From 2013 on Giovanni Antonini is going to be the Artistic Director of the International Festival Wratislavia Cantans – an oratorio and cantata festival which has been taking place in Wroclaw, Poland for 46 years. Paul McCreesh has been the festival’s Artistic Director since 2006 and he is going to hold the position until 2012. Andrzej Kosendiak is the International Festival Wratislavia Cantans’ General Director. The established conductor Giovanni Antonini is well-known for his interpretation of baroque and classical repertoire. Born in Milan, he studied at the Civica Scuola di Musica and at the Centre de Musique Ancienne in Geneva. Giovanni is a founder member of the baroque ensemble “il Giardino Armonico”, which he has led since 1989. With this ensemble he has appeared as conductor and soloist on the recorder and baroque transverse flute in Europe, United States, Canada, South America, Australia, Japan and Malaysia. He has performed with many prestigious artists including Christoph Prégardien, Christophe Coin, Katia and Marielle Labèque, Viktoria Mullova and Giuliano Carmignola. His superb collaboration with Cecilia Bartoli for the “Vivaldi Album” won him a Grammy Award in 2000. Giovanni’s achievements have led him to be in great demand as a guest conductor appearing with orchestras including the Camerata Salzburg, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Rundfunksinfonieorchester Berlin, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra. In 2004 Sir Simon Rattle invited Giovanni to conduct the Berliner Philharmoniker in works from the Classical and Baroque periods: the Tagesspiegel praised the concerts and the Berliner Zeitung defined his interpretation as “simply ingenious”. In the 2010/11 season Giovanni conducts the Berliner Philharmoniker, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Mozarteum Orchestra, Tonhalle Zurich, Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig and the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse. He continues his successful collaboration with the Kammerorchester Basel with whom he has recently recorded the complete Beethoven Symphonies for Sony. This year he will become the Director of the Mozart Festival Barcelona and in 2013 he will become Artistic Director of the Wratislava Cantans Festival. Giovanni’s opera productions have included Handel’s Acis, Galatea e Polifemo in Vienna, Salzburg and Salamanca and Cimarosa’s Il Matrimonio segreto in Bolzano, Trento, Rovigo and Liege. In the 08/09 season Giovanni conducted Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro and Handel’s Alcina at La Scala. With il Giardino Armonico, Giovanni has recorded numerous CDs of instrumental works by Vivaldi (including The Four Seasons), other 17th and 18th Century Italian composers, J.S. Bach (Brandenburg Concertos), Biber and Locke for Teldec. Their CD with Viktoria Mullova, (Vivaldi’s Violin Concertos) won the prestigious Diapason d’Or 2005 for baroque instrumental music. Their recording “La Casa del Diavolo” for Naïve which features the works of Gluck, Bach, Locatelli and Boccherini was released in 2005. Il Giardino Armonico now has a contract with Decca. their recording of Handel’s Concerti Grossi won the Echo prize in Germany and their most recent recordings ‘Il Pianto di Maria – the Virgin’s Lament’ with mezzo-soprano Bernarda Fink, and Bartoli ‘Sacrificium’ have been greatly received. His next CD release will be Vivaldi’s opera Ottone in villa which is due to be released next Autumn for Naïve. (Source: Website of Festival Wratislavia Cantans)