Maestro Ruggero Barbieri (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)
MANILA, Philippines — Former Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra (PPO) musical director and principal conductor Ruggero Barbieri died last Sunday in Italy after suffering a brain aneurysm at the age of 60, said Rustan’s Group of Companies chair Zenaida Tantoco.
Barbieri died at 3 a.m. local time at Pope John XXIII hospital in his hometown of Bergamo, Barbieri’s son Piolo informed Tantoco. The PPO is the resident symphony orchestra of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), in which Tantoco sat on the Board of Trustees from 2002-2021.
“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 who held the post for two consecutive terms.
Christmas concerts
He organized and conducted the PPO on its first European concert tour in 2001. Seventy musicians along with major sponsors such as Tantoco, the late Ambassador Bienvenido Tantoco Sr., then CCP chair Baltazar Endriga, eight production staff members, and 2 tons of musical instruments flew out of the country on Oct. 19 that year.
The PPO 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 stint with the PPO, Barbieri would return to the country to work with visiting musicians, conducting the PPO and the Manila Symphony Orchestra.
Barbieri was also renowned for conducting the yearly Christmas Concert at the Peninsula Manila until 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic. He was scheduled to fly in and conduct this year’s concert.
He also served as conductor of the Zambales-based youth orchestra Pundaquit Virtuosi String Ensemble during its 2019 European tour as organized by the Department of Foreign Affairs and was due to become Pundaquit’s resident conductor beginning 2020 if not for the pandemic.
Barbieri was born on May 5, 1961. He studied at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatorio in Milan, Scuola Superiore di Musica in Pescara, Civico Istituto Musicale G. Donizetti in Bergamo and 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 served as assistant conductor of Maestro Aldo Ceccato for Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España in Madrid from 1991 to 1996 before his time with the PPO.
Spain’s King Juan Carlos I conferred on the Italian Barbieri the highest honor given to Spanish artists, the Cruz de Isabel la Catolica.
Barbieri had conducted orchestras around the world and had also released a number of recordings, including performances of Gaetano Donizetti’s “Miserere in D Minor” and “Requiem” which he conducted.
He is survived by his son Piolo and by his sisters Daniela and Federica. Details of the interment will be announced later.
RELATED STORIES
CCP shows off its brand-new 9-foot Fazioli grand piano in Clementi concert