The Book of Isaiah: Modern Jazz Ministry by Isaiah J. Thompson and his quartet

Winner of the 2023 American Piano Awards and a Steinway Artist, Isaiah J. Thompson is today one of the most sought-after pianists on the American jazz scene, having collaborated with artists such as Wynton Marsalis and John Pizzarelli.

On March 9, he makes his Florence debut with his quartet, presenting The Book of Isaiah: Modern Jazz Ministry, his debut release for Mack Avenue Records—an autobiographical project produced by the great pianist Cyrus Chestnut. It is a contemporary jazz work that explores faith, identity, artistic vocation, and humanity.

Inspired by the great sacred jazz tradition of Duke Ellington, Mary Lou Williams, and John Coltrane, Thompson shapes a personal language that blends swing, blues, and narrative depth.

On stage:
Isaiah J. Thompson – piano
Julian Lee – tenor saxophone
Sebastian Rios – double bass
Matthew Lee – drums

A cohesive and refined quartet, capable of moving between energy and introspection with remarkable maturity.

 Michael Jackson Anthology – The Italian Tribute

Michael Jackson Anthology – The Italian Tribute is an immersive show that retraces the key milestones in the career of the King of Pop, through iconic choreography, greatest hits, and a staging capable of conveying energy, rhythm, and vision.

A tribute that celebrates the artistic legacy of a figure who transformed the language of music, the music video, and live performance, becoming a global point of reference.

Peppe Barra in “Buonasera a tutti dai miei disordinati appunti”

The theatre of Peppe Barra has often been described as “the thousand and one resurrections of the Neapolitan soul.” An artist capable of moving across extreme vocal registers, from the lowest depths to the highest peaks, blending popular tradition and cultivated culture, personal memory and the great theatrical repertoire.

“Buonasera a tutti” is a recital conceived as a direct encounter with the audience. In its very title lies the promise of an authentic relationship: a dialogue that breaks through the fourth wall and becomes shared experience. A simple greeting that turns into an embrace, both intimate and deeply theatrical.

The performance retraces key moments in Barra’s life and career: his childhood between Procida and Napoli in the 1950s, his very early debut with Zietta Liù, the success of the Nuova Compagnia di Canto Popolare, and his years in theatre alongside his mother, Concetta Barra. A journey spanning more than sixty years on stage, offering the portrait of a unique performer in the Italian cultural landscape.

It is not a chronological account, but a poetic narrative that transforms memory. On stage, Baroque music intertwines with popular tradition, the world of Giambattista Basile, authors such as Antonio Petito and Raffaele Viviani, variety theatre, cabaret, and even contemporary singer-songwriters. His career recomposes itself through the genres he has crossed, yet at its core remains childhood — a universal place in which we can all recognize ourselves.

Peppe Barra is the sole protagonist on stage, accompanied on piano by Maestro Luca Urciuolo. A performance that alternates irony and poetry, lightness and depth, in a continuous interplay with the audience, where every word and every note becomes a shared experience.

XENIA NEXT GENERATION SERIES

On the stage of Teatro Niccolini on 23 February at 8:30 pm, Xenia Next Generation Series arrives— a musical encounter dedicated to the new generation of chamber music.

A group of outstanding young performers, selected from the Xenia International Chamber Music Course, perform and discuss two masterpieces of the chamber repertoire, guided by violinist Daniel Roberts and Igor Polesitsky.

Not a concert in the traditional sense, but an intimate listening experience and a dialogue with the audience, offering insight into the inner workings of chamber music and the relationship between voices, balance, and shared breathing.

The program places two fundamental works side by side: Joseph Haydn’s String Quartet Op. 20 No. 2 and Johannes Brahms’s Quintet Op. 111.

Musical guidance and dialogue with the audience:
Daniel Roberts and Igor Polesitsky

 

Tickets:
Full price: €10.00
Students and under 30: €5.00

Firenze International Music and Arts Expo at Teatro Niccolini

The Florence International Music and Arts Expo comes to the Teatro Niccolini with two free concerts dedicated to the encounter between European and Korean musical traditions.

