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by Nicola Iannello 29 April 2020 There have been 31 videos selected by the Roman Philharmonic Academy for its #ContestAFR which animated the pages of their Facebook profile from 18 March to 9 April welcoming the many musical proposals of talented young musicians, who from north to southern Italy, have accepted the invitation of the Roman institution to send from their homes, in time of quarantine, their video execution made with the hashtag #ContestAFR.

Of these 31, six are the winners. The first two classified are the cellist Francesco Stefanelli (first prize of the jury), born in 1999, currently a pupil of Giovanni Sollima at the High specialization courses of the National Academy of Santa Cecilia, after having already studied with Enrico Dindo and Antonio Meneses, second prize in 2018 at the prestigious Krzysztof Penderecki Cello Competition in Krakow; Stefanelli chose Preludio and Bourrée from Suite n. 3 in D major BWV1009 by Bach and Capriccio n. 7 by Alfredo Piatti. First prize chosen by the competitors is instead the pianist Federico Manca, born in 1998 from the Cagliari Conservatory of Music, who performed the concert Paraphrase on Verdi's "Rigoletto" by Franz Liszt and the Toccata op. 11 by Sergej Prokof'ev. The other winners are Rafael Soler (piano), Alessio Ciprietti (piano), Sara Metafune (piano) and Donatella Gibboni (violin). As a prize, the Roman Philharmonic offers them the stage of the Sala Casella, for a concert to be held in the 2020-21 season. Even the Festival di Lucca Classica and Settimane Musicali at the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza have expressed their desire to invite some of the winners to their festival.
Cellists, violinists, clarinetists, organists, pianists (many also in duo), all between 18 and 30 years old and from all over Italy, have thus sent over sixty proposals over twenty days (the Philharmonic has selected 31 ) ranging from classical to contemporary repertoire (Bach, Mozart, Liszt, Chopin, Paganini, Granados, Boulez, Jánáček and many other composers). A virtual space, given the impossibility in this period to open theaters and concert halls to make live music, which allowed to share music through the network, giving visibility to young musicians and keeping attention focused on their work. Thousands were views of the selected videos, and many shares, comments and "likes". The designation of the winners, which initially had to take place simply with the "likes", was perfected thanks to the intervention of a jury (formed by Daniele Carnini, Filippo Simonelli, Simone Soldati and Domenico Turi) who chose three winners, and of the the same 31 musicians, each of whom sent by email a single preference, thus defining the other three winners.
Now all that remains is to listen to these young talents live, with the hope of returning soon to make music, all together, in concert halls and theaters. In the meantime, for those who want to listen to you, the 31 videos - for a total of about 5 hours of music - are on the Facebook page of the Roman Philharmonic Academy with the hashtag #ContestAFR.