Aspettando il Carl Orff music festival

The 20th edition of the Carl Orff Music Festival, scheduled to take place in Putignano from August 27 to September 5, will open its concert season with a special preview on August 26 in Piazza Santa Maria. The event, organized by the Carl Orff Association and the FAI Trulli and Grotte Delegation, is part of the initiatives supporting the candidacy of the Church of Santa Maria la Greca for inclusion in the FAI “Places of the Heart” census.

“Awaiting the Carl Orff Music Festival” will feature Jelena Očić on cello and Radovan Cavallin on clarinet in a concert dedicated to the Baroque beauty of the façade of Santa Maria la Greca.

Starting at 7:00 p.m., volunteers from the FAI delegation will allow visitors to tour the rectory church. At 8:00 p.m., the venue will make way for chamber music.

The Church of Santa Maria la Greca

Located in the heart of Putignano’s historic center, Santa Maria la Greca has ancient origins and has undergone various transformations over the centuries, resulting in its present Baroque appearance, characterized by architectural and decorative elements of great value.

The church houses numerous treasures, including the relics of Saint Stephen the Protomartyr, the city’s patron saint, preserved in a precious silver reliquary dating from between the late 12th and early 13th centuries; a Byzantine icon depicting the Madonna Hodegetria (“She Who Shows the Way”), which tradition holds arrived in Putignano on December 26, 1394, together with the saint’s relics; a unique wooden Lamentation in Puglia; and an eighteenth-century majolica floor made in the Neapolitan tradition.

The church has always been a point of reference for the religious and social life of the community. However, this extraordinary heritage risks being compromised unless ordinary and extraordinary maintenance work is carried out. The candidacy now opens the way to new opportunities for enhancement and awareness-raising, with the aim of involving citizens in a shared effort to protect and promote the local heritage.

The candidacy for inclusion as a FAI Place of the Heart is supported by the “I Cuori di Santa Maria la Greca” Committee, comprising: the Rectory Church of Santa Maria la Greca, the City of Putignano, the Confraternity of the Most Holy Trinity, the “La Goccia” Association, the “Friends of Santa Maria la Greca” Committee, Gianvincenzo De Miccolis, Bernardo Notarangelo, Domenico Giannandrea, Renato Belviso, Egisto Scalini, Francesco Russo, Stefano Campanella, and Marco Galluzzi.

“Awaiting the Carl Orff Music Festival” is organized by the FAI Trulli and Grotte Delegation and the “Carl Orff” Association, in collaboration with the City of Putignano and the Rectory Church of Santa Maria la Greca.

Jelena Očić

After completing her musical studies in her hometown of Zagreb, Croatia, in the class of Valter Despalj, Jelena Očić continued her studies at the Musikhochschule in Mannheim with the American cellist Michael Flaksman. She further enriched her musical language and instrumental skills in the United States under the guidance of the legendary cellist Bernard Greenhouse, who described her as “the greatest cellist of her generation.” She taught at the Musikhochschule in Mannheim until 2015. Jelena Očić currently holds a specialist professorship at the CVA in the Netherlands.

Through her interpretations of cello music, from Baroque to contemporary composers, Jelena Očić consistently leaves an unforgettable impression on her audiences. In her artistry, in addition to Siegfried Palm and Bernard Greenhouse, she draws inspiration from Leslie Parnas, Victoria Yagling, and Heinrich Schiff. She has performed at major international classical-music festivals, including the Yehudi Menuhin Festival, Kronberg, the Samobor Autumn Festival, the WestfalenClassics Festival, and the Cello Biennale Amsterdam. She has performed with leading chamber and symphony orchestras in Europe and Asia.

Composers such as Cornei, Senderovas, Doti, Sorg, and Prohaska have dedicated works to her. Her recordings for Challenge Classics—including Beethoven’s *Kreutzer Sonata*, sonatas by Ginastera, Hindemith, and Kabalevsky, and her album *The Barock Experience*—as well as her recordings of contemporary works, have been highly praised by critics.

Radovan Cavallin

Radovan Cavallin was born in Zagreb, Croatia, in 1969. At the age of 13, he enrolled at the Academy of Music of the University of Zagreb, becoming the youngest student ever admitted in the institution’s history. He graduated with honors and special distinction in clarinet.

In 1986, Cavallin was selected from among 76 candidates to enter the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris. There, he won first prize in chamber music—awarded unanimously—in Christian Lardé’s class in 1988, and first prize in clarinet—also awarded unanimously—in Guy Deplus’s class in 1989.

In 1986, he received the Ivo Pogorelich Scholarship; in 1987, the Nadia and Lili Boulanger Scholarship; and in 1988 and 1989, a French government scholarship.

He has also received numerous awards throughout his career: first national prize in clarinet in Yugoslavia on four occasions—1981, 1983, 1985, and 1986; first prize at the International Clarinet Competition in Ancona, Italy, in 1984; and second prize at the “Dos Hermanas” International Clarinet Competition in Seville, Spain, in 1995.

Radovan has given more than 400 solo concerts in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. He has appeared as a soloist with orchestras including the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra (RTV Zagreb), the Zagreb Soloists, the Belgrade Orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia, the Orchestre National de Gottwaldov in the former Czechoslovakia, the Orchestra of the Bologna Theatre, the Gran Canaria Philharmonic Orchestra, the Las Palmas Symphony Orchestra, the Béla Bartók Chamber Orchestra, the Franco-Belgian Orchestra of Brussels, the Extremadura Orchestra, the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra in Croatia, the Rijeka Opera Orchestra in Croatia, the St. Giles Orchestra of Oxford in the United Kingdom, and others. His repertoire has included concertos by Françaix, Mozart, Nielsen, Stanford, Copland, Weber, Tomasi, Takemitsu, Danzi, Strauss, Bruch, Lindpaintner, Krommer, Debussy, Stanford, Leloup, Palacios, Shaw, Grgin, Adamić, and Kovačević.

He performed as a soloist with Sting during his *Symphonicity* tour with the Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria (OFGC), and at festivals in Ferrara, Italy; Dubrovnik, Croatia; Bad Hersfeld, Germany; Granada; La Orotava, Tenerife; Lanzhou, China; Brussels, Belgium; Lisbon, Portugal; Ibagué, Colombia; and Baton Rouge, USA. Radovan has made recordings for labels including Yugoton, Croatia Records, BMG Arte Nova, Maguelone, Agruparte Productions, Cristal Records, Summit Records, and ASV.

He is one of the founders of the chamber-music ensembles Atlantis Quartet, Trio Spohr, Reinecke Quartet, and Alisios Camerata, with which he recently completed a successful five-concert tour of Japan.

Radovan is currently the artistic director of the Gran Canaria International Clarinet Festival and the Virovitica International Musical Meeting in Croatia.

He teaches permanently in Quintanar de la Orden, Toledo, Spain, and at the “Julián Menéndez” International Clarinet Course in Ávila, Spain. He has given more than 60 international master classes and has served on the juries of several international clarinet competitions in Spain, Croatia, Portugal, and the United States.

Between 2002 and 2010, he was professor of clarinet, chamber music, and orchestral repertoire at the Higher Conservatory of Music of Las Palmas in the Canary Islands.

Since 1989, he has been principal clarinet of the Gran Canaria Philharmonic Orchestra, with which he has worked with conductors of the caliber of Rostropovich, Yurovsky, Norman del Mar, Gianandrea Noseda, Trevor Pinnock, Karel Mark Chichon, Gunter Herbig, Leopold Hager, Gabriel Chmura, Antoni Wit, Adrian Leaper, and many others.

Radovan Cavallin plays “Privilège” clarinets made by Henri Selmer Paris.
Web: fondoambiente.it/luoghi/ret...