Francesco Cilluffo (born in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

, Italy, January 1979) is an Italian conductor and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

Education

He graduated in Composition and Conducting with Gilberto Bosco from the Conservatorio G. Verdi in Turin after having completed a Music Degree from the

University of Turin The University of Turin (Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Torino'', UNITO) is a public research university in the city of Turin, in the Piedmont region of Italy. It is one of the oldest universities in Europe and continues to play an impo ...

with a thesis about

Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...

's '' Billy Budd''. In 2003 he moved to London, where he completed a PhD in Composition at the

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...

, after having been awarded a Master in Composition at the

Guildhall School of Music and Drama The Guildhall School of Music and Drama is a conservatoire and drama school located in the City of London, United Kingdom. Established in 1880, the school offers undergraduate and postgraduate training in all aspects of classical music and jazz ...

in London. He also held the position of a Composition and Conducting fellow for the Academic Year 2004-2005. Particularly important for his development as a composer were the sessions with

Alexander Goehr Peter Alexander Goehr (; born 10 August 1932) is an English composer and academic. Goehr was born in Berlin in 1932, the son of the conductor and composer Walter Goehr, a pupil of Arnold Schoenberg. In his early twenties he emerged as a centra ...

in Cambridge and meeting

Tobias Picker Tobias Picker (born July 18, 1954) is an American composer, artistic director, and pianist, noted for his orchestral works ''Old and Lost Rivers'', ''Keys To The City'', and ''The Encantadas'', as well as his operas ''Emmeline'', ''Fantastic Mr. ...

. His works have been performed in Italy, England, Austria, Russia, United States and Hong Kong. He has worked as assistant conductor in the United States (Lyric Opera of Chicago and Hollywood Bowl Orchestra) and Europe (Gewandhaus, Leipzig, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Copenhagen Opera House, Opéra national du Rhin, Strasbourg, and Teatro La Fenice, Venice). He has also attended master classes with conductors such as Michael Tilson Thomas (with the London Symphony Orchestra), Iván Fischer (Budapest Festival Orchestra) and Gianluigi Gelmetti (Accademia Musicale Chigiana). He now lives in Milan, Italy.

Conducting activities

Cilluffo has distinguished himself as a conductor in venues such as the

Barbican Centre The Barbican Centre is a performing arts centre in the Barbican Estate of the City of London and the largest of its kind in Europe. The centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings and art exhi ...

Sadler's Wells Theatre Sadler's Wells Theatre is a performing arts venue in Clerkenwell, London, England located on Rosebery Avenue next to New River Head. The present-day theatre is the sixth on the site since 1683. It consists of two performance spaces: a 1,500-seat ...

City of London Festival The City of London Festival was an annual arts festival that took place in the City of London, England, over two to three weeks in June and July. The Festival was strongly geared towards classical music, but also offered a programme that included ...

in London, Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow,

Teatro Massimo The Teatro Massimo Vittorio Emanuele is an opera house and opera company located on the Piazza Verdi in Palermo, Sicily. It was dedicated to King Victor Emanuel II. It is the biggest in Italy, and one of the largest of Europe (at the time of its i ...

in Palermo,

Municipal Theatre of Santiago The Teatro Municipal, National Opera of Chile is the most important stage theatre and opera house in Santiago, Chile. History and overview The Chilean government ceded a significant parcel of land in downtown Santiago to the municipality, in 184 ...

in Chile,

Teatro Pergolesi The Teatro Comunale Pergolesi is an opera house in Jesi, Italy. It was originally named the Teatro della Concordia when it was the rival to the original 1732 opera house in the city, the Teatro del Leone. That theatre was active until 1791, but it ...

in Jesi, Nuovo Teatro Comunale in Sassari, Teatro Fraschini in Pavia, Teatro Ponchielli in Cremona, Teatro Sociale in Como, Teatro Grande in Brescia, Teatro Rossini in Lugo and festivals such as

Byblos International Festival The Byblos International Festival is a Lebanese festival held in Byblos, believed to be the first Phoenician city, founded around 5000 BC. The festival is the biggest in Lebanon, and attracts thousands of tourists from all over the world. History ...

Festival della Valle d'Itria The ''Festival della Valle d'Itria'' is a summer opera festival held in the south eastern Italian town of Martina Franca in the Apulia region. The Festival was founded in 1975 and performances are given in July and August each summer on a specially ...

, Incontri in Terra di Siena. Among his recent conducting engagements are Zemlinsky's ''

Der König Kandaules ''Der König Kandaules'' (''King Kandaules'') is an opera in three acts by the Austrian composer Alexander von Zemlinsky. Its libretto was adapted by the composer from Franz Blei's German translation of the play ''Le roi Candaule'' by French autho ...

