former musical director of the PPO, conductor Ruggero Barbieri; 60
Maestro Ruggero Barbieri (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)
MANILA, Philippines – Former Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra (PPO), Ruggero Barbieri, died last Sunday in Italy after suffering a brain aneurysm at the age of 60, said Zenaida Tantoco , President of the Rustan Group of Companies.
Barbieri died at 3 a.m. local time at Pope John XXIII Hospital in his hometown of Bergamo, Tantoco, Barbieri’s son Piolo, informed. The PPO is the resident symphony orchestra of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), in which Tantoco served on the board from 2002 to 2021.
“He loved the PPO and the Philippines,” Tantoco said of Barbieri. “He made many lasting friendships here.”
Barbieri worked with the PPO from 1996 to 2004, the first foreign conductor to hold the position for two consecutive terms.
Christmas concert
He organized and led the PPO on its first European concert tour in 2001. Seventy musicians as well as major sponsors such as Tantoco, the late Ambassador Bienvenido Tantoco Sr., then CCP President Baltazar Endriga, eight members of the production staff and 2 tons of musical instruments. left the country on October 19 of the same year.
The PPO has performed in Madrid, Gijon, Pontevedra, Santiago de Compostela, Burgos, Miranda de Ebro in Spain; Klagenfurt, Austria; and Prague in the Czech Republic.
Even after his time at the PPO, Barbieri would return to the country to work with guest musicians, conducting the PPO and the Manila Symphony Orchestra.
Barbieri was also renowned for leading the annual Christmas concert at the Peninsula Manila until 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic. He was to arrive by plane and conduct this year’s concert.
He was also the conductor of the Pundaquit Virtuosi String Ensemble youth orchestra based in Zambales during their 2019 European tour organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was due to become the resident conductor of Pundaquit from 2020 otherwise for the pandemic.
Barbieri was born on May 5, 1961. He studied at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatorio in Milan, at the Scuola Superiore di Musica in Pescara, at the Civico Istituto Musicale G. Donizetti in Bergamo and at the Konservatorium für Musik in Vienna.
He was one of six conducting fellows to study under Leonard Bernstein at the Santa Cecilia Academy in Rome in 1989. He was assistant conductor to Maestro Aldo Ceccato for the Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España in Madrid from 1991 to 1996 before moving to the PPO. .
King Juan Carlos I of Spain conferred on the Italian Barbieri the highest honor granted to Spanish artists, the Cruz de Isabel la Catolica.
Barbieri has conducted orchestras around the world and has also released a number of recordings, including interpretations of Gaetano Donizetti’s ‘Miserere in D minor’ and ‘Requiem’ which he conducted.
He is survived by his son Piolo and his sisters Daniela and Federica. Burial details will be announced at a later date.
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