Curriculum vitæ

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Marco Zambelli was born in Genoa in 1960.

Has read Classical letters (Humanities) and started the piano practice at the age of 7. He completed his Organ curriculum with a Diploma at the Conservatorio "Paganini" in 1983 and was awarded a Premier Prix de Virtuosité in the class of Lionel Rogg in Geneva in 1986. The same year, he won the 2nd Prize at the Orgelwettbewerb in Kaltern. He has played chamber music, accompanied instrumentalists and singers and given numerous solo recitals until 1988.

In 1989 he became Chorus Master at the Opéra de Lyon and had the chance (and the pleasure) to be chosen by eminent Maestros, like M. Arena, B. Campanella, E. Krivine, N. Marriner and J.E. Gardiner, to be their Assistant.
Suddenly, conducting looked like the "natural" development to all these diverse formative experiences.

Since 1994 he has conducted both Symphonic and Operatic repertoire in all the five continents (from Scandinavia to Israel, from the USA to the Far East, from New Zealand to Mexico) but mostly in Europe, where he has been in front of Orchestras like the London Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, BBC NOW, OSPA, TSO, Philharmonie de Monaco, Jerusalem Symphony, ICO, Prague Philharmonia, Hungarian Radio etc., alone or sharing the spotlights with artists of the level of Julian Lloyd-Webber, Peter Wispelwey, Leo Nucci and Rolando Villazon just to name a few, in Concert Halls like the Philharmonie in Munich, Berlin and Köln, the Gewandhaus, the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, the TCE in Paris, the Smetana Hall in Prague, the Tivoli Auditorium in Copenhagen, Ranieri III in Montecarlo, the National Concert Hall in Dublin, the Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, the Israel Festival, Glyndebourne...
In his own country he has conducted at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, the Teatro Regio in Parma and in Turin, the Donizetti Festival, Venice, Cagliari, Genova, Catania etc.

Has recorded for BBC, Czech TV and Virgin Classics and has conducted the first public performance since 1838 of M.W. Balfe's "Falstaff" whose LIVE recording, produced by RTÉ lyric fm/Naxos, has received the highest accolades from the international specialized critics. The same label has also released "For Eternity", where he conducts the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and Irish soprano Celine Byrne in the occasion of her first Solo album.

Beyond conducting the "professionals", he is deeply attracted by the human and working relationship with those who will soon be professional and accepts with enthusiasm the growing number of proposals which come to him from Academies, Conservatoires and Youth Orchestras of all the world.
In this perspective, Marco has launched I Concerti Spirituali del Gonfalone, a concert series where professionals and students play side by side with a semi-professional Choir in a magnificent XVII century little church in one of Genoa's "difficult" districts, also in the attempt to demonstrate that Classical Music can be put back into people's everyday life.