Silvia Balistreri
The first thing we need to know about the talented artist Silva is that she was born into a family of artists. Her father Girolamo Balistreri in fact, was a painter and sculptor.
Since her childhood, she was strongly attracted by music. At 16 years of age she started to attend the Vincenzo Bellini Conservatory in Palermo.
At the age of eighteen, she was a finalist in Sanremo Famosi, a singing event held at the San Remo Casino, broadcast by Rai Uno.
Again, for the same broadcaster, with Orchestra Jazz Siciliana, she participated in the performance for the 1994 Football World Cup, through Eurovision.
In 1996 with the Palermo’s Orchestra degli Armonici, Silva performed Pergolesi’s “Stabat Mater” and Ghedini’s “Pie Donne Marie”.
A stepping stone in her career started with the Brass Group of Palermo, with whom she performed in numerous important concerts: On one occasion, with the famous New York arranger Pete Rugolo, where she performed, as soloist, for some pieces he had composed.
Again, as the soloist of Orchestra Contemporanea Siciliana, she participated in two important contemporary music concerts directed by the American composer MichaelTorke and in a Suite on the lyrics of Giuseppe Ungaretti, written and conducted by the American composer Michael Mantler.
Together with Sicilian composer Maurizio Bignone, she wrote the soundtrack music for Oscar Wilde’s theatrical opera Salomè, presented at the Teatro Flaiano in Rome.
With that same artist, the founder of the string and percussion quartet, she cut a record of ethnic music, holding a concert for Palermo’s Teatro Massimo at the ex Chiesa dello Spasimo Argentinean singer Elisabeth Morales, held at Terme di Sciacca.
Since 2002 she has dedicated herself to lyrics as a soloist, she interpreted, among others, Bizet’s “Carmen” (as protagonist) in Santiago, “Vina del Mar” and Rancagua, Delilah in Saint-Saens’ “Samson and Delilah,” “Aida “in Pleven, “Carmen” in Varna, in Madame Butterfly in Bergen.
In Fruili Silvia recently performed Dvorak’s Mass in D major in the final concert of the IV the Chorus Composition Competition E.F. Cedolins and various concerts in Liguria, Veneto, and Friuli, interpreting Karl Piutti’s Lieds in the first Italian performance.
Yet, there is also another side of the musical table for the lovely artist.
2003 and 2004 found her performing an Ethno pop concert with Bonanova group as soloist. She also did a concert with the Acquasanta group as soloist During The “Lina Wertmuller Film Awards” in Rome.
The artist sang pop and soul Sicilian songs during a concert in Spasimo
Theatre of Palermo too.
Silvia has also done some acting for a short movie directed by Giglio Rosso
and sang the soundtrack of “Centoventimetri” as well.
She sang the soundtrack of “hurt dog” directed by Giuseppe Lo
Cascio in Rome as well.
In 2005 she participated in the production of Verdi’s “Forza del destino” at the Rovigo’s
Teatro Sociale, presented in the theatres of Trento, Ravenna, Modena, Savona, Livorno, Pisa, Padua, and Bassano del Grappa and recorded on DVD and CD by Dynamic Records.
In 2006 she interpreted Tutino’s character “La Lupa” at the Rovigo’s Teatro Sociale withthe supervision of the composer himself.
In 2007 she signed on for Giordano’s “Andrea Chenier” in the theatres of Trento, Rovigo, Livorno, Mantua, and Catanzaro, for Puccini’s “Madame Butterfly” in Mantua, for Verdi’s “Aida” in Rimini, Rovigo, Livorno, and Savona, and for “Madame Butterfly” in Frankfurt.
In 2007 she held lyrical concerts in several theatres: in August she interpreted Nedda (Pagliacci) and Leonora (Trovatore) in the form of an open-air concert in Frankfurt.
In 2008 she debuted at the Verona Philharmonic Theatre for the Arena Foundation of Verona in Adams’ opera “Nixon in China”; then at the Vicenza Olympic Theatre she interpreted Cherubino in the Nozze di Figaro, a role she interpreted in thirty other theatres over the following seasons, she then interpreted “Carmen in Paris”, Chateau de Buc de Versailles, in the protagonist role.
In 2010 Silva sang at the Arena of Verona during a concert of avant-garde music:
and later in the year she played the role of “Carmen” in Seville.
Finally, last year on November Silva acted with the Roman
actor Piero Nicosia “La Banda Muta” by Gaetano Savatteri at the
Cantieri Culturali della Zisa in Palermo.
To say a star is born in Silva’s case is an understatement.