Born in Isernia, Italy, in 1971. Giovanni Tortola studied at the Conservatorio di Musica "Lorenzo Perosi" di Campobasso under the guidance of Maestro Carlo Morelli, at Boston University with Ronald Barron and Amsterdam Conservatorium (Hafabra) with Gerrit Fokkema and Jan Schut.
Trombonist
Since 2001, Mr. Tortola has attended Master Classes in Italy, Europe and the USA. In Turin he studied with Joseph Burnam, Principal Trombone of the RAI Radio Italian Orchestra. He also participated in trombone camp in Fossano, Turin, with Charlie Vernon, Bass Trombone of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Abby Conant. From 1997 to 1999, Mr. Tortola studied at Boston University with Ronald Barron, Principal Trombone of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and in 1999 he competed for and won a scolarship to study Tortola at the Tanglewood summer festival. From 1999 to 2000 he studied at The Juilliard School in New York with Joseph Alessi, Principal Trombone, and with James Markey, Assistant Principal Trombone, both of the New York Philarmonic Orchestra. In addition, Mr. Tortola participated in various seminars (in San Francisco,Chicago, Amsterdam) with Mark Lawrence and Scott Hartman. Since 2001 he has resided in Holland, playing with the Amsterdam Symphony, Holland Symphonia, Philarmonia Amsterdam and Nederlands Promenade Orkest. Since 2001 Mr. Tortola won the audition for Principal Trombone (40%) at the Orchestra Sinfonica Stabile del Molise, performing worldwide at prominent music festivals and on television broadcasts. Mr. Tortola has also served as alternate trombonist for several orchestras, including Orchestra Verdi (Milano), under Maestro R. Chailly; Orchestra Sinfonica (Roma); Orchestra Sinfonica (Torino) and Orchestra Sinfonica Fedele Fenaroli (Lanciano).
Orchestra conductor
Mr. Tortola has studied conducting in the United States, Italy and The Netherlands, with Thomas Everett in Boston 1997, and with Gerrit Fokkema and Jan Schut from the Amsterdam Conservatorium. He has also attended seminars led by Lucas Vis, Ernst van Tiel and David Short.
Currently Mr. Tortola is conducting the following wind orchestras in the Netherlands: Fanfare Orkest Kunst voor het Volk (Den Haag), Harmonie Orkest MCL (Leidschendam), Jeugd Orkest (Gouda). He has also been a guest conductor at Ottoni Italiani (Torino) in Italy.