Conductor
Federico Santi
Career and Achievements
Federico Santi
Associate conductor Opéra Grand Avignon
Opera coordinator Conservatorium Maastricht
Federico Santi has been appointed associate conductor of the Opéra Grand Avignon. “His precise and sensitive approach to each of the musical pieces, his openness to different repertoires, his humble attitude towards the scores and his collaborators, and his leadership of the orchestra and the distribution of singers are exceptional qualities to which I wish to pay tribute with this designation”.
Frédéric Roels, General Director of Opéra Grand Avignon.
He is the winner of the First Prize as well as the Special Prize of the Nice Opera at the 4th Mancinelli International Competition for conductors in Orvieto.
He directly conducted at Concertgebouw Amsterdam (concert version of Manon Lescaut), the Theater Bunkakaican in Tokyo (La Traviata) and the Opera Bellas Artes in Mexico City (Il trovatore).
Federico Santi has more than 50 operas in his repertoire. He has collaborated with the Teatro Comunale di Bologna (I Capuleti e Montecchi, Il barbiere di Siviglia, also for an important Japan tour including performances of Il barbiere di Siviglia in *Tokyo, Osaka, Yokohama and Fukuoka), the Rouen Opera (Viva la mamma, Die Entführung aus dem Serail), the Montpellier Opera (Chabriers Une éducation manquée and Poulenc’s La voix humain), the Opéra Grand Avignon (Peter Grimes, La Traviata, La Bohème, Tosca, Turandot and Howard Moody’s Les Rêveurs de la lune), the Opéra Royal de Wallonie de Liège (La bohème and the world premiere of Daniel Schell’s Le sabotage amoureux), the Forest National in Bruxelles (Nabucco), the Festival of Alden Biesen (Il barbiere di Siviglia, Manon Lescaut, Gianni Schicchi and Lehár’s Die lustige Witwe), the Teatro del Bicentenario in León, Mexico (Madama Butterfly), the Ente Luglio Musicale Trapanese (Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci), the Ente Concerti Marialisa de Carolis in Sassari (Strauss Salome, Rota’s Il cappello di paglia di Firenze), the Festival of Alexandria (Don Carlo), the National Opera of Timisoara (Le nozze di Figaro, Tosca), the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Theatre in Moscow (L’Elisir d’amore).
Recent and upcoming collaborations of symphonic repertoire are with Orchestre National Montpellier, Rouen Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre National Avignon-Provence, Mariinsky Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra of Bashkir, Russian National Youth Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Ente Concerti Marialisa De Carolis, Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto, Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana.
He has played with soloists such as Norbert Brainin, Nicolas Chumachenco, Aldo Ciccolini, Kristóf Baráti, Alexander Tomescu, Emmanuel Pahud, Albrecht Mayer, Kyoko Yonemoto…
Federico is currently opera coordinator at the Maastricht Conservatory, where he teaches conducting and orchestral studies.
Positions:
- Resident choirmaster Coro di Torino (1995-2005)
- Pianist of the RAI National Symphony Orchestra (1998-2004)
- Singers’ coach and professor Maestri Collaboratori al Teatro Lirico Sperimentale di Spoleto (1999-2005)
- Pianist of the Sassari Theater (1999-2001)
- Choirmaster Teatro Carlo Felice di Genova (2000-2002)
- Direttore musicale palcoscenico Theaters Modena e Ferrara (2001-2002)
- Maestro Collaboratore Maestro Teatro Regio of Turin (2003-2005)
- Musical director Festival of Alden Biesen (2010-2012)
- Founder and Artistic director Maastricht Chamber Orchestra (from 2015)
- Opera coordinator Maastricht Conservatory (from 2022)
- Associated conductor Opéra Grand Avignon (2024/25-2026/27)
- Valery Gergiev (Mariinsky Theater)
- Carlo Rizzi (Opéra National du Rhin)
- Paolo Arrivabeni (Torino)
- Alberto Zedda (Opéra Royal de Wallonie)
- Bruno Campanella (Teatro Regio di Torino)
- Yuri Ahronovtich (Musica Riva Festival)
- Isaac Karabtchevsky (Musica Riva Festival)
- Dietfried Bernet (Opéra National du Rhin)
Awards:
- 2006 first prize audition with the Orchestre Nationale d’île de France
- 2008 first prize and special prize of the Opéra de Nice to the Orvieto IV International Competition for opera conductors.
Studies:
- Composition: Alessandro Ruoi Rui (Torino), K. Stockhausen (Köln)
- Orchestra conduction: Fulvio Vernizzi (Torino), Gilberto Serembe (Accademia Musicale Pescarese), Yuri Ahronovitch, Isaac Karabtchevsky, Vladimir Ponkin (Lipsia), Ennio Nicotra (Peter the Great Music Academy of Sant Pietersburg), Vladimir Korchmar (Sant Pietersburg).
- Pianoforte: Wally Peroni (Torino), Jorg Demus, Paul Badura-Skoda.
- Chamber music: Claudio Voghera, Franco Gulli–Enrica Cavallo.
- Harpsichord: Emilia Fadini, Walter Kolneder.
Samples of my art
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Federico Santi conducts the Intermezzo from Puccini’s Manon Lescaut (Moscow)
Federico Santi & Russian National Youth Orchestra | Bacchanale – Samson et Dalila (Moscow)
Federico Santi & Russian National Youth Orchestra | Don Giovanni Overture – Mozart (Moscow)
