Patrick de Ritis


bassoon


Patrick De Ritis – was born in 1959 in France and started to play the piano in the age of 8.

With 14 years he began to take bassoon lessons too and continued to study this instrument at the Conservatory Santa Cecilia in Rome – his teacher there was Marco Costantini. Afterwards he attended the Mozarteum in Salzburg and was taught by Milan Turkovic.
Even in the early years of his studies he was already playing the 1st bassoon in the Orchestra Sinfonica Abbruzzesse.

In 1984 he won the competition for the 1st bassoonist at the Italian Radio A. Scarlatti in Napels and worked there for 2 years then.
During this time he played several compositions as soloist. Afterwards he got the chance to work in the Orchestra of the Opera in Rome for 2 years. During the following 2 years he was invited by RAI in Rome to overtake the part of the 1st bassoonist. You could hear a lot of soloist productions on the radio.

In 1990 Patrick De Ritis was the winner of the chamber music competition in Martigny (Switzerland) and many concerts played by him were broadcasted on the Swiss Radio.

After this period he got the big chance to show his talent in Vienna at the Orchestra of the “Wiener Symphoniker”.

Since 1991 he is the 1st bassoonist in this world famous orchestra. They made a lot of tours through the whole world yet. He played under very well known conductors like Georges Pretre, Vladimir Fedosejev and many others and had a lot of solo parts in world famous concert halls in Japan, the USA, Europe, China and India.

In 1996 he was the first performer who played the concert for bassoon and orchestra by Peter Maxwell Davies – who also conducted his own composition – in the most famous concert hall in Austria – the Musikverein in Vienna. Patrick De Ritis was invited to Moscow where he was playing the concert for bassoon and orchestra composed by Mozart – conducted by Maestro Fedosejev.
He was teaching at several Italian conservatories – right now he is instructing bassoon and chamber music at the conservatory L. d’Annunzio in Pescara and is invited to hold many special courses for very talented students worldwide.

He is also in collaboration with the Orchestra Santa Cecilia in Rome – playing the 1st bassoon in several concerts.

With Slovart records and the chamber orchestra Bratislava he produced a CD – concerts for bassoon and orchestra.

Bongiovanni Soundrecords in Bologna produced a CD with all the quintettes by Briccialdi with him and this classical CD was selected from a musical journal as the best of the month. He played compositions by Brahms and R. Strauss with the Ensemble d’Annunzio.
In Vienna he recorded an instruction CD for bassoon lessons.

Besides his musical work as soloist he is also conducting.
He was already leading the Orchestra of Pesaro, Orchestra of Bari, Chamber Orchestra of Fielsole, Orchestra of the Bratislava-Radio, Chamber Orchestra Concertverein Vienna, Chamber Orchestra of the Wiener Symphoniker, Matav Orchestra in Budapest, Philharmonic Orchestra in Ljubljana, Orchestra Sinfonica Abbruzzese. He is the founder and leader of the Winds-Ensemble d’Annunzio and the chief conductor and musical leader of the Camerata Italiana in Vienna. For the concert season 2003/04 the Symphony Orchestra of Granada has invited Patrick De Ritis to be their guest conductor.
Several times he played the 1st bassoon in the Orchestra Santa Cecilia in Rome, in the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano, in the chamber orchestra in Bozen und in the theatre „La Fenice“ in Venice.

For March 2009 he had an invitation to Brasil to play with the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo.