Pier Giorgio Morandi

Biography

Pier Giorgio Morandi played for ten years as principal oboist in Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala in Milan. He studied composition at Conservatorio G. Verdi in Milan, and orchestra conducting at Salzburg Mozarteum with M° Ferdinand Leitner. During the years spent at La Scala, Morandi was assistant conductor of M° Riccardo Muti and later of M° Giuseppe Patanè, from whom he gained a lot of experience in refining the stylistic Italian repertoire and in learning all the secrets of the Italian operatic tradition.

In 1987 he studied in Tanglewood, USA, with M° Leonard Bernstein and M° Seiji Ozawa. In the same year, Morandi won the "Tanglewood Competition", also known as "Bernstein Prize". In 1989 he became Deputy Principal Conductor at Teatro dell'Opera in Rome, where he conducted Ernani, Madama Butterfly and several symphonic concerts. In 1990 he recorded his first opera with Roma opera house, Paisiello’s Don Chisciotte. From 1991 and for the following five years, he was Principal Guest Conductor at Budapest National Opera House.

Morandi has a wide Italian operatic repertoire and he has been working as regular guest conductor since 1990 in all the major opera houses in Italy, Europe and worldwide: Palermo, Trieste, Roma, Marseille, La Maestranza in Seville, Bunka Kaikan in Tokyo, Osaka, National Opera Theatre in Seoul, Colon in Buenos Aires, Stockholm Royal Opera House, Theatre Royal de La Monnaie in Brussels, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Oper Frankfurt, Wiener Staatsoper, Macerata Opera Festival, Arena di Verona, Opernhaus Zürich, Goteborg, Teatro Regio di Parma, Napoli, Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago, Bilbao, Maiorca, Las Palmas, Valencia, Copenhagen Royal Opera House, Seattle Opera, Royal Albert Hall in London.

An appreciated interpreter of symphonic repertoire, Morandi has worked, among others, with Budapest Radio Orchestra, Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra, Budapest State Orchestra, Flamish Radio Orchestra, Roma’s Santa Cecilia Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra del Filarmonico di Verona, Sanremo Symphony Orchestra, Reggio Calabria Symphony Orchestra, Fukuoka Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra, Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra.

A prolific recording artist, Morandi appeared in several releases, including the Verdi Gala DVD with tenor José Cura and the London Symphony Orchestra, and two Sony Classic CD’s of the European tour with tenor Vittorio Grigolo.

Recent seasons’ highlights include La Fanciulla del West, Tosca and Un Ballo in Maschera at Stockholm Royal Opera House (where he held the position of Principal Guest Conductor), Aida in Oslo and in Qatar, L’Elisir d’amore, La Bohème and Don Carlo in Dresden, Maria Stuarda in Frankfurt, Macbeth at La Scala, Attila at the Palace of Arts in Budapest, Rigoletto in Naples, a symphonic concert at Musikverein in Graz.

Most recently, Don Carlo, Aida and Lucia di Lammermoor at La Scala, Otello in Copenhagen, Madama Butterfly in Oslo, Manon Lescaut, Rigoletto, Turandot, Madama Butterfly, La Bohème and La Traviata in Dresden, La Fanciulla del West in Frankfurt, Otello and L’elisir d’amore at the China National Center of Performing arts in Bejing, Manon Lescaut at the New National Theatre in Tokyo, Rigoletto at Opéra Bastille, Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the China National Center of Performing arts, Rigoletto at Metropolitan Opera, Lucia di Lammermoor in Hamburg, Turandot at the Sferisterio Opera Festival, Aida at Opera Australia.

He was Principal Guest Conductor at Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra and at Royal Opera House in Stockholm.