L’Estravagante is the fruit of the union of four musicians who wanted to share their common passion for chamber music, with the intention of working within a repertoire which, in being performed in a Baroque style with original instruments, rarely sees the establishment of groups with a strong tradition behind them.
The violinists Stefano Montanari and Stefano Rossi, the cellist Francesco Galligoni and the harpsichordist and organist Maurizio Salerno consider the ensemble to be the best expression of a group effort, shared between artists who have become well-known over time, discovering that rare synergy necessary for the development of any creative project.
Even though its members have a rich experience behind them in both performance and teaching, recognised at an international level, the quartet was only formed recently. It has already made several CD recordings and played many concerts, appreciated both for their freshness and for the originality of their musical choices.
Thus the ensemble’s discography offers interesting monographic works like the Suonate a doi, violino & viola da gamba di D. Buktehude, con cembalo op. 1 e op. 2, published in 2007 on a double CD by the magazine Amadeus and by SACD for the Arts label, a version which received, in March 2008, the Supersonic Award from the prestigious journal Pizzicato.
For the occasion the violinist da gamba Rodney Prada took part in the musical project. The subsequent recording for the ensemble was of the six sonatas for a trio of two violins and basso continuo by J. Pachelbel, a fairly unusual work for its use of scordatura, a style used by composers like F.I. Biber, and once again published by Amadeus, this time in 2009. Coming up in 2011, L’Estravagante will perform a third complete work, that of the trio sonatas, op.1, by A. Vivaldi, crowned by the famous Sonata XII, “La Follia”.
The ensemble’s concert work is often linked with the production of recordings, but for upcoming performances its projects will unfold on various fronts: such is the case with the performance of the Art of the Fugue by J.S. Bach. Its attention will also turn to still-underappreciated composers like T. Albinoni, and to programmes which include cantatas for single voice, with a preference for Italian composers active in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

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> Stefano Montanari

Stefano Montanari won his degree in violin and pianoforte with the highest grades, obtained a specialist diploma in chamber music under PierNarciso Masi at the Accademia Musicale of Florence, and the soloist’s diploma under Carlo Chiarappa at the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana (the Conservatory of Italian Switzerland) of Lugano.
Since 1995 he has been the lead violinist of the Accademia Bizantina of Ravenna, an ensemble specialising in early music, with which he has toured around the world.
He has worked with the most important figures in early music, and in particular with C. Rousset (with whom he recently recorded the Sonatas for violin and harpsichord by J.S. Bach for the Naive label), with “Kammerorchester Basel”, with “Concerto Koln” as the Konzertmeister and director, with Tafelmusik of Toronto (Canada) with which in 2011 he will tour in Canada and make a recording as soloist and director.
He has recently been invited by the “Arion” ensemble of Montreal for a Canadian tour.
He has recorded for Foné, Frequenz, Denon, Opus 111, Erato, Virgin, Tactus, Astrée, Thymallus, Simphonya, Bottega discantica , Decca , Oiseau Lyre,  Arts (not long ago his recording of the Sonatas, Opus 5, of A. Corelli won the Diapason d’or in France and numerous other international prizes and commendations), and Naive (in 2007 and 2010 he won the MIDEM international prize, as best record of the year for Baroque music).

He teaches Baroque violin at the Accademia Internazionale della Musica in Milan, as well as the second-level course in Baroque violin at the Conservatorio “Dall’Abaco” of Verona and a similar course at the Conservatorio of Novara, and is a teacher of Baroque violin in the specialist course in early music at Urbino.
He was a principal performer at the Christmas Concert in the Italian Senate in 2007, where he conducted the Baroque orchestra of Santa Cecilia of Rome and performed Vivaldi’s Four Seasons live for Eurovision.

Apart from his solo work, he also works as conductor: he debuted in W.A. Mozart’s “Nozze di Figaro” in the lyric season of the “I Pomeriggi musicali di Milano” orchestra, in collaboration with the As.Li.Co, he has directed the “1813” Orchestra of Como and the “Aargauer Kammer orchester”, and for four years he has been the director of the European youth project “Jugendspodium Incontri musicali Dresda-Venezia”.
In fall 2007 he was a principal figure in the autumn season of the theatre of Bergamo where he conducted the Orchestra of the Bergamo Donizetti Music Festival for the opening concert and in Donizetti’s opera “Don Gregorio”. In autumn 2009 he conducted Donizetti’s “Elisir d’Amore” for the opera season of the “G. Donizetti” theatre of Bergamo, with performances in Bergamo and a tournée in January 2010 in the most important theatres of Japan.

