A turning point in classical music. Take a joyous journey to where it all began – Italy – the birthplace of the orchestra and the Baroque classical era. Widely considered to be the one of the most influential periods for modern western music, the Baroque style is marked by fuller and more complex musical compositions, including multiple independent melody lines, performed simultaneously by different instruments, and often incorporating voices, just as we see in modern symphonic presentations.
Giancarlo studied at the School of Music of Brescia, graduating in Organ and Organ Composition, with high marks under M° F. Castelli. At the same time, he also received a Diploma of Maturità Classica, and then went on to attend courses of the D.A.M.S. Music section at the faculty of Lettere e Filosofia in Bologna, Italy. He has also studied composition and orchestra conductorship with M° G. Cataldo, which widened his knowledge and experience further.
He has been the conductor of the Orchestra Vox Aurae of Brescia, Itlay, since 1992, becoming the Artistic Director and 1st Conductor of the Orchestra del Teatro Olimpico of Vicenza, Italy, in 2003, where he toured with this orchestra in Italy and abroad, until 2011.
Giancalo has collaborated with the publishing house Agorà in Milan, Italy, to produce two CDs of Durante’s string symphonies in their integral versions, the first-ever published CD devoted to 900 Baroque, with baroque style pieces by Italian composers of the century – including J. Myslilecek’s string symphonies, F.L. Gassman’s complete string symphonies, and Mozart’s concertos for piano and orchestra. Most recently, he recorded a CD dedicated to W.A. Mozart with the Orchestra Sinfonica Abruzzese, together with M° Ettore Pellegrino and M° Danilo Rossi. He is currently the Music Director of Orchestra Sinfonica Sanremo, in Italy.
Dragoş Filip is a performer, music educator, and media-composer based in Lafayette, Louisiana. He is an active chamber and orchestral musician. He is the principal cellist of Acadiana Symphony Orchestra, and is a frequent performer with the symphony orchestras of Baton Rouge, Alexandria, and the Mobile Symphony, in Alabama. He has worked as a recording artist for various musicians, including the Grammy-nominated artist Marc Broussard, and Grammy winner Lauren Daigle.
Dragoş maintains an active private studio in addition to teaching high school string orchestra at Ovey Comeaux High School, and L.J. Alleman Fine Arts Magnet Academy. He has also been the Music Director and Conductor of the Acadiana Symphony Youth Orchestras since 2016, and his students are regularly accepted into the Louisiana All-State Orchestra and Lafayette Parish School System Gifted & Talented program. Before moving to Lafayette, he taught in Baton Rouge for the Kids Orchestra program.
Dragoş is originally from Bucharest, Romania, and has been living in Louisiana since 2006. He has performed with world-renowned vocalists Renee Fleming, and Kristin Chenoweth; violinists Sarah Chang, Giora Schmidt, and Yevgeny Kutik; pianists Jeremy Denk, and Lang Lang; guitarist Sharon Isbin, saxophonist Branford Marsalis, and trumpeter Chris Botti.