Saimir Pirgu performs in US Ravinia festival

TIRANA, July 28 – Albania internationally renowned tenor Saimir Pirgu will appear at the Ravinia Festival in United States as Ferrando in a concert performance of Mozart’s “Cosi Fan Tutte” under the baton of James Conlon on August 5th with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
He will perform along with mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, one of America’s finest artists and singers, portraying Despina and Grammy Award winning soprano Ana Maria Martinez.
Mozart really swings in Cos쬠a comedy about fiancꥭswapping filled with the kind of devilish bets, mistaken identities and double crosses found in the best of Shakespeare’s romps.
Albanian tenor Saimir Pirgu made his US debut singing Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi at LA Opera, conducted by Conlon and directed by Woody Allen.
With debuts and regular guest engagements in new productions with top conductors on the most important international operatic platforms in Europe and Japan already
at the age of 28, tenor Saimir Pirgu is emerging as one of the most sought-after lyric tenors on the current opera scene.
Other highlights of Pirgu’s career include debuts and regular engagements at the Vienna State Opera, Bavarian State Opera in Munich, ABAO in Bilbao, Staatsoper unter den Linden in Berlin Royal Opera House Covent Garden etc.
A native of Elbasan, Albania, Saimir Pirgu was born in September 1981 and began his musical studies early on. After winning the award for Best Young Singer at the Umberto Sacchetti Competition in Bologna and the Enrico Caruso and Tito Schipa competitions, he was offered his first professional engagements at the Rossini Festival in Wildbad under the baton of Alberto Zedda. Further engagements followed at the Rossini Festival Pesaro in Il viaggio a Reims and Adina, and in 2003 at the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome in Lucia de Lammermoor.
Saimir Pirgu’s international breakthrough came in 2004, when he was invited by Claudio Abbado to sing the role of Ferrando in “Cosi fan tutte” in Italy’s Ferrara, Reggio Emilio, and Modena. That same year he was invited to make his Vienna State Opera debut as Nemorino and was awarded the prestigious “Eberhard Waechter Gesangsmedaille” prize.
That year, he also debuted at the Salzburg Festival as Ferrando conducted by Philippe Jordan.