Following our AGM, Il Circolo, in collaboration with the British Italian Society, presents “Beyond Art: an evening of music and literature”
Margherita Torretta, piano and writer
Victoria Armillotta, soprano
Giorgia Scaturro, moderator and journalist
Nadia Ostacchini, actress, voice over and artistic director of Tricolore Theatre Company.
Pianist and writer Margherita Torretta will delight the audience with her performance of classical music pieces alongside the Italian-British soprano Victoria Armillotta. She will also delve, together with moderator and journalist Giorgia Scaturro, into poignant excerpts and themes from her literary debut, Rimmel, a novel published in 2024 by Pendragon. Nadia Ostacchini will be reading selected passages from Rimmel.
This unique evening promises to be an inspiring fusion of words and music, a seamless dialogue of melodies and reflections designed to transport guests on a profound introspective and artistic journey.
Beyond Art celebrates the transformative power of art and culture, which not only offers a unique opportunity to appreciate cultural differences but also to connect with others and understand the value of diversity.
Music by W.A.Mozart, F.Schubert, G.Puccini, G.Verdi, F.Chopin
Margherita Torretta is an Italian pianist and ex-classical dancer born in 1986. After she made her debut at the Carnegie Hall in New York in 2016 with D. Scarlatti’s keyboard sonatas (following her first CD recording with Academy Productions label D.Scarlatti-20 Keyboard sonatas) she’s performed in over 20 countries around the globe—in Europe, England, the United States, Asia and Australia—included concert halls as London’s St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Vienna’s Ehrbar Saal, Warsaw’s Fryderyk Chopin Institute, the Conservatory Maurice Ravel in Paris, the Steinway Hall in Dubai, Sala Verdi in Milan and many others. She graduated with honours from the Conservatory in Piacenza and from the G. Verdi Conservatory in Milan. Supported by the Theo Lieven Foundation, she entered the Performance & Interpretation Master Program at Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano, and she was a student at the prestigious International Lake Como Academy directed by William Grant Naborè, studying with Dmitri Bashkirov, Fout’s Ong and Stanislav Ioudetich. Margherita has released a second album with Baldassare Galuppi’s piano sonatas. She’s the first pianist to record the complete piano works composed by Italian-British composer Elisabetta De Gambarini, and in March 2024, she released her first novel, Rimmel, inspired by her personal story (2024, edizioni Pendragon). Her Interviews and reviews have appeared in music magazines including Gramophone, BBC Music Magazine, Classics Today, The Art Desk, Pianist Magazine and International Piano. She has performed live concerts and given interviews over major broadcast networks including BBC Radio 3, RAI Radio 3, Rai Radio 2, RSI Radiotelevisione Svizzera, France Musique, Radio France, Luxembourg 100.7, ORF1 Austria and Radio Romania Muzical. She currently lives in London.
British-Italian soprano Victoria Armillotta lives in London and is currently supported by the International Opera Awards. A recent graduate of the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music, she has recently been cast in several significant soprano roles. Some of the roles are Giorgetta (Il tabarro) with Opera Cameratina, directed by Sir Tomlinson, Female Chorus (The rape of Lucretia) with British Youth Opera, Tatyana (Eugene Onegin) cover with Hampstead Garden Opera, Mimì (La bohème) with Cosmopolis Festival in Kavála, Greece and with Devon Opera, Liù (Turandot) with Instant Opera. Earlier this year, she was a semi-finalist in the fourth edition of the “Voci in Barcaccia” competition in Rome in collaboration with Rai Radio 3. Victoria has performed in concerts and operas at the Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Blenheim Palace, Manchester and Exeter Cathedral, internationally at Theatre im Delphi, Berlin and Olavinlinna Castle with Savonlinna Opera Festival, Finland, alongside star soprano Lisette Oropesa.