On Sunday, January 25 at 5:00 pm, the stage will welcome the Hyo Sung Youth Orchestra of Gwangju, an ensemble bringing together young musicians from primary school to university level. A high-level educational project that arrives in Florence for a rare international performance.

On Saturday, February 7 at 5:00 pm, the Niccolini will host the EXPO Orchestra, conducted by Deun Lee, together with Italian and Korean choirs led by Laura Bartoli. The program ranges from Mozart, Morricone, Rutter and Arban, culminating in a shared choral moment with Va’, pensiero from Verdi’s Nabucco.

Two events at the Teatro Niccolini that highlight cultural dialogue through music, celebrating the meeting of generations, languages and diverse traditions.

Free admission until seating capacity is reached.

 

Klezmerata Fiorentina

On the occasion of its twentieth anniversary, Klezmerata Fiorentina returns to the stage with La via della Klezmerata, a project that is at once a musical celebration and a live narrative.

Founded in 2005, the ensemble is made up entirely of soloists from the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and offers an original reinterpretation of the klezmer tradition as improvised chamber music. At its core are orality, the continuous dialogue between instruments, and a strong expressive freedom that makes each concert different from the last.

Klezmer music—historically passed down by the klezmorim of Eastern Europe through listening and memory—is treated here as a living, spoken language. Melody becomes an emotional narrative shaped on stage by the moment and by the interaction among the musicians, in a constant balance of irony, melancholy, and virtuosity.

At the origin of the project are also the Jewish-Ukrainian roots of founder Igor Polesitsky, born in Kyiv, for whom many of these melodies are tied to family and childhood memories. Alongside the violin, clarinet, accordion, and double bass create a true sonic dramaturgy, where improvisation becomes a tool for storytelling.

The repertoire draws on authentic historical sources, particularly the collections of Moshe Beregovski compiled in Ukraine between the 1920s and 1930s, reworked through the expressive means of classical music thanks to the quartet’s chamber training.

Over the years, Klezmerata Fiorentina has performed successfully across Europe, Japan, the United States, and Canada, appearing in concert halls and international festivals. Zubin Mehta has described their sound as capable of moving from joy to deep emotion—not merely great entertainment, but music made at the highest level.

La via della Klezmerata celebrates twenty years of international activity with a concert that is each time a unique event: a journey between memory and invention, tradition and freedom.

ILY.I LOVE YOU BABY

The text, written and directed by Henrj Bartolini, arises from the need to tell a story of truth, without passing any judgment. It is inspired by narrative theatre, while at the same time evoking the imagery typical of dance theatre and contemporary dramaturgy. Contemporary society is full of episodes of violence against women; however, our intention does not focus so much on the dramatic reality experienced by the two protagonists, which ultimately turns into a domestic war, but rather on portraying the consequences that those who are victims of violence must, sooner or later, come to terms with.

SUPERVIRTUOSO BORIS GILTBURG RETURNS!

Titans of the Piano Across Time

 

S BACH, Well Tempered Clavier Book 1 – Selections

Prokofiev, Romeo and Juliet

Ravel,  Gaspard de la Nuit 

Boris Giltburg, Piano

Boris Giltburg is lauded across the globe as a deeply sensitive, insightful and compelling interpreter. Critics have praised his “singing line, variety of touch and broad dynamic palette capable of great surges of energy” (Washington Post) as well as his impassioned, narrative-driven approach to performance.

Giltburg regularly plays recitals in the world’s most prestigious halls, including Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Brussels’ Bozar, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, London’s Southbank Centre and Wigmore Hall, New York’s Carnegie Hall, Prague’s Rudolfinum and Vienna’s Konzerthaus. Throughout the 2024/25 season, he embarks on a series of eight concerts performing the entire cycle of Beethoven Piano Sonatas at the Wigmore Hall, all of which will be live-streamed.

