The chamber orchestra I Solisti Veneti was founded by its long-time music director Claudio Scimone in 1959 in Padua, Italy. Specializing in the music of the Baroque and early Classical eras, I Solisti Veneti has given concerts in dozens of countries all over the world, from North and South America to Europe, Japan and Australia. The orchestra appears regularly at several music festivals, including the Salzburg Festival, where they have appeared every year since 1965. Working with the town councils of Venice, Padua and Verona, I Solisti Veneti also helped to organize the Veneto music festival. The orchestra has contributed music for several film soundtracks, and produced many musical programs for Italian television and elsewhere.

But for many music fans, I Solisti Veneti is mostly known through its over 300 recordings, which have extensively explored the orchestra's chosen repertory. Some of those recordings were world premieres, among them Antonio Vivaldi's Orlando Furioso and Gioacchino Rossini's operas Zermira and Armida. The orchestra has received numerous awards for its recordings: the Grand Prix du Disque (won several times, the first for the 1969 recording of Rossini's String Sonatas), the Diapason d'Or, the Gold Medal of the President of the Italian Republic, and the Grammy Award (for Rossini's L'Italiana in Algeri).

I Solisti Veneti has performed with most of the world's great musicians, such as James Galway, Salvatore Accardo, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Plácido Domingo, Mstislav Rostropovich, Sviatoslav Richter, Marilyn Horne, and Evgeny Kissin.
-Chris Morrison

Ugo Orlandi is a dominant figure in the panorama of international mandolin music.
He was born in Brescia and began his music studies at the Brescia Youth Music Education Centre. He took up the mandolin at a very early age and at the same time took his diploma in trumpet at the “Cesare Pollini” Conservatory of Music in Padova, where since 1980 he has been mandolin professor. As a soloist he has taken part in concerts and tours all over the world — notably with Claudio Scimone’s “ I Solisti Veneti”, and has performed in the most prestigious festivals in Europe and America. His interest in the rediscovery of the musical world of the mandolin has led him to record various programmes many of which feature as world premiere recordings.
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He has been teaching mandolin at the Academy of Music “C. Pollini” of Padua since 1980. Born in Brescia in 1958, he started his musical education at the Centro Giovanile Bresciano di Educazione Musicale of R: Messora and G. Ligasacchi playing the mandolin and the trumpet. In 1975 he started attending the mandolin course given by Giuseppe Anedda at the Academy of Music of Padua, where he also got the diploma in trumpet. His interest for the early music and the musicological research brought him to study the cornet and the natural trumpet, as well as to do research in the field of the historical repertoire for the mandolin. These interests in different areas of music have given birth to various recordings: “I Guami da Lucca”, Fonè; “Musica da camera per strumenti a pizzico di R. Calace” (Chamber music for pluck instruments by R. Calace), Fonè; “Itinerario artistico nella canzone popolare padana”- Piadena (“artistic tour in the popular songs of Pianura Padana” - Piadena), 6 Concerti per mandolino with the Solisti Aquilani, Koch-Schwann. He has been on tour with Claudio Scimone and the “Solisti Veneti” all over the world: North America, Canada, South America (Venezuela, Argentina, Brasil), Europe, Asia ( China, Hong-Kong, Singapore, South Corea, Indonesia, Japan), India, Australia; he has taken part in the Festivals of Montreaux, Edinburgh, New York (“Mostly Mozart”), Paris (“Le Prestige de la Musique”) and Salzburg. With the “Solisti Veneti” he has recorded two Cds for the ERATO containing Concerts by G.F.Giuliani, F.Lecce and the complete version of the Concerts for mandolin by A. Vivaldi.

N ato in Magenta graduated with honors under the guidance of Prime Borali. The meeting with the great teachers such as Karl Leister, Thomas Friedli, Walter Boykens, Johannes Peitz, Hans Deinzer was extremely important for his training.

He won the following prizes: first prize at the International Competition of Stresa (in both categories Duo and Solo), first prize at the Ancona International Competition, first prize in the national competition for the Chair of Clarinet in the Conservatories of Music.

It 'been principal clarinet of the Teatro alla Scala in Milan (seasons '86 - '89) and was chosen by Sergio Celibidache as first clarinet of the Orchestra Scheswig-Holstein Festival ('88). As a soloist he has performed with the Radio Orchestra of Milan, the Chamber Orchestra of Bristol and the "Solisti Veneti" (of which is principal clarinet) with whom he has performed in major festivals such as "Mostly Mozart" at Lincoln Center NY , Beijing, Cairo, Teatro Colon Buenos Aires, Paris.

He works in Italy and abroad with chamber groups such as American String Quartett, Kegelstatt Trio (with whom he recorded the whole Work for clarinet, viola and piano) and musicians such as Sergio Azzolini, Maurice Bourgue, Bruno Canino, Radovan Vlatkovic . He teaches clarinet at the Conservatory of Riva del Garda (detached section of Trento).

Claudio Scimone (born 23 December 1934) is an Italian conductor.

He was born in Padua, Italy and studied conducting with Dmitri Mitropoulos and Franco Ferrara.[1] He has established an international reputation as a conductor, as well as a composer. He has revived many baroque and renaissance works. His discography includes over 150 titles,[2] and he has won numerous prizes, including the Grand Prix du Disque of the Académie Charles Cros.

Claudio Scimone is the founder of I Solisti Veneti (the ensemble with which most of his recordings have been made) and is the honorary conductor of the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon, Portugal.[3]

With the Philharmonia of London, he conducted the first recording of Muzio Clementi’s Symphonies.[4][5]

Scimone led the world to discover the importance of Vivaldi’s theatrical works, beginning with the first modern performance of Orlando furioso, featuring Marilyn Horne and Victoria de Los Angeles.[4]

In the reborn Fenice Claudio Scimone directed the first modern revival of the Venetian version of Maometto secondo by Rossini.[6]

He has also given the modern premieres of Moses in Egypt and Oedipus at Colonus by Rossini, and The Last Judgement by Salieri.

Claudio Scimone has been awarded the title of Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (the highest ranking honour of the Republic). He also has been awarded an honorary law degree from the University of Padua.

Founded in Padua in 1959 by Claudio Scimone, I Solisti Veneti has won a worldwide following with their many recordings, especially with Italian Baroque music.