaw Chopin Museum, Academy of Santa Cecilia and Parco della Musica in Rome, Unione Musicale di Torino, Friends of Music in Florence, Palermo, Pistoia, Verdi Festival
Born in Chieti, Cesare Chiacchiaretta devoted himself from an early age to the study of the accordion and then to the support of the bandoneon. He studied with Maestro Claudio Calista at the Pescarese Music Academy, graduating with honors from the “N. Piccinni ”of Bari in 1995. Later he specialized with masters such asf Max and Christiane Bonnay, Vladimir Zubitsky and Mogens Ellegaard. He has given concerts for the most prestigious concert societies in Italy and abroad (France, Russia, Hungary, Austria, Slovenia, Switzerland, Germany, Mexico, Croatia, Slovenia, Czech Rep., Slovakia, Holland, Spain …) and as a soloist that in various chamber formations. He was awarded in the most important national and international solo and chamber music competitions, winning the first prize in 1993 at the “Città di Castelfidardo” international competition (since then no Italian has ever managed to win the coveted award) . In 1991 he was chosen as the only Italian representative at the C.I.A.- I.M.C World Cup by UNESCO.
In 1993 he was invited to participate, representing Italy, at the 43rd World Accordion Trophy in Setubal (Portugal). His great interest in chamber music led him to collaborate regularly with musicians such as Corrado Giuffredi, Lorna Windsor, Danilo Rossi, Giuseppe Ettorre, Nando Gazzolo, Arnoldo Foà, Elio, Rino Vernizzi, Massimo Mercelli and in various formations (Cuarteto del Angel, Trio sin Palabras, Mahagonny Quartet, etc.), exploring the most varied repertoires.
The Bandini/ Chiacchiaretta Duo, was formed in 2002 with the specific intent of reviving Argentine music through the charm and magic of its most representative instruments. Immediately the duo became an important point of reference in the international concert scene for their great communicative power combined with an extraordinary charisma. Invited by the most important festivals and theaters in the world, the duo toured Mexico, Romania, China, Poland, Slovakia, Austria, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Holland, Croatia, Russia, Slovenia, Turkey, Czech Republic , Hungary, receiving extraordinary acclaim from critics and the public everywhere.
The duo had the privilege of playing the Double Concerto “Hommage a Liegi” by Astor Piazzolla under the direction of Maestro Leo Brouwer at the Paganini Auditorium in Parma and for the Unione Musicale in Turin with the famous chamber orchestra “I Virtuosi di Mosca ”directed by Pavel Berman.
In 2004 the Bandini-Chiacchiaretta duo were awarded the XV Beniamino Joppolo Prize City of Patti (Messina) for the high artistic merits achieved in the musical field. In 2005 the duo made its debut in the prestigious Sala Grande of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, achieving such success that it was immediately returned for the next two years.
Their peculiarity of experiencing music in a totalitarian and borderless way leads them to collaborate with the likes of Arnoldo Foa ‘, Elio delle Storie Tese, Amanda Sandrelli, Nando Gazzolo and musicians such as Fernando Suarez Paz, Michele Pertusi, Corrado Giuffredi, Danilo Rossi, Massimo Quarta, Enrico Bronzi, Franca Masu, Maria Estela Monti, Enrico Fagone and many others.
Long Island Concert Orchestra
Enrico Fagone, Music Director
Jason Tramm, Principal Guest Conductor
David Winkler, Executive Director
Long Island Concert Orchestra (LICO), was established in September of 2016 by David Winkler, Executive Director of Sea Cliff Chamber Players. The new orchestra’s mission is to meet the growing needs on Long Island for a fully professional symphony orchestra.
LICO fills a cultural vacuum by providing the Long Island community with fully professional symphony orchestra programs, free parks concerts, in-school Arts-In-Education programs and other vital endeavors. In only its first two years of programming (starting May, 2017) LICO has already begun to articulate this mission with successful and well attended summer parks concerts and impactful educational programs throughout Long Island and New York City with concert events at Tilles Center, Huntington Arts Festival and Patchogue Theatre as well as the Good Shepherd Church near Lincoln Center, Manhattan.
Our Music Director Enrico Fagone and Principal Guest Conductor Jason Tramm, are both “rising star” performing artists with vast experience in both standard repertoire as well as popular fare. The orchestra consists of some 60 outstanding young professional musicians and soloists from New York City. Our Board of Directors consists of some 14 civic and business leaders that also serve on the board of its parent organization, the Sea Cliff Chamber Players, established in 1971 as one of the country’s first fully professional regional chamber music societies.
You may have seen some of the numerous and recent articles about LICO in Newsday. Additionally we have already given very successful concert programs at the Tilles Center (Music to the “The Godfather”, May 19, 2017 and the Johnny Mathis Holiday Celebration concert of December 9, 2017): at Heckscher State Park in East Islip (“Hometown Heroes”, July 15 ) attended by some 10,000 enthusiastic citizens; at the Huntington Summer Arts Festival in Heckscher State Park on August 5, 2017 attended by 2,000 persons, and most recently at Patchogue Theatre in its performances of Prokofiev’s famous “Peter and the Wolf” young person’s concert event , April 22, 2018, and subsequent Leonard Bernstein Centennial Celebration November 10, 2018 and our annual Christmas Celebration Concert on December 9, 2018.
In addition to the above public concert events, LICO has already provided numerous student coaching and performance services in area public schools starting the spring of 2017 including activities at the Uniondale, Wheatley, Sewanhaka, Sachem and Patchogue/Medford School Districts, encompassing some 16 lower, middle and high schools.