Recognized by critics worldwide with the ECHO Music Prize, the German Record Critics’ Award, and the KONEX Prize in Music, Mariano began his international career by winning the 1st prize at the Teatro Colón Conducting Competition. This led to collaborations with the most prominent conductors of today, such as Sir S. Rattle, P. Boulez, P. Eötvös, R. Chailly, R. Muti, and B. Haitink; and to work with the most renowned orchestras and ensembles, including the Tonhalle Zürich, Lucerne Festival Orchestras, Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, Russian State Orchestra, Philharmonique de Radio France, WDR Sinfonieorchester, German Radio Phil, Hong Kong Phil and Ensemble Modern. He has been invited to major festivals and concert venues, including the Lucerne Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Young Euro Classic, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Elbphilharmonie, Konzerthaus Vienna and Berlin, Tchaikovsky Hall Moscow, Teatro Colón and l’Opéra Bastille.

Mariano has served as Music Director of Trier University, as Conductor of Ensemble Garage and since 2014 began his strong cooperation with the National Symphony of Argentina. Most recently he was selected by Barbara Hannigan’s Momentum Project, named as a member of the German Music Council, recognized as “Outstanding Personality of the Culture” of his hometown and awarded with the Premio Nacional Clásica.

Since 2022 Mariano Chiacchiarini is the new Universitätsmusikdirektor of the city of Bremen.

He began his studies of music and bandoneon with Rodolfo Mederos. He later perfected his instrument with Daniel Binelli, Julio Pane and Néstor Marconi. He also studied at the Escuela de Música Popular de Avellaneda. He began his professional activity in the late 1980s, participating in Miguel Ángel Zotto’s tango show, and in performances with Marconi and Binelli. In 1992 he accompanied Mederos in some concerts in Seville, and there he stayed in Spain, where he remained until 1998. During that stay he worked systematically as a performer and studied composition with Alejandro Civilotti, who recommended him to study composition at the Professional Conservatory of Music in Badalona, Barcelona, specializing in contemporary music. Among the activities developed in Spain, the recording of Piazzolla’s Concierto para bandoneón y orquesta stands out, which was accompanied, in the Harmonia Mundi label edition, by the Tres movimientos tanguísticos porteños, with the Orquesta de Cámara del Teatro Lliure, conducted by Josep Pons. This recording later opened the doors for him to appear as soloist in numerous organizations, such as the National Orchestra of Spain, the BBC Orchestra of London, the Gulbenkian Orchestra of Lisbon, and the Prague Symphony Orchestra, among others.

On his return to Argentina he joined the Orquesta del Tango de Buenos Aires, then conducted by Raúl Garello and Carlos García. At the same time he shared performances with Leopoldo Federico, Julián Plaza, Osvaldo Berlingieri and the Sexteto Mayor, and accompanied singers such as Roberto Goyeneche, María Graña, Amelita Baltar and Raúl Lavié, among others. In 1999 he organized his own quintet, with which he soon recorded his first CD, one of three he has released so far. In 2000 he joined by competition the Quinteto Astor Piazzolla with which he participated in concerts in Argentina and in European and Latin American tours until 2017.

Over the years he began to use his quintet for various compositional projects in addition to tango production. For example, he composed the music to be performed live during the screening of the silent short film La vuelta al bulín, by José Ferreyra (1926), presented at the Buenos Aires Tango Festival; and the music for the children’s play, in musical theater format, Las aventuras de Pipo, based on a children’s literature book by Aldo Maranca, with libretto by Miguel Galperín read by Lucía Maranca, sister of the author, performed in 2017 at the Centro de Experimentación del Teatro Colón.

He has composed numerous chamber and symphonic works. He participated in the 2018 edition of the Composer Conference conducted by Mario Davidovsky at Brandeis University, Massachusetts, from which he premiered his work Three Movements for Bandoenon and Ensemble, conducted by James Baker. In 2019 the Orquesta de música argentina Juan de Dios Filiberto with the Coro Nacional de Jóvenes premiered his work for choir and orchestra La música que nos llega, on texts by Evaristo Carriego. He also composed two chamber operas, Ultramarina, with libretto by Edgardo Cozarinsky and stage direction by Marcelo Lombardero, premiered in 2014 in Buenos Aires, and La última comilona, based on the film La grande bouffe by Marco Ferreri, on libretto by Jon Paul Laka and dramaturgy by Michal Znaniecki, commissioned for the Warsaw Opera and not yet premiered.

He was nominated to the Latin Grammy Awards (2004), to the Clarín Award for Tango Figure, and to the Ace Awards for the music of Ultramarina, to the Carlos Gardel Awards (2014) for Best Tango Album, and in 2019 he was distinguished by the Konex Foundation with the Diploma al Mérito in the category of Classical Music Instrumentalist 2019.

He currently continues to lead his quintet and is part of the Mainetti – Angeleri Duo and the National Tango Selection. He has joined again the Astor Piazzolla Quintet since 2019 assuming the responsibility of principal bandoneonist, playing to date in the main theaters of the world. In 2023 he won the Latin Grammy award for the CD Operación Tango.

 

Mark Bebbington is fast gaining a reputation as one of the UK’s most strikingly individual pianists. (“Bebbington is without doubt one of Britain’s finest pianists” – Michel Fleury in Classica). He is internationally recognised as a leading interpreter of British piano music, and has more than thirty admired recordings to his name.

Mark has recorded extensively for the Somm label to international critical acclaim, with no fewer than nine of his recent CDs awarded 5* by BBC Music Magazine. A 2018 release of concertos by Grieg and Delius with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra became ‘CD of the Week’ in The Times and Mail on Sunday. Mark’s recordings for the Resonus label have also attracted huge praise, with his recent ‘Poulenc: Volume 1’ with the RPO being nominated for a Gramophone Award. His most recent recording — A Bad Night In Los Angeles featuring music by the contemporary British composer Robert Matthew-Walker for Somm — has been highly praised. His 2022 recording of music by Vaughan Williams, alongside the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for Resonus Classics, has attracted some of the best reviews yet: an ‘Unmissable Classical Album’ (Gramophone).

Mark has toured extensively throughout Central and Northern Europe, the Middle East, Far East and North America, and has performed at major UK venues with the London Philharmonic, Philharmonia and Royal Philharmonic orchestras, the London Mozart Players, Orchestra of the Swan and BBC Concert Orchestra. As a recitalist, he makes regular appearances at major UK and international festivals. In recent seasons, Mark has made his highly successful Carnegie Hall debut with the American Symphony Orchestra, twice toured Israel with the Israel Camerata Jerusalem, performed with the Buffalo Philharmonic and toured the UK with the Flanders Symphony, Janacek Philharmonic and Czech National Symphony orchestras. He has featured both as soloist and recitalist on BBC Television and Radio and also on major European Television and Radio networks. Recent and forthcoming performances include Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.23 in the US with Orchestra Lumos (cond. Michael Stern), tours with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra and a return to Wigmore Hall.

Mark studied at the Royal College of Music where he was a recipient of numerous international awards and prizes, including a Leverhulme Scholarship, a Winston Churchill Fellowship and the Ivan Sutton Recording Prize – the latter awarded to the one outstanding graduate of the combined London Music Colleges. He later studied in Italy with the legendary Aldo Ciccolini.

Mark’s programming demonstrates a commitment to the music of our time and he regularly includes contemporary composers as diverse as Takemitsu, Julian Anderson, John McCabe, David Matthews, Pierre Boulez and Elliot Carter in his recital series.