Ignacio Ceballos Martín
Born in Valencia, IGNACIO CEBALLOS MARTÍN, obtained his percussion diploma at the Conservatorio Profesional “MaestroVert” de Carcagente, Valencia, Spain with Ángel García and carried on his studies at the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Zaragoza with Manel Ramada. He perfected his playing at the Civica Scuola di Musica “Claudio Abbado” di Milano under the guidance of Mike Quinn, Johnathan Scully and David Searcy. He has participated in numerous master classes with soloists of international renown such as Michel Cerutti, Sylvio Gualda, Karl Mehlig, Rainer Römer, Emmanuel Séjourné, Robert Van Sice, Bernard Wulff.
Since 1994 he has collaborated as timpanist with the principal italian orchestras: l’Orchestra Teatro della Scala, l’Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala, l’Orchestra Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, l’Orchestra Teatro “San Carlo” di Napoli, as well as many famous international orchestras such as: the Philarmonia Orchestra, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and the Bilbao Orchestra Sinfonikoa, under the baton of Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Herbert Blomstedt, Pierre Boulez, Semyon Bychkov, Riccardo Chailly, Gustavo Dudamel, Charles Dutoit, Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Muti, Kirill Petrenko, Georges Prêtre, Gennadij Roždestvenskij, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Jurij Temirkanov.
Since 1997 he has been the Prinicipal Timpanist of the Orchestra del Teatro dell’Opera di Roma. He has, for several years, also been very active in the didactic field taking part in international percussion seminars and festivals. At present he is holding specialised timpani courses at the Conservatorio Statale di Musica “Ottorino Respighi” in Latina and the Centro Superior de Música del País Vasco (Musikene) in San Sebastián.
Rocco Luigi Bitondo
Rocco Luigi Bitondo studied and graduated brilliantly at the Music Conservatory of Matera and graduated with honors in the Specialist Degree in Percussion Instruments at the Music Conservatory of Potenza. He collaborated with several opera theatres and orchestras including: Philharmonia Orchestra of London, Accademia Nazionale of Santa Cecilia , Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Teatro San Carlo in Naples, Teatro dell'Opera in Rome , Teatro Comunale in Bologne , Roma Symphony Orchestra , Orchestra Regionale Toscana, Italian Film Orchestra , Magna Grecia Orchestra in Taranto , Youth Orchestra of Fiesole, Marrucino Theatre of Chieti , Lucan Symphony Orchestra , Orchestra JFutura of Trento, National Orchestra of Italian Conservatories and others. He worked with Directors and World-renowned artists as Riccardo Muti, Ennio Morricone, Yuri temirkanov, Luis Bacalov, Jeffrey Tate, Charles Dutoit, John Axelrod, Eliau Inbal, Jennady Rodzendwensky, Pintchas Stainberg, Gianandrea Noseda and more. There are several collaborations in contemporary, modern , chamber and jazz music. He took part in a lot of international music festivals as: Biennale of Venice, Grobe Festspiele of Salzburg, Ravenna festival, Tokyo Opera Festival and more. At December 2008 he won the competition as a percussionist in the National Police Band of Italy and in November 2012 he won the International Audition for Percussionist obliged to Keyboards and Timpani at Rome Operahouse where he currently works.