The chamber orchestra I Solisti Veneti was founded by its long-time music director Claudio Scimone in 1959 in Padua, Italy. Specializing in the music of the Baroque and early Classical eras, I Solisti Veneti has given concerts in dozens of countries all over the world, from North and South America to Europe, Japan and Australia. The orchestra appears regularly at several music festivals, including the Salzburg Festival, where they have appeared every year since 1965. Working with the town councils of Venice, Padua and Verona, I Solisti Veneti also helped to organize the Veneto music festival. The orchestra has contributed music for several film soundtracks, and produced many musical programs for Italian television and elsewhere. But for many music fans, I Solisti Veneti is mostly known through its over 300 recordings, which have extensively explored the orchestra's chosen repertory. Some of those recordings were world premieres, among them Antonio Vivaldi's Orlando Furioso and Gioacchino Rossini's operas Zermira and Armida. The orchestra has received numerous awards for its recordings: the Grand Prix du Disque (won several times, the first for the 1969 recording of Rossini's String Sonatas), the Diapason d'Or, the Gold Medal of the President of the Italian Republic, and the Grammy Award (for Rossini's L'Italiana in Algeri). I Solisti Veneti has performed with most of the world's great musicians, such as James Galway, Salvatore Accardo, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Plácido Domingo, Mstislav Rostropovich, Sviatoslav Richter, Marilyn Horne, and Evgeny Kissin.