On Sunday 15 January, the Italian Cultural Institute of Beijing, in cooperation with the Italian Embassy in Beijing and the Consulate General in Chongqing, organised a concert in memory of diplomat Filippo Nicosia, who died prematurely on 15 January 2020.
The event was opened by a video message from the Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Ambassador Ettore Francesco Sequi, and by Emanuele di Lorenzo Badia, Italy’s Chargé d’Affaires ad interim of the Italian Embassy in China, and Federico Roberto Antonelli, Director of the Italian Cultural Institute, who greeted the guests. Mrs. Jenny Nicosia, the mother of the diplomat, intervened by sending a video message. All the speakers recalled Filippo Nicosia’s human and professional qualities, as well as the affection and esteem he evoked in friends and colleagues both in China and around the world.
The performance Concerto dei Due Capodanni was given by Quartetto di Cremona, one of the most important string quartets in Italian and international chamber music, composed of Cristiano Gualco (I violin), Paolo Andreoli (II violin), Simone Gramaglia (viola) and Giovanni Scaglione (cello). The programme included music by Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini and Alessandro Alexovits.
The concert was followed in Italy and around the world via streaming by colleagues and friends of Filippo Nicosia, as well as by around 20,000 music lovers in China. At the Consulate General in Chongqing, where the diplomat served as Consul General from 2017 to 2019, a space for listening to the concert was arranged.
The event organised by the Cultural Institute of Beijing is only the first of the initiatives planned for the two-year period 2023-24 involving Quartetto di Cremona and, in particular, Maestro Simone Gramaglia, who is the promoter, together with the Music Association “In musica veritas”, of the “Filippo Nicosia” International Chamber Music Award.
