Young Virtuosos 9th Edition

First part

Simona Bonanno  (Italy)  

Born in 1994, Simona Bonanno received her cellist diploma from the Instituo Musicale V. Bellini di Catania (Sicily). She obtained further training under the supervision of a number of professors, such as U. Clerici, T. Rosler, R. Filippini, etc. From an early age, she appeared on stage with several orchestras such as the Sinfonica Bellini Orchestra, the Gubbio Summer Festival Orcherstra, the Sinfonica Festival Euro Mediterraneo Orchestra and the Sinfonica di Roma Orchestra. As a soloist, she appeared on stage with, inter allia, the Filarmonia OSN Mascalucia Orcherstra. 

She earned several awards at different national and international contests, such as the national Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto contest, the international Portopalo contest, the international Petar Konjovic contest in Belgrade, etc. She was also the winner of the 2013 National Arts Prize, in the section String instruments, Cello category. 

Nowadays, she works as a teacher as part of the project linked to Ferderculture « Musica Insieme Librino », while presenting several concerts in a duo or with other Chamber music formations.

Second Part

Khalil Jemaa (Tunisia) 

Born in 1998, he presented his ever first flamenco concert at the Néapolis Festival of Nabeul in 2011. Later, he continued participating and attending master classes, notably with the « Ilmarhâlâ » Orcherstra with Hichem Badrani.

In 2012, he completed a flamenco traineeship with the renowned guitar player Alain Harbas and the singer Tiza Harbas. He also completed another Jazz flamenco traineeship with Naoufel Maddar. In 2013, he played at the famous « Dar Sebastien » in Hammamet, following a jazz guitar traineeship with Adel Jouini. It is in 2014 that this young virtuoso started creating his own compositions.