Press report from La Repubblica, 1 Apr 2017.

He has just won the most important bassoon prize in the world, and next season he may be playing as a soloist for the Sicilian Symphony Orchestra at the Teatro Massimo or Teatro Politeama. Riccardo Terzo is 27 years old and was born in Palermo. The young bassoonist won the Gillet-Fox Bassoon prize at the world’s most prestigious competition, hosted by the International Double Reed Society in Columbus, USA.

Riccardo, first bassoon of the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra, is the son of two musicians who grew up in the shadow of the Teatro Massimo. His father Aldo Terzo played at the Teatro as first bassoon, while his mother Angela Lo Presti sang as a soprano in the choir. For seven years, he studied bassoon with a friend of his father, second bassoonist Maurizio Barigione. “I really liked the sound of the instrument; it captivated me immediately,” says Riccardo, who spent his birthday with his family in Palermo a few days ago and attended Emma Dante’s “Macbeth” at the Teatro Massimo. “I started to learn the bassoon at the age of seven,” he adds, “and then I started studying bassoon at 16, and the piano at 18. At the age of 17, Riccardo flew to the Mozarteum in Salzburg to perform at the renowned Austrian Institution. “Passing the entrance exam to the Mozarteum was an overwhelming experience. I had been practising bassoon for my entire life and it was everything to me!” he says. “I couldn’t believe it.” Passing the exam resulted in ever more engagements: He played first bassoon for the Vienna Philharmonic’s performance of “Swan Lake” at the Vienna State Opera, and for the orchestras of Munich and Leipzig when they performed “Parsifal” under the baton of Franz Welser Most.

Still fully focused on his career, he will be playing a concert in Tokyo at the end of February on behalf of the International Double Reed Society, the world’s most distinguished organisation for oboe and bassoon enthusiasts.  In March, he will be touring the USA from San Francisco to San Diego via Los Angeles, as a guest musician of the Copenhagen Radio Orchestra under the leadership of Fabio Luisi. Although he lives in Salzburg, he still feels a deep connection to his home town: “I have a wonderful relationship with Palermo. I love listening to opera at the Massimo, and it would be a dream to return to this city as a soloist or to play here in a symphony orchestra.”

This could well happen, since the city’s two theatres are now competing to book him: “It is always a great pleasure when artists from the Massimo return to Palermo after receiving international awards,” says Francesco Giambrone, Director of the Teatro Massimo. “We are working on inviting him to perform in our next season in 2018”. Giorgio Pace, conductor of the Sicilian Symphony Orchestra, is also considering the same idea: “I would be delighted to invite a musician from Palermo of this calibre to perform at the Politeama. We hope he will play for us in 2018.” At the end of December, Mayor Leoluca Orlando presented Terzo with the “Precious Stone of the Palermo Mosaic” award.