Accademia Bizantina AB) was founded in Ravenna in 1983.
Accademia’s music starts from the origin (“AB”), from the very rules of the baroque stylistic language: it investigates them without any addition, elimination or transformation, relying on the sounds of ancient instruments.
This unique performing method began in 1996 with the appointment of its conductor Ottavio Dantone, a true expert of Baroque expressive codes.
His system, forged by experience and an ongoing philological study, has allowed AB as an orchestra to approach any repertoire with awareness and honesty.
Being able to convey the composer’s authentic intentions to the public is an invaluable asset that has earned AB national and international recognition and collaboration*.
Each performance by Accademia Bizantina, which since 2011 can also count on the prestigious concertmaster Alessandro Tampieri, is an unexpected journey through time, an unparalleled balance between technique, skill, rigour, interpretative culture, intuition and stylistic accuracy.
Accademia Bizantina has recorded for Decca, Harmonia Mundi, Deutsche Grammophon, Naïve, Alpha, Onyx, HDB Sonus.
It has received prestigious awards such as the Diapason d’Or, Midem, Choc di Classica, Opus Klassik, Grammy Music Award and Gramophone Awards. Particularly significant are the collaborations with violinists Viktoria Mullova and Giuliano Carmignola, countertenor Andreas Scholl and contralto Delphine Galou.
Accademia Bizantina has performed in the world’s most renowned theatres and festivals, such as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center (New York), Wigmore Hall and Barbican Centre (London), Théâtre des Champs Elysées (Paris) and Opera Royal (Versailles); Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Bozar (Brussels), Pierre Boulez Saal / Staatoper (Berlin) Kölner Philharmonie, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, ENCPA Beijing, Shanghai Concert Hall, Walt Disney Hall (Los Angeles), Theater an der Wien (Vienna), CNDM Madrid and Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome.
Alessandro Tampieri
Violinist, violist, but also sporadically guitarist and lutenist on basso continuo, he began his musical studies in his hometown of Ravenna, joining Accademia Bizantina at a very young age.
He then went on to perform as a soloist, chamber musician, in symphony and opera orchestras (Filarmonica and Teatro alla Scala), devoting himself to the larger repertoire, with a particular focus
on contemporary music and collaborating with Luciano Berio and Azio Corghi.
His identification with the musical language of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and a marked aptitude for improvisation led him to devote himself mainly to this repertoire as a violinist.
He has worked and still works with Il Giardino Armonico, Divino Sospiro (Lisbon), Academia Montis Regalis, L’Arpeggiata, Artaserse (Philippe Jaroussky), Imaginarium and Suonar Parlante.
He regularly performs in the most prestigious European and American early music seasons and festivals.
He has recorded for Teldec, Decca, Naive, Harmonia Mundi, Hyperion, Virgin and major European and North American radio stations.
He teaches at the Conservatorio ‘G. Rossini’ in Pesaro.
He plays a violin built in 2014 by Marco Minnozzi.
His recordings of Vivaldi’s Concertos for viola d’amore and for strings and Vivaldi’s Violin Concertos VII “Per Il Castello”, with Accademia Bizantina and Ottavio Dantone, on the Naïve label, were warmly received by both specialist critics and the public.
Since 2011 he has been Concertmaster of Accademia Bizantina for which, together with Ottavio Dantone, he is artistic director.