Giltburg is widely recognized as a leading interpreter of Rachmaninov: “His originality stems from a convergence of heart and mind, served by immaculate technique and motivated by a deep and abiding love for one of the 20th century’s greatest composer- pianists.” (Gramophone). To celebrate Rachmaninov’s 150th anniversary in 2023, Giltburg released the last disc in his acclaimed Rachmaninov concerto cycle which received a Choc de Classica award and a 5* review in The Times. In recent years Giltburg has engaged in a series of in-depth explorations of other major composers, including Ravel (performing solo works at Bozar, Flagey, the Amsterdam Muziekgebouw and the Wigmore Hall, and concerti with the Orchestre National de France, Brussels Philharmonic and Residentie Orkest) and most recently Chopin, including three recitals at the Wigmore Hall last season.

This season’s Beethoven cycle continues such an exploration as, in 2020 to celebrate the Beethoven anniversary, Giltburg embarked upon a unique project to record and film all 32 of Beethoven’s piano sonatas across the year: “these interpretations are enormously pleasurable and at times revelatory… Giltburg’s pianism is ideally suited to late Beethoven” (five stars, BBC Music Magazine). He also recorded the complete concerti with Vasily Petrenko and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, appeared in the BBC TV series Being Beethoven.

Giltburg’s list of orchestral collaborators includes the Czech Philharmonic, Dresden Philharmonic, Finnish Radio Symphony, NHK Symphony, Orchestre National de France, Oslo Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra and Santa Cecilia di Roma. In the 2024/25 season, Giltburg explores concerti by a range of composers: he performs Rachmaninov with the Hallé, Bournemouth Symphony and Gulbenkian Orchestra, Prokofiev with Belgian National and Stavanger Symphony, Tchaikovsky with London Philharmonic, Mozart with Hamburger Symphoniker, Shostakovich with Enescu Philharmonic, Bartók with Teatro Colon, and Grieg with Dresden Philharmonic.

Giltburg is a consummate recording artist and has been exclusive to Naxos since 2015, winning the Opus Klassik Award for Best Soloist Recording for Rachmaninov concerti and Etudes Tableaux; a Diapason d’Or for Shostakovich concerti and his own arrangement of Shostakovich’s Eighth String Quartet; and a Choc de Classica Award for Rachmaninov concerti. He also won a Gramophone Award for the Dvořák Piano Quintet on Supraphon with the Pavel Haas Quartet, as well as a Diapason d’Or and Choc de Classica for their joint release of the Brahms Piano Quintet.

Giltburg feels a strong need to engage audiences beyond the concert hall. His blog “Classical Music for All” is aimed at a non-specialist audience, which he complements with articles in publications such as Gramophone, BBC Music Magazine, The Guardian, The Times and Fono Forum.

Andrea Vanzo in Intimacy Vol. 2 – Italian Tour

One of the most internationally followed contemporary Italian pianists and composers arrives in Florence with Intimacy Vol. 2, the new chapter of his Italian tour.

The music of Andrea Vanzo is born from a rare balance between contemporary classical writing and an immediate emotional language. A solo piano, essential, capable of creating a space for deep listening where time slows down and every detail finds its place.

Intimacy Vol. 2 is conceived as an intimate experience. A journey made of silence, memory, and inner resonances, where the concert becomes a moment of authentic sharing between artist and audience. On stage, the piano transforms into a voice that does not tell stories, but makes them felt.

Gabriele Piazza – HETEROPHOBIC

A comic, fierce, and razor-sharp look at what is usually never questioned. In “Eterofobo,” Gabriele Piazza brings to the stage a monologue that uses satire as a tool for cultural dismantling, overturning roles, language, and social automatisms.

The starting point is simple only in appearance: observing the world from a different perspective, one capable of making visible privileges, fragilities, and contradictions that often remain unseen. From there emerges a direct, personal, unfiltered narrative, alternating comedy, discomfort, and moments of collective recognition.

“Eterofobo” does not seek easy approval or reassuring punchlines. It is a show that puts the audience in the position of laughing and then, immediately after, asking why. A stand-up performance that does not limit itself to entertainment, but opens a critical space around the way we construct identities, relationships, and normality.

A necessary, uncomfortable, deeply contemporary work, which finds in the theatre a space of freedom and real confrontation.