Upcoming works include:

Accademia Bizantina: May-June 2010 Pergolesi Festival
July 2010 recording for the Decca label with Andreas Scholl (conductor)
July 2010 Tournée France and Spain
August-September 2010 Pergolesi Festival
October 2010 Tournée Italy
As conductor:
June 2010 Teatro La Fenice of Venice, concert of music by Mozart and Haydn
November-December 2010 he will direct, in the theatres of Bergamo, Mantua and Novara, “Don Pasquale “ by G. Donizetti.
February-March 2011: Season of the Opera of Lyon, “Così fan tutte”, “Nozze di Figaro” and “Don Giovanni” by W.A. Mozart
September-November 2011 Opera Atelier of Toronto ,“Don Giovanni “ by W.A. Mozart

For the CARISCH publishing house he is preparing a book, “Metodo per violino Barocco” (“Method for Baroque Violin”).

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> Maurizio Salerno

Maurizio Salerno, born in Milan, obtained his Organ and Organ Composition diploma at his hometown Conservatory, and his Harpsichord diploma, with Ottavio Dantone, at the Lugano and Turin Conservatories. He furthered his studies at the “Schola Cantorum” in Basel with Jean-Claude Zehnder; he studied afterwards with Andrea Marcon. His intense soloist concert schedule has brought him throughout Italy and Europe, but he played also in the U.S., South America, Russia and Australia. With violinist Stefano Montanari he founded the ensemble “L'Estravagante”, with whom he recorded works by Buxtehude, Pachelbel and Bach. As a continuo player he collaborates with renowned European orchestras.
With organist Edoardo Bellotti he has recorded a number of CDs with music for two organs for Amadeus magazine and Bottega Discantica. He often holds courses at important Music Academies and Conservatories.
He is resident organist of the renowned Basilica di Santa Maria della Passione (Milan).
He currently teaches Organ and Organ Composition at Brescia Conservatory.

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> Stefano Rossi

He graduated “cum laude” in baroque violin at Conservatorium van Amsterdam, where he studied with Lucy van Dael, also participating to the classes of Alfredo Bernardini, Bob van Asperen and Wouter Moller.
He collaborates with groups as Accademia Bizantina, Cappella della Pietà dei Turchini, Musica ad Rhenum, Zefiro, Camerata Anxanum, Ensemble La Fontegara, Al Ayre Espanol, Xacona, Estro Armonico.
With Musica ad Rhenum he recorded the complete chamber music by Francois Couperin, and - with Zefiro Ensemble - Vivaldi’s “concerti per più strumenti” and Mozart’s divertimenti. He also recorded for Naive, Stradivarius, Decca, Ambroyse, Virgin Classic, and the main European radios.
He plays an instrument made by Henry James in London, 1740.

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> Francesco Galligioni

After graduating from the class of Gianni Chiampan at the Conservatorio C. Pollini in Padua, Francesco Galligioni continued his cello studies in master classes with Michael Flaksman and Teodora Campagnaro and later with Franco Maggio Ormezowski at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome and at the Fondazione Arturo Toscanini in Parma. He perfected his playing of the Baroque cello in master classes given by Walter Vestidello and Gaetano Nasillo; afterwards he worked together with such renowned experts on early music as Anner Bylsma, Giuliano Carmignola, Andrea Marcon, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Diego Fasolis, Bob van Asperen, Gustav Leonhardt and Christopher Hogwood. Galligioni’s passionate interest in early music also led him to play the viol and he completed his studies of this instrument in 2007 with Paolo Biordi at the Florence Conservatory. Francesco Galligioni is a founding member of the Accademia di San Rocco and of the Venice Baroque Orchestra, with which he performs regularly as first cellist in the world’s most important concert halls, including the Royal Albert Hall in London, the Carnegie Hall in New York, the Musikverein in Vienna, the Zurich Tonhalle, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris and the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. He has also worked as section leader together with the Sonatori della Gioiosa Marca, the Orchestra Barocca del Friuli Venezia Giulia G. B. Tiepolo, I Barocchisti, Oman Consort, Arte dell’Arco, Gambe di Legno Consort, I Virtuosi delle Muse and Opera Stravagante. Besides making several recordings with the Venice Baroque Orchestra Galligioni has also recorded trios with Giuliano Carmignola and Lutz Kirchhof as well as sonatas with Anner Bylsma.
After lecturing at the Istituto Musicale G. F. Malipiero in Padua, at the Conservatorio T. Schipa in Lecce, at the Conservatorio A. Buzzolla in Adria (Rovigo) and at the Conservatorio F. Cilea in Reggio Calabria, Francesco Galligioni at present teaches at the Conservatorio N. Paganini in Genoa. He held master classes in 2004 in São Paulo and in the summer of 2007 at the Ludwigsburg Academy. He offers the best of his students the possibility of becoming acquainted with performance practice on original instruments by involving them in the concert and recording activity of the Venice Baroque Orchestra.
Francesco Galligioni plays a cello made by Paolo Antonio Testore in 1740 and on a viola da gamba from the early 18th century.

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