Speakers:
Lavinia Macauda Coco was first introduced to the piano when her uncle came to live with her family on Beech Street in Belmont. She studied with him for seven years after which time college, marriage and raising a family became her focus. Some forty years later, she rekindled her musical interests. She discovered over 300 of her uncle’s compositions, which evoked a new appreciation of his music.
Musicologist Stephen Loikith received his Bachelor Degrees from Lebanon Valley College in Annville, PA, and his Master Degree from Brandeis University in Waltham, MA. As a historian, he focuses on the music of Colonial New England, as well as the music of Salvatore Arnò. He has organized concerts featuring the music heard by Colonists from when they first settled in Massachusetts through our fight for independence from Britain for historical societies all around the state. His work in resurrecting the music of Arnò was recently featured in a performance in August, 2019, of selections from Arnò’s operetta Fuochi di Carnevale by the Ocean City Pops Orchestra in Ocean City, NJ. Additionally, Loikith is an active French horn player, and performs with orchestras and chamber ensembles around the Greater Boston area.
Musicians:
Soprano Victoria Bartolomeo holds a Master of Music (M.M.) in Vocal Performance from Longy School of Music of Bard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Music from Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pennsylvania. Bartolomeo’s partial roles include: Ilia (Idomeneo), Blanche (Dialogues of the Carmelites), and the Queen of the Night (Die Zauberflöte). In April of 2014, Victoria participated as a chorus member in MetroWest Opera’s production of Hansel & Gretel. In October of the same year, Ms. Bartolomeo gave the modern-day premiere of vocal selections by Boston-based composer Salvatore Arnò (1884-1963). In September of 2017, she performed the role of Dodo in The Merry Widow with Worcester Schubertiade. Additionally, Ms. Bartolomeo has sung with the Church of the Good Shepherd in Acton, Massachusetts, performing in their Lessons & Carols Service during the Christmas Seasons of 2016-2018.
Moscow native Elena Zamolodchikova specialized in historical keyboard performance at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and at Julliard. She has performed in Russia, the US, Italy, Germany, and Norway, collaborating with such prominent colleagues as William Christie, Christopher Hogwood, Monica Hugett, and Nicholas McGegan. She participated in the first Moscow concert performance of Le Devin du Village, Jean–Jacques Rousseau’s 1752 opéra–intermède, played in the first Zuckermann Harpsichords Music Festival, and recently recordedEl Puente de las Almas, a new two–harpsichord work by Jose Bevía, with colleague Aymeric Dupré la Tour. She is artist–in–residence and an action technician at Zuckermann Harpsichords and organist/pianist at First Congregational Church, Westbrook, CT.
IDEA Boston is an Italian-inspired festival celebrating authors, books and culture, and organized by independent bookstore I AM Books, situated in Boston's North End neighborhood.
