ABOUT US

The Ottocento Toscano Plectrum Orchestra (19th Century Tuscan Plectrum Orchestra) was born in 2003 under the direction of its first mandolinist, Luca Marco Nistri, student of Maestro Gian Marcello Casini, who was a violin and mandolin player in the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. The Plectrum Orchestra brings together musicians from different cultural backgrounds who have in common the goal of creating a plectrum orchestra to represent the city of Florence.

The Orchestra is a return to the simplicity and harmonic regularity so characteristic of the music of the 1800s, creating for the listener the atmosphere of Tuscan musical and cultural origins. In addition, the Orchestra carries out extensive research aimed at re-discovering and performing original music scores of that era which were orchestrated for plectrum instruments. Many of these scores had been lost mainly due to the changing social and cultural conditions of the post-war years.

The aim of the Ottocento Toscano Plectrum Orchestra is to present a musical and artistic continuity with the Golden Age.The effectiveness of the Orchestra derives from the instrumental solutions it adopts. By using original instruments from the 1800s, it is able to perform musical pieces of the epoch respectfully reproducing the same sonority.

It was due to these characteristics that in August, 2005, the Orchestra was invited to represent Italy at the 39th "Festival of Plectrum Orchestras" held in Logroño, Spain.

THE ORCHESTRA