'' at the

in Palermo, Mahler's ''

Das Lied von der Erde ''Das Lied von der Erde'' ("The Song of the Earth") is an orchestral song cycle for two voices and orchestra written by Gustav Mahler between 1908 and 1909. Described as a symphony when published, it comprises six songs for two singers who alte ...

'' at the

, a tour of concerts with the Orquesta Filarmónica de Santiago in Chile (featuring music by Rossini, Haydn and Mendelssohn),

Marco Tutino Marco Tutino (born May 30, 1954) is an Italian composer. His emergence during the late 1970s was as the spearhead of an Italian ''Neo-Romantico'' group, founded with two other composers, Lorenzo Ferrero and Carlo Galante. He graduated from the ...

's opera ''The Servant'' at the Teatro Rossini in Lugo and Mozart's ''Requiem'' (edited by

Robert D. Levin Robert David Levin (born October 13, 1947) is an American classical pianist, musicologist and composer, and served as the artistic director of the Sarasota Music Festival from 2007 to 2017. Education Born in Brooklyn, Levin attended the Brookly ...

) with the Orchestra Filarmonica di Torino in Turin. He also conducted

Luigi Cherubini Luigi Cherubini ( ; ; 8 or 14 SeptemberWillis, in Sadie (Ed.), p. 833 1760 – 15 March 1842) was an Italian Classical and Romantic composer. His most significant compositions are operas and sacred music. Beethoven regarded Cherubini as the gre ...

's Requiem in C minor with the orchestra and chorus of the Accademia Stefano Tempia in Turin and an all-Handel concert with the same company.

Composing activities

Instrumental music

Cilluffo's most recent instrumental music includes ''Drash'' for orchestra (commissioned and premiered by the Chicago Arts Orchestra), ''Il barone rampante'' after

Italo Calvino Italo Calvino (, also , ;. RAI (circa 1970), retrieved 25 October 2012. 15 October 1923 – 19 September 1985) was an Italian writer and journalist. His best known works include the ''Our Ancestors'' trilogy (1952–1959), the '' Cosmicomi ...

's famous book, commissioned by the

RAI National Symphony Orchestra The RAI National Symphony Orchestra ( it, italic=no, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI) is an Italian symphony radio orchestra, owned by the public radio and television company RAI. Its primary concert venue is the Auditorium RAI in the Piazz ...

featuring actress Sonia Bergamasco, the piano trios ''This island's mine'' and ''Turning to Turner'' (commissioned by the Trio Debussy) and the string symphony ''Castelli di Rabbia'' (after

Alessandro Baricco Alessandro Baricco (; born 25 January 1958) is an Italian writer, director and performer. His novels have been translated into a wide number of languages. Early life, family and education Baricco was born in Turin, Italy. He has earned degre ...

's novel), performed as part of the

2006 Winter Olympics The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially the XX Olympic Winter Games ( it, XX Giochi olimpici invernali) and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February 2006 in Turin, Italy. This marked the second t ...

celebrations. His most performed chamber works include ''A Sonata Play'' for cello and piano and ''Il sistema periodico'' for piano solo (based on the book by

Primo Levi Primo Michele Levi (; 31 July 1919 – 11 April 1987) was an Italian chemist, partisan, writer, and Jewish Holocaust survivor. He was the author of several books, collections of short stories, essays, poems and one novel. His best-known works ...

Vocal music

Cilluffo enjoys particular success working with voices. His cantata for the 150th anniversary of the Italian unification, ''Voci di tenebra azzurra'' (for chorus, mezzo-soprano and orchestra), was premiered at the 2011 Festival della Valle d'Itria to much critical acclaim. His last song cycle for soprano and string orchestra, ''The Land to Life again'', was premiered at the Festival Incontri in Terra di Siena in 2012. His choral piece ''Carmen Artemisiae'', based on the life of Artemisia Gentileschi, was also premiered in 2012. Among his recent vocal cycles are also ''Death in Florence'' (commissioned by the London Song Festival) and ''Emily Dickinson: a Song Cycle'', which was awarded the Tracey Chawell Memorial Prize in London. He was also awarded the East-West Competition for ''The Other Boat'', commissioned by the Elektra Ensemble in Amsterdam.

Operas

*''Edward II'': a two-act opera based on

Christopher Marlowe Christopher Marlowe, also known as Kit Marlowe (; baptised 26 February 156430 May 1593), was an English playwright, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. Marlowe is among the most famous of the Elizabethan playwrights. Based upon the ...

's tragedy, written during his PhD at King's College, it was awