Principal Guest Conductor of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein since 2017 and Music Director of the Rossini Festival in Wildbad since 2012, he made his acclaimed debut at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro in 2001 conducting Il viaggio a Reims. Since then, he has appeared on the podium of the world’s most renowned opera houses and leading orchestras, including the Orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, the Neue Philharmonie Westfalen Orchestra at the Westfalenpark in Dortmund, the Moscow State Philharmonic Society at Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, and the Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen. His recent engagements include Maria Stuarda at Teatro alla Scala; Don Pasquale, Amica, and Mosè in Egitto at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma; Oberto, conte di San Bonifacio and Otello at the Teatro Filarmonico di Verona; Il barbiere di Siviglia at La Fenice in Venice; Rigoletto and Il turco in Italia at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples; Turandot at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow; Otello, Il Signor Bruschino, and La sposa di Messina at the Rossini in Wildbad Festival; Lucia di Lammermoor at the Teatro Donizetti in Bergamo and at the Bayerische Staatsoper; Carmen at the Bregenzer Festspiele and the Semperoper Dresden; and Tosca at the Arena di Verona and the Oper Frankfurt. He holds a degree in Music Studies from the University of Bologna and diplomas in Piano from the Bologna Conservatory and in Conducting from the Milan Conservatory. He furthered his studies at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena with Franco Donadoni and Ennio Morricone. His meeting with Gianluigi Gelmetti in 1997 marked a turning point in his conducting career, leading to numerous collaborations as Gelmetti’s assistant. He currently teaches Conducting at the “A. Scarlatti” Conservatory in Palermo. In 2018, President Sergio Mattarella awarded him the honorary title of Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.