Mario di Bonaventura

Mario di Bonaventura (ur. 1924) — American conductor and pedagogue, propagator of new music. He studied composition under Nadia Boulanger and conducting under Igor Markévitch. He lead the Lauderdale Symphony Orchestra and the Julliard Contemporary Music Ensemble. In the years 1962-1974, he was active at Dartmouth College in the State of New Hampshire, where he was also director of the summer new music festival – Congregation of the Arts (1963-1970) – to which he invited outstanding composers, often giving premieres of their works. In 1966 Witold Lutosławski was a guest of the Festival.

Witold Lutosławski revealed to Zofia Owińska: “Mario di Bonaventura is one of my really dear friends. He was always interested in my works. He was director of a very good festival in New Hampshire, and once invited me to be composer in residence for two weeks. He had a number of my compositions performed there, and they were conducted by me or di Bonaventura as the main festival conductor. That’s also how our friendship formed. I wrote Preludes and a Fugue at his request, originally for this very festival, which has since ceased to exist”. The world premiere of the mentioned work was given on October 12, 1972, in Weiz, near Graz at the Styrian Art Festival, in which Mario di Bonaventura lead the Zagreb Radio and Television Chamber Orchestra.

Lutosławski’s Symphony no. 3 holds an important place in the repertoire of the conductor. He lead its world premiere in Poland on September 30, 1984, at the gala finale concert of the Warsaw Autumn. (kt/mk)