CESARE CIVETTA

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Maestro Cesare Civetta has conducted over 60 orchestras in 15 countries with sold-out performances at Lincoln Center and Madison Square Garden. His concerts have been broadcast on ABC, CBS, NBC, National Public Radio, Swedish Radio, Voice of America, and the South African Broadcasting Company. He is the author of The Real Toscanini: Musicians Reveal the Maestro based on his 50 interviews with musicians who played with Toscanini, and details the maestro's launching of the Israel Philharmonic.

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Civetta has created 28 celebrations of the lives and work of many artists who have fought injustice with their art from whom we derive great inspiration. They include Pete Seeger with his protests against Hitler and later, the Vietnam War, Paul Robeson the singer and actor who fought against racism, and for the freedom of the African countries then under colonial rule, Pablo Casals and his protests against Franco, A Celebration of Charlie Chaplin, highlighting Chaplin's classic satire of Hitler, How Shostakovich Survived to Protest Stalin's Anti-Semitism, and How Toscanini Fought Hitler's Persecution of the Jews. The series has been a great success including a standing room only presentation at the United Nations in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the end of the Holocaust. 

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Civetta lives in New York City, where he is the founder and conductor of the Beethoven Festival Orchestra whose purpose is to provide affordable performances by the highest calibre, diversified, integrated symphony orchestra: all seats for the same price as a movie ticket! And he is especially passionate about reaching out to young people who have never heard symphonic or operatic music.