Roma Sinfonietta

The Roma Sinfonietta is strongly associated with performances and recordings of music by film score composer Ennio Morricone. The group has also performed a wide range of other music, from classical to pop and from Baroque to contemporary. The Roma Sinfonietta (in full in Italian, L'Orchestra Roma Sinfonietta, and also sometimes known as the Orchestra Sinfonietta di Roma) was founded in 1994. The group has the stated intention of broadening the dissemination of classical music to new audiences, especially to young listeners for whom the live concert experience is paramount. The group's current music director is cellist Luigi Lanzillotta; it has had various conductors. The orchestra performs mainly in Rome, most commonly at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, but it has also organized seasons at Rome's Conciliazione Auditorium, the Quirino Theater, the Nymphaeum of Villa Giulia, and the Quirino Theater, among other venues. In 1994, the Roma Sinfonietta made its recording debut with a soundtrack album for the film Anni Ribelli. The following year, Morricone conducted the orchestra in a recording of his own Concerto Premio Rota, a piece of contemporary concert music. That marked the beginning of a long association between the orchestra and Morricone, arguably contemporary Italy's top film music composer. Morricone conducted the group in live performances at major venues in Italy and abroad, including the Barbican Center and the Royal Albert Hall in London, the Palais de Congrès de Paris, Radio City Music Hall in New York, and the Olympic Gymnasium in Seoul. Morricone also conducted the orchestra in numerous further recordings of his works, both film scores and concert works. The orchestra has appeared on the soundtracks of many films with scores by Morricone, including The Phantom of the Opera (1998). In concert, the orchestra has hosted international-caliber guest artists, such as violinists Francesca Dego and Salvatore Accardo and cellist Yo-Yo Ma, with whom the group made the recordings Yo-Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone (2004) and Appassionato (2007). The pace of the orchestra's recordings slowed somewhat in the 2010s, but it returned in 2023 on the album Postcards from Italy: Italian Music for Film, with soprano saxophonist Marco Albonetti. By that time, the orchestra's recording catalog included more than 45 items. ~ James Manheim, Rovi