Thanks to her multifaceted musical training and her flexible artistic profile, Antonella Bona has made a name for herself on the international scene, winning the appreciation of critics and the interest of the public in numerous countries.
She has performed in the most prestigious concert halls and festivals, including the Auditorium Parco della Musica – Sala Santa Cecilia for the Accademia Santa Cecilia in Rome, the American Academy in Rome, the Quirinale Gardens in Rome (in the presence of the President of the Italian Republic), the Rai Auditorium of Turin, the Rai Auditorium of Naples, the Paganini Auditorium of Parma, the Foellinger Great Hall at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts Urbana-Champaign in Illinois (USA), the Bennet Auditoriun of the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg (USA), the Sala Patria of Brașov in Romania, the Teatro Regio of Parma, Teatro Argentina in Rome, Teatro Verdi in Pordenone, Trieste, Padova and Gorizia, Festival dei due Mondi in Spoleto, Verdi Festival in Parma, Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo for “EXPO 2015” in Milan, Festival “Marenco” in Novi Ligure, Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago, Festival Berlioz la Côte-Saint-Andrè in France.
Her particular experience in the world of music for wind instruments in 2007 earned her a place of prominence, winning the competition for second conductor in the Italian National Army Band. This event attracted a lot of press attention for occupying a place, even more than the others, of historically male tradition. The monthly magazine ‘Amadeus’ dedicated three pages to the world of the Band for the first time, putting the spotlight on her, just as the monthly magazine ‘Class’ had done years before.
Her predilection for the world of wind orchestras did not distract her from the world of opera and symphony, in which she specialised under the guidance of Maestro Maurizio Arena and in which she was a protagonist at the Teatro Mancinelli in Orvieto for “Madame Butterfly”, and even earlier at the Teatro Argentina in Rome, in “La Traviata”, in Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” (with Renato Bruson), in Leonard Bernstein’s “Candide” (in co-production with the Bernstein Foundation in Los Angeles), in Puccini’s “Edgar” and “Le Villi” at Villa Adriana (with Montserrat Martí, called Monsita, daughter of the soprano Montserrat Caballè).
Mº Bona has written articles for numerous music magazines and is the author of compositions and transcriptions published by the Italian publishers Santabarbara, Ludo, Eufonia, Scomegna, Studio Music in London and BAM International in Geneva;
Some of her work has been performed, among others, by the “Fiati del Teatro dell’Opera di Roma” for the National Radio “Rai Radio Tre”, by the Navy and Army Bands; many of her instrumentations have also been included in Steven Mead’s repertoire, which she recorded on the CD “Bella Italia”. From 2013 to 2019 she was Principal Conductor of the Army Band, conducting over two hundred concerts in that time.
Antonella Bona began her musical studies with piano and composition and later graduated in “Band Instrumentation”, “Choral Music and Conducting” and “Conducting” with honours at the Conservatories of L’Aquila, Bari and Naples. Active in the field of wind music, she attended specialisation courses with Jan van De Meij, Thomas Briccetti, Thomas Fraschillo and Fulvio Creux, obtaining with the latter, at the Scuola Superiore di Musica “Accademia Musicale Pescarese”, a diploma in “Band Conducting”. For the lyrical-symphonic repertoire she specialised under the guidance of Maestro Maurizio Arena. Since 2007 he has held the position of second director of the National Band of the Italian Army. Antonella Bona is founder and President of the “European Association of Women Band Conductors”, an international musical association based in Geneva, through which she promotes the figure of the female band conductor at an international level.