Raffaele La Ragione

Raffaele La Ragione is notable among mandolinists for his interest in historical instruments. In addition to classical repertory, he also plays popular music. La Ragione was born in Naples, Italy, in 1986. He studied the mandolin from an early age, but for his undergraduate degree, he took a broader outlook on the instrument, pursuing courses in Drama, Art, and Music Studies in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Bologna. In these classes, he was able to explore little-known historical repertories for the mandolin. La Ragione went on to the Milan Conservatory for a mandolin performance degree, studying with Ugo Orlandi. La Ragione made his recording debut in 2014 with Orlandi on the album Nicola Calace Je Reviendrai. In 2015, he released the album Serenata Napoletana on the Brilliant Classics label. His duet partner on that release was pianist Giacomo Ferrari, and the pair have often appeared in recital. La Ragione has performed across Italy and in a dozen other European countries. He has also appeared in China, Japan, and South Korea. Among the ensembles with which he has played concertos are the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra (under conductor Myung-Whun Chung), the OSI Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, Silete Venti!, and I Solisti Veneti (under conductor Claudio Scimone), as well as the Greek National Opera in Athens. He has also performed in the Orchestra Italiana of popular singer Renzo Arbore. La Ragione founded the Motus Mandolin Quartet in 2015 and released the album Calace: Music for Mandolin Quartet (devoted to the music of Nicola Calace's brother Raffaele; both brothers were Neapolitan instrument makers). La Ragione released the album Margola: Music for Mandolin in 2019, featuring music by Franco Margola, and in 2020, he returned on the Arcana label with mandolin music by Beethoven on the album Beethoven and His Contemporaries. In 2022, La Ragione made the classical best-seller charts with the album Mandolin on Stage: The Greatest Mandolin Concertos, released on Arcana with the historical instrument group Il Pomo d'Oro. That album featured a variety of historical mandolins.
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