Barbara Cocconi
Barbara Cocconi is graduated in Piano, Music Education, Vocal Chamber Music, at the ‘A.Boito’ Conservatory of Parma. She has worked as a pianist for classical dance since 2000, (Ballet School Academy of the Teatro alla Scala from 2004 to 2009; she has collaborated with various dance schools, including ‘Professione Danza Parma’, since 2000; she has participated in numerous stages and workshop. She deals with musical training for student dancers, giving great importance to the use of the voice and of the body-percussion, a specialty that requires constant deepening through training and updating courses (Paduano, Baroni, Consorte, Caneva, Mongelli, Magnoni, Pozzo, Plentz). She collaborated with the choreographer Francesco Ventriglia (2005/2010), as a musical assistant, dance accompanist, lights/sound/stage technician, participating in important festivals (including AddaDanza and the Venice Biennale). From 2004 to 2018 she was a teacher of ‘Music and Choir’ at the Professional Training Course for Musical Artists ‘Professione Musical’ in Parma, and she has worked as a choir coach in various stages of Musical Theater. From 2012 she is accompanist pianist and lecturer in ‘Theory and musical practice for dance’ at the Liceo Coreutico ‘Matilde di Canossa’ in Reggio Emilia. In 2018 she held a masterclass at the ‘G.Tartini’ Conservatory of Trieste about ‘The pianist accompanying the dance’. For the 2018/2019 season she collaborated with the company ‘Abbati – InScena’ for the preparation of the musical ‘Kiss me, Kate’ as musical director. From October 2018 she collaborates with the National Dance Foundation as accompanist teacher for the technical-practical lessons of the Aterballetto company. For the autumn of 2019, the release of her ‘Piano Dance’ notebook is scheduled (notes, materials and ideas for a methodology of piano accompaniment to dance, Dantone Edizioni and Musica).
Ilaria Cavalca
Ilaria Cavalca achieves, with the highest marks, the master diploma in piano (interpretive/compositional) at the Institute of Music ‘Achille Peri’ in Reggio Emilia under the guidance of Franca Bacchelli. Ilaria has performed in numerous concerts on the national territory as chamber music pianist. From 2006 to 2010 she was the pianist of the REpercussio quartet with whom she performed in numerous conservatories in northern Italy playing works by Bartók, Šostakovič and Talmelli and winning the admission to the final of the National Arts Award for two consecutive years (2007 and 2008). In 2011 she performed the ‘Carmina Burana’ by C. Orff in the version for two pianos, percussion and choir at the Teatro Valli in Reggio Emilia under the guidance of Marco Faelli. She worked as collaborating pianist in the percussion, strings, and choral singing classes of the Institute of Music ‘Achille Peri’, in the percussion class of David Searcy at the School of Music in Milan, was the pianist during the musical event ‘Comparing Composers’ promoted by the ‘A.Peri’ Institute of Reggio Emilia and was the pianist in the Operetta Corrado Abbati Company during the 2008/2009 season. From 2017 to 2018 she was an accompanist pianist of the Emilia-Romagna Youth Choir directed by Silvia Biasini. Since 2012 he has been the pianist in the instrumental group AURORAENSEMBLE which proposes the search for repertoires and the diffusion of twentieth-century and contemporary compositions. The trio has an intense concert activity (Museo del Novecento in Milan, Cultural Salon of Marcella Crudeli of Rome, Slovenian Institute E. Komel of Gorizia, Festival NED of Desenzano sul Garda, House of Music of Parma, Conservatory of Adria, just to mention some places where she played) and performed numerous premières. The trio recorded the album ‘Lievi respiri d’Aurora’ on the occasion of the 2nd International Composition Competition ‘Giorgio and Aurora Giovannini’, in which the trio was also a performer of the competing works, and in the summer of 2019 the trio recorded for EMAVinci a collection of works written and dedicated to AURORAENSEMBLE by composers of the Italian scene. From 2017 Ilaria is a member of the Italian Society of Contemporary Music (SIMC). She currently works at the Institute of Music ‘Achille Peri’ as a piano teacher and as a educational coordinator. Since 2011 she has been the conductor of the Children Choir ‘Don Dossetti’ (1st prize at the ‘Città di Riccione’ Choral Competition 2017 for the category school choirs and 2nd prize in the ‘Città di Faenza’ Choral Competition 2019); she is conductor and accompanist pianist of the choir ‘Vocinsieme’ of Gattatico and from 2018 she is the choir conductor of the CavriCanto Children’s Choir of Cavriago (1st prize at the ‘Città di Riccione’ Choral Competition 2019; ‘Jenny Berardi’ prize for the best stage presence and AERCO prize 2019).From January 2019 she is the conductor of the Regional Youth Choir of Emilia-Romagna (AERCO).
