Description:

Presented in collaboration with the Italian Consulate and the Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago.

Harpsichordist Michele Benuzzi has given solo and chamber performances throughout Italy, Spain, Japan, and Australia. He founded the chamber ensemble Arcomelo, a group focused on the performance of 17th- and 18th-century music, and has devoted much of his career to recovering music from unedited manuscripts in libraries throughout Europe. Conductor, harpsichordist, and organist Stephen Alltop is music director of Chicago’s Apollo Chorus, the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra, and the Elmhurst Symphony Orchestra. An active musician in historic performance practices, Alltop has appeared as harpsichordist and organist with Boston’s Handel and Haydn Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Bach Project, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Music of the Baroque, and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, among other ensembles. Together, Benuzzi and Alltop will perform works for both one and two harpsichords.  The concert will include the Concerto for Two Harpsichords in C Major, BWV 1061 by J. S. Bach; Four Duetti by C.P.E. Bach; selections by Jean-Philippe Rameau; and the famous Fandango of Luigi Boccherini.