Alessandro Siciliani
conductor
press
The people of Columbus had better jump on the bandwagon and get season tickets for the CSO . . . . [Last Saturday] I never heard a better assortment of lyrical beauty and lightening-type excitement. Maestro Siciliani is the Italian Leonard Bernstein."
David Gregor, The Columbus Dispatch
Artistically, the season has been a triumph. The orchestra has been stimulated by interpretive ideas at the highest level, and audiences have been rewardwed with concerts so exciting that standing ovations are common."
Barbara Zuck, The Columbus Dispatch
The orchestra has achieved a standard of performance that I truly never thought possible in [Columbus]."
John W. VanDervoort, The Colmbus Dispatch
Maestro Alessandro Siciliani most recently served as the Columbus Symphony Orchestra’s Conductor Laureate, having held the position of Music Director for 12 years, from 1992 to 2004.
full bio
Under Siciliani’s musical leadership, the Columbus Symphony (CSO) accumulated numerous impressive accomplishments, including a successful Carnegie Hall début in 2001. Additionally, Siciliani led the Orchestra’s first classical recordings in over 10 years: CSO Showcase, which featured operatic gems and highlighted the virtuosity of several Symphony musicians, and Live in New York, which captured the magic and artistry of the CSO’s Carnegie Hall début. Other positions of note include Principal Guest Conductor of the Orchestra of the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires and the Teatro Municipal of São Paolo.
Born in Florence, Italy, Siciliani is a 1992 recipient of the Amerigo Vespucci Award, given to Italian conductors of international stature. He is only the fourth recipient; his father, the renowned opera artistic director, the late Francesco Siciliani, was the first. Others include Riccardo Muti and Carlo Maria Giulini.
Siciliani has distinguished himself equally in the opera house and in the concert hall, but his enviable upbringing—daily attending his father’s rehearsals at Milan’s famed Teatro alla Scala—and training have instilled in him a deep affinity for opera. After his Metropolitan Opera début conducting a revival of Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci, New York Times music critic John Rockwell declared him “the Lorin Maazel of opera conductors.” After conducting Turandot with the Cincinnati Opera, the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Janelle Gelfand said, “One of the evening’s stars was conductor Alessandro Siciliani, who was a thrilling interpreter of Puccini (and Berio), and aided the singers expertly.”
International symphonic conducting engagements have taken Siciliani across Europe, the Americas, and Asia. He has led prestigious ensembles in Cologne, Gothenburg, Hong Kong, Kraków, Munich, Prague, Stockholm, and Warsaw. In the United States, he has made successful appearances in Atlanta, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Colorado, Dallas, Ft. Worth, Jacksonville, Nashville, Pittsburgh, Sacramento, Grant Park in Chicago, and the National Symphony in Washington, D.C.
Siciliani is also a composer, and his compositions include a range of symphonic works, including the Cantata for 18 Soloists, Choir, and 18 Instruments, the ballet L’Amour peintre, and the oratorio, Giona. He also revised Giacomo Carissimi’s oratorio, Abramo e Isacco. Siciliani studied at the Giuseppe Verdi Milano Conservatory and at Santa Cecilia in Rome, graduating with highest honors in piano, composition, and conducting. He studied conducting with the legendary Franco Ferrara.
Maestro Siciliani is represented exclusively by GKW Creative Management.