ROBERTO MOLINELLI – Musician

Ancona, 1963 – )

Roberto Molinelli studied at the Gioacchino Rossini Conservatory of Pesaro where he graduated in viola with top marks. He perfected his studies in Geneva with Alberto Loy and with the violinist of the String Trio of Munich Oscar Lysy and at the Music School of Fiesole, and played as a soloist and in various orchestras and chamber music groups, winning numerous first prizes in national and international competitions. For over ten lyric seasons he was principal chair of viola in famous Italian theaters (Arena Sferisterio of Macerata, Massimo Bellini of Catania, Sanremo Symphonic Orchestra). He was a founding member of the Marchigiana Philharmonic Orchestra and of the Ensemble Opera Petite, a small group that after elaborating and transcribing famous Italian opera excerpts, performs them producing the full sound of an orchestra. Molinelli, with his music, his arrangements and his performances, embraces all of the most disparate musical genres: he collaborated with Andrea Bocelli, (we remember the songs Con te partirò, Romanza and Canto della Terra recorded together with large symphonic orchestras), and with Lucio Dalla, but also with Cecilia Gasdia, Anna Caterina Antonacci and Andrea Griminelli.
With Graminelli he composed and arranged “Barilla 99” a piece with warm and emotional sonority, expressly commissioned for the sound track of the second advertisement campaign Where there’s Barilla there’s home created by the Young & Rubicam agency starting from 1999. Among his most famous works are Milonga Para Astor, dedicated to the memory of Astor Piazzolla; Barkin’ Pumpkin Suite, inspired to famous songs by Frank Zappa and Padre Nostro (Our Father) commissioned by the Loreto Sanctuary on the occasion of the Jubilee of the Year 2000.

Cecilia Farinelli