Antonio Ostuni

Biography

Antonio Ostuni began studying at the age of 10 at the Conservatory of Monopoli (Italy) with his teacher Stefania Betti. After that he studied with Cristiana Passerini and Donata Cadoppi. When he was 13 he won the 1st prize at the “Concours International Henriette Renié” in Lyon (France) in the “preparatoire” category.  He graduated with honours at the Conservatory in Monopoli with his teacher Nicoletta Alberti. He continued studying at the Conservatory in Bolzano (Italy) with Gertrud Chiochetti, and he took his Master with 110/110 with honours. In 2009 he won a scholarship to study at the Musikhochschule in Hamburg with the harp soloist Xavier de Maistre.

During this time he won several prizes in music competitions. One of these was at the Music Competition “Rovere d'Oro” (Imperia, Italy): on that occasion the harpist and composer David Watkins wrote about him “he is absolutely the youngest harpist talent since long time...”. 

In 2004 he was awarded the first prize at the “Premio Nazionale delle Arti”, instituted by the Italian Ministry of Culture, which had as President of the Jury the Italian soloist harpist Elena Zaniboni. After that, he recorded a CD sponsored by the Ministry of Culture. 

He performed at the “World Harp Congress” and twice he won the international selections for the “Focus on Youth”, a concert for young talented harpist around the world, in the editions of Dublin 2005 and Amsterdam 2008. In these congresses, he received several positive opinions by international famous harpists such as Susann McDonald, Patrizia Tassini, Kathy Kienzle, Mario Falcao, Daphne Boden. 

His soloist career brought  him to perform in several Harp Recitals in Italy, Austria and Switzerland. He played as soloist in Live Radio the “Variations on a theme in the ancient style” by Carlos Salzedo for the Vatican Radio, in the same concert with the soloist Beatrice Rana. M° Gustav Kuhn invited him to perform solo with the Haydn Orchestra in Bolzano and Trento (Italy) with Alberto Ginastera “Concert for Harp”. In the meantime  he continued his  studies with Luisa Prandina, Principal Harp of Teatro alla Scala in Milan. Since he was very young, he started to play in orchestras, winning several auditions in many orchestras like Gustav Mahler Jugend Orchester, European Union Youth Orchestra both with the chairman M°Claudio Abbado. He was on several international tours, playing in theaters like Carnegie Hall in New York, Teatro Coliseo of Buenos Aires, Teatro Municipale of Rio de Janeiro, Sala São Paulo of São Paulo, Royal Albert Hall of London, Concertgebow of Amsterdam, Konzerthaus of Berlin, Kennedy Center of Washington, Dvořák Hall of Prague, Grand (Blue) Hall of the Sava Centar of Belgrad, Béla Bartok National Concert Hall of Budapest, Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall of Zagreb. During  those tours, he worked with Riccardo Muti, Philipp Jordan, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Gianandrea Noseda, Andrew Litton, Claus Peter Flor, ecc. and soloists such as Thomas Hampson, Natalia Gutman, Renaud Capuçon, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Maxim Rysanov, recording for Radio Swiss, BBC, NDR, ORF, RAI. He won the audition at the Wiener Jeunesse Orchestre and he played at the Surreyya Hopernhaus in Istanbul. He was invited to perform with the “Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini”, conducted by Riccardo Muti, he played many Verdi's Operas, symphonic concerts, having the opportunity to perform in duo with the violinist Vadim Repin. In 2011, M° Gustav Kuhn invited him to play as principal harp at the Tiroler Festspiel (Austria) many Wagner's Operas ( Tannhäuser, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg , Parsifal, ecc.), symphonic concerts, and in that occasion he recorded for the ORF.

His passion for the contemporary music brought him to play for the Transart Festival (Tirol), for the first world execution of “Stunde der Seele” composed and played under the supervision of Sofia Gubaidulina. Domenico Turi, an Italian composer, who dedicated to him the harp solo piece “Metamorfosi” which won the competition “New Music Demo”. Also the Tyrolean composer Manuela Kerer dedicated to him “Eterezoo” for harp and string quintett, commissioned by the Tyrolean Festspiele; Antonio played as first World Execution at the festival 2011 and recorded for the ORF. The Italian Radio Orchestra (RAI), invited him to perform the Luciano Berio's symphony, with the Swingle Singers, in live Radio RAI3.

He is always interested to expand his orizons, starting a new Master Degree at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” in Berlin with prof. Marie Pierre Langlamet (Principal harpist of Berliner Philharmoniker), Maria Graf, and Gesine Dreyer.

Antonio has now several chamber music groups: the duo harp-soprano with Ulpiana Aliaj, with whom he played in many concerts around Italy and Austria, the inusual duo harp-harpsicord with a very particular repertoire between baroque and contemporary music and the traditional trio with harp – flute and viola.

His interest in teaching brought him to have a Pedagogic Bachelor at the Conservatory of Bolzano in 2012.