The story  began in 1983 in the slumberous but celebrated town of Ravenna, when a group of musicians came together and were carried along by a series of decisive encounters: from Jörg Demus, who suggested the name for the orchestra, to Ottavio Dantone, who, in 1996, took over the musical direction and paved the way for the present phase of the ensembles’ history, which is characterised by expertise in historically informed performance of Baroque music, the outcome of progressive steps of development.   Over the last ten years , with  Stefano Montanari as first violin, Accademia is an orchestra with incredible vitality and energy, whose concerts and recordings, research work and promotion of musical culture are proof of an amazing unity and balance. The choice to enhance their repertoire of seventeenth and eighteenth century music has given the ensemble a deep insight into the styles of Baroque performances without, however, limiting the extraordinary variety of  their output which ranges from Monteverdi to Spontini. Their recordings – first for  Thymallus, and today for Arts and  Decca, as well as for the prestigious review  “Amadeus”, which has ensured their access to a wider audience  – offer many examples of their stylistic achievement, passing from the Fairy Queen to the  Cimento dell’Armonia e dell’Inventione, to Pergolesi’s  Stabat, while not forgetting  Alessandro Scarlatti and Benedetto Marcello, Porpora and  Galuppi.  Corelli’s Opera V for the label Arts, performed by Montanari with the embellishments written by Dantone, received the Diapason d’Or award in November 2005; last year for Naïve, Tito Manlio by Vivaldi was recorded, and this year two Cds of sacred music by the Red Priest, and to follow for Decca, after their first experience of Arcadia, a further musical collaboration with the countertenor Andreas Scholl, in a Cd devoted to Senesino’s repertoire  presented to audiences during a long tour in some of the most important  concert halls in Europe..

In 1999, with the historic performance of Giulio Sabino by Sarti in Ravenna, the Accademia made their  debut in the world of opera, inaugurating what has become one of their  main activities.  There then followed famous scores like Orlando by Handel, and the entire trilogy by Monteverdi; they have received invitations to Music Festivals such as the ones held in Beaune and, Jesi, where their collaboration with Francesco Degrada brought about the revival of Pergolesi’s masterpieces like  the Olimpiade and the  Flaminio. Recently in Italy Accademia has been promoting music through initiatives such as the foundation of Creator, a Festival of Sacred Music in Faenza which saw the first revival in modern times of the oratorio Sant´Elena al calvario by Hasse, as well as the creation of the choir “Coro dell’Accademia”, as part of a school for the study of early music. Twenty years on, diverse and vibrant variations of that basic need to communicate their own passion for performing still represent Accademia Bizantina’s  real vocation.

Raffaele Mellace