Roberto Abbado

ROBERTO ABBADO

Born on December 30, 1954, he is the son of pianist Marcello Abbado and nephew of Claudio Abbado. He studied piano and composition at the Milan Conservatory and continued his training in conducting with Franco Ferrara at La Fenice in Venice and the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, where he was the only student who was asked to direct the student orchestra.  He directed his first opera, Simon Boccanegra, at the age of twenty-three at the Sferisterio of Macerata. He was chief conductor of the Munich Radio Orchestra between 1991 and 1998 and has conducted on the podium of the Royal Concertgebouw, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre de Paris, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic. He frequently conducts pages of twentieth century music by composers such as Luciano Berio, Salvatore Sciarrino, Luca Francesconi and Fabio Vacchi.