Unconventional Orchestra - AMAT Lab

Unconventional Orchestra, a story about music

That of the Unconventional Orchestra is a story that speaks of enthusiasm and desire to make music at any cost; it speaks of fear, uncertainty, but also friendship, courageous and winning ideas.
Formed in October 2020 at the midst of a pandemic, Amat’s Unconventional Orchestra, as its name implies, was born under very unusual and, as it were, emergency circumstances. After the long shutdown that turned off the music as of March 2020, the desire to play again is overwhelming!

 

A group of young musicians, many of them already linked to Amat by long-term professional relationships, decide to make an effort to create the right opportunity. The only way appears to be to organize a symphony concert without an audience in attendance, to be streamed live. The opportunity presents itself immediately, thanks to the City of Scandicci (Florence), which is seeking through a public call for artistic proposals for the Christmas season. Before long, other young orchestral players were joining the already proven group and accepted the challenge, officially creating the Unconventional Orchestra as Amat’s instrumental ensemble.

Tough and uncertain times, so much so that the first project by which the orchestra presents itself to the public is called “Ce LA FA RE mo.” It involves, given the circumstances, all digital events: an ironic and informative five-part web series through which the orchestra presents itself and its repertoire and several musicians put their faces to the task. The series wraps up with an end-of-year symphony concert aired live via streaming, with the assistance of audio and lighting technicians. On the program Reineke’s Concerto for Flute and Orchestra and Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony.

During 2021, despite the various difficulties of the pandemic, the orchestra performs two important concerts: Waterloo, chance and fate, with music by Nino Rota, and Femfestival Play, the final concert of the international composition competition sponsored by Amat.

The orchestra is conducted by Maestro Concetta Anastasi, with the assistance of Prof. Lucia Maggi, who are also in charge, together with tutors, of carrying out Amat’s training project, Regeneration opera, which provides on-the-job training for young orchestral players, who can gain direct experience working alongside professional musicians.

For the upcoming fall season, the orchestra will carry out its activities in Siena, thanks to the collaboration of the City Council, offering a rich program with no less than six titles: Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, Saint Saens’ The Carnival of the Animals, the Femfestival concert RePlay with pieces of the winners of the Competition, Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony, Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi and a Christmas concert. 

Fall season 2022

Siena - Teatro dei Rinnovati
  •  S. Prokov’ef, Peter and the Wolf presented by Pamela Villoresi and C. Saint Saens, The Carnival of the Animals 
    October 22
  • L.V. Beethoven, Symphony No. 3 together with La Bella Magelone di J. Brahms
    November 30
  • G. Puccini, Gianni Schicchi 
    December 6
Florence
  • Femfestival, the final concert 
    November 26
Tour in Tuscany
  • Christmas concert 

Diana Gaci Scaletti

Marta Serpi

Tazio Borgognoni

Martselina Davitaya

Arrow-up