Graziella Contratto
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Graziella Contratto represents a new generation of conductors who focus on highly inspired and refreshing concepts in their programs from Renaissance to contemporary music. Surprising references in the choice of her repertory and an openhearted communication towards the audience reflect her important relationship with literature, architecture, dance and film.
In 1998 after a promising career as pianist, chamber musician and teacher for Music history Graziella Contratto is invited by Claudio Abbado to become his musical assistant in the Berlin Philharmony and the Easter Festival in Salzburg.
In 2000 the Orchestre National de Lyon under David Robertson elects Graziella Contratto à l’unanimité as their resident conductor.
In 2003 the Swiss conductor Graziella Contratto becomes the new Artistic Director of the Orchestre des Pays de Savoie in France and thus the first female chief conductor in France.
She has conducted the Manhattan Sinfonietta NY, the Tonhalle Orchester Zurich, the Bamberger Sinfoniker, the Deutsches Kammerorchester Berlin, the Berner Symphonieorchester, the Orchestre National de Lyon, Orchestra sinfonica di Bari etc. She is regularly invited to different European Festivals.
Bruno Ganz, Anna Larsson, Michel Portal, Raphaël Oleg, Donald Littaker, Patrizia Ciofi, Roberto Saccà, Ning Liang, Lisa Larsson and Anne Gastinel, Frank Braley and Nicolas Angelich are some of her artistic partners.
In several artistic collaborations with Mirella Weingarten, Berlin, she has produced e.g. Astor Piazzolla’s “Maria de Buenos Aires” in Switzerland. In Bettina Ehrhardt’s prizewinning documentaries about Luigi Nono (“Kielspur im Meer”), Bobby MacFerrin/Chick Corea (“We Play”) and Helmut Lachenmann ("wo ich noch nie war") Graziella Contratto has been a musical consulter.
She is the new artistic director of the Davos Festival 2007- young artists in concert in Switzerland. Her conducting of Verdi's "La Traviata" in Avenches' opera festival in July 2008 has received excellent international critics. Graziella Contratto is the Artistic director of the Camerata Schweiz, a young professional orchestra with special concerts and projects (Orchestergraben).
In October 2009 she will found the Artur Schnabel Festival in Schwyz (central Switzerland) where this outstanding artist and pianist has died in 1951.