Fidelio is a cultural project started in 2019 with the aim of providing both fun and inspiration to the world. Its name is a nod to Beethoven’s one and only opera as well as to Stanley Kubrick’s take on Arthur Schnitzler’s Traumnovelle. This is what we do: ambitious musical productions and parties away from the public eye. Classical music is at the core of what we do, but we don’t look at it as something to be celebrated. We rather think of it as something to be constantly reinvented along with the evolving world. The main character trait of Fidelio is to challenge the status quo of a traditional art form to make it relevant to as many people as possible.
The Fidelio project comprises of a central London venue, the Fidelio Café, home to chamber music, private parties and a neighbourhood cafe, and the Fidelio Orchestra, a dynamic youth orchestra providing exciting orchestral experience to young musicians at the start of their careers.
raffaello morales
Founder & Music Director
Raff has been thinking of a way to bring together his many different interests for most of his life, proudly embodying the spirit of the nineteenth century European amateur in all his endeavours. After studies in music, physics and mathematics, he spent some time managing foreign exchange derivatives risk for an American bank, quickly realising that he enjoyed generating risk much more than mitigating it. For him music is the ultimate expression of the human character, a language of infinite possibilities that conceals a moral thrust. He divides his time between too many things, but his chief passion is story-telling, whether through a recipe, a symphony or a novel. In his spare time he thinks hard about how to ensure that the future will be better than the past.
Ashley simmonds
Partner & General Manager
General manager and co-owner, Ash oversees day-to-day hospitality operations and plans Fidelio’s private events, working closely with clients to bring their ideas to life. For him, hospitality is all about people—he believes guests should feel welcomed the moment they walk through the door. Wine connoisseur, Ash loves discovering producers worldwide, and travelling to wine regions to meet the people behind the bottles is one of his favourite ways to learn and bring new ideas back to Fidelio. Before moving into hospitality, he was a dancer and actor, and today he still thinks of the restaurant floor as his stage – just with better food and wine.
David skudlik
Partner & Producer
Besides debating the purpose of practicing the violin throughout his teenage years, David co-founded an accessory label at 17, started an artist agency at 20, and built his first website for Ray Chen in 2013 while studying Cultural & Media Management at the Hamburg University of Music and Drama. Alongside Fidelio, David also runs David’s Dearest, a production company and personal platform for cultural recommendations. In his spare time, he still occasionally plays violin: there’s even video proof of him performing Shostakovich with Alice Sara Ott, after half a bottle of whiskey. Practice pays off!
