August 16, 2017

One of the exciting developments at Manhattan School of Music this year has been establishing an Alumni Steering Committee, a vibrant and active group of alumni ambassadors to help develop and promote alumni initiatives and enhance and inspire alumni involvement. It is a pleasure to introduce one of our Alumni Steering Committee members, Salvatore Di Vittorio (BM ’97), who recently reached a significant milestone in his professional career.

The Morgan Library & Museum has invited Italian composer and conductor Maestro Di Vittorio to donate the autograph manuscript of his latest orchestral composition, La Villa d’Este a Tivoli, to its prestigious music manuscripts archive. Salvatore becomes the first composer to ever compose for, and dedicate a musical work to, the Morgan Library & Museum, and the first native Italian composer during his lifetime to be invited to donate an autograph manuscript to the museum’s music archive.

Photo of Maestro Di Vittorio with Frances Barulich

Led by Ms. Barulich, the Mary Flagler Cary Curator of Music Manuscripts and Printed Music at The Morgan Library & Museum, the Morgan’s music archive has a world-renowned collection of music autographs. The archive houses well over one thousand manuscripts, including works by Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Debussy, Haydn, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Puccini, and Schubert. Other highlights include the autograph manuscripts of three Mahler symphonies, Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 and Symphony No. 35, and Respighi’s opera Maria Vittoria.

Orchestra photo at the Morgan Museum’s concert hall, where Tivoli was premiered just before it was entered in the Morgan’s archive.

Maestro Di Vittorio is Music Director and Conductor of the Chamber Orchestra of New York, which celebrates its 10th anniversary season in 2017-18. The orchestra premiered La Villa d’Este a Tivoli in the Morgan Museum’s concert hall just before it was entered in the Morgan’s archive. Many musicians in the orchestra are MSM alumni, including Kelly Hall-Tompkins (MM ’95), Daniel Khalikov (BM ’05, MM ’08), Ben Baron (PS ’04, DMA ’12), Thomas Boulton (MM ’06), Bela Horvath (BM ’06, MM ’09), Burt Mason (MM ’08), Aleks Ozolins (MM ’05, PS ’06), Nicholas Pappone (BM ’10, MM ’12), Kristi Shade (MM ’07), Leigh Stuart (MM ’03) and Slava Znatchenii (MM ’04, PS ’05).

For more information about the Morgan’s music archive, visit: 
http://www.themorgan.org/collection/music-manuscripts-and-printed-music 

About Salvatore Di Vittorio

Born in Palermo, Italy, Salvatore Di Vittorio has been hailed as “a lyrical musical spirit, respectful of the ancient Italian tradition, following in the footsteps of Ottorino Respighi” by Luigi Verdi of the Philharmonic Academy of Bologna. In 2008, Salvatore was commissioned by the family and great nieces of major Italian composer Ottorino Respighi to complete his unpublished early orchestral works, including his First Violin Concerto in A Major. Di Vittorio is founding Music Director of the Chamber Orchestra of New York, which performs at Carnegie Hall and records on Naxos Records. The orchestra’s recordings air internationally on stations such as WQXR, BBC, and RAI.

He has worked with numerous orchestras, including the San Diego Symphony, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, Teatro Massimo Opera Palermo, Orchestra Regionale Filarmonica Veneta, Orchestra da Camera Fiorentina, Orchestra Sinfonica della Calabria, Orchestra of the Swan of Stratford-upon-Avon, Vancouver Island Symphony, Orquesta de Cámara Bellas Artes, and Santa Rosa Symphony.

Salvatore is published by Panastudio/Casa Ricordi (Universal Music) in Milan, Italy.

https://salvatoredivittorio.com/