Marco Balderi

He studied piano at the Luigi Boccherini Musical Institute of Lucca, before entering the Luigi Cherubini Conservatory of Florence, where he obtained the diplomas in choral conducting, harpsichord and organ.

He also gained an honours diploma in orchestral conducting from the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome.
Between 1984 and 1989, Marco Balderi worked as an assistant to many distinguished conductors, including Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Chailly, Carlo Maria Giulini, Herbert von Karajan, James Levine, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Giuseppe Patanè, and Wolfgang Sawallisch, in venues such as the Florence Opera, the Teatro alla Scala or the Salzburg Festival.
Marco Balderi began his career as orchestral conductor after winning the International Competitions in Salzburg, Besançon and Alessandria. Foreign tours have taken him to Austria, Belgium, China, South Korea, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Mexico, Japan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, and the USA, where he conducted more than 90 orchestras such as the Radio France Orchestra, the New Symphony Orchestra of Boston, the RAI Symphony Orchestras of Milan, Rome and Turin, the Italian Swiss Radio and Television Orchestra, the Metropolitan Orchestra of Tokyo, the Orchestras of the Cagliari, Bologna, Rome and Verona Theatres, the Radio and Television Orchestra of Moscow, the European Orchestra of Vienna, the Warsaw National Opera, the Radio and Television Orchestra of Bucarest, the Accademia Santa Cecilia Orchestra of Rome, the Padova Chamber Orchestra, the Deutsche Oper Orchestra of Berlin, the Paris Opera Orchestra, and the St. Gallen Symphony Orchestra.
His repertoire includes over 200 symphonic works, with the complete cycles of the symphonies by Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Schumann, and 60 operas. Twentieth-century and new music occupies a prominent place in his career, with premieres of works by Berio, D'Amico, Donatoni, Ferrero, Glass, Ligeti, Sciarrino, Testoni, Xenakis. He has recorded Casella’s “La Giara” and Respighi’s “Christus”. Highlights in his career have included Mascagni’s “Satanic Rhapsody” in Livorno and Bologna and Menotti’s “The Wedding Day” (a live performance for the opening of the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul).
As pianist/conductor Marco Balderi has performed in Italy, Poland, Spain, Taiwan, France, Japan, South Korea (concertos for piano and orchestra by Bach and Mozart). He appeared as accompanist in vocal recitals with Andrea Bocelli, Renato Bruson, José Cura, Ghena Dimitrova, Maureen Forrester, Barbara Frittoli, Nicolai Gedda, Nicolai Ghiaurov, Giuseppe Giacomini, Nicola Martinucci, Mariana Nicolesco, Leo Nucci, Luciano Pavarotti and Cesare Siepi. He served as Artistic Director of the Ongakoyoku Festival in Niigata, Japan and of the Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago. In Paris he conducted in concert Luciano Pavarotti with Charles Aznavour.
In recent years he has conducted “Madama Butterfly” at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin and the Opéra Bastille in Paris (dir. Bob Wilson), “La Bohème” at the Teatro dell'Opera in Rome, Toulon, Bordeaux and in Fano (dir. Luciano Pavarotti), “La Traviata” in Florence, “L'Elisir d'amore” at the Royal Opera de Wallonie in Liège, Seoul and Budapest National Opera, an opera gala at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow with the Russian National Orchestra, “Carmen” in Warsaw with Denyce Graves and “Falstaff” in Łódź, Poland with Renato Bruson. He also worked extensively in South Korea, with productions of “Lucia di Lammermoor”, “La Bohème”, “Madama Butterfly”, “Carmen”, “Rigoletto”, “Tosca”, “La Traviata” and “Turandot: at the Seoul Arts Center (2013-17).
His honours include the Premio Pegasus Award (1994) and the prestigious Tutor Campus Castle Award from the Rome Academy of Fine Arts (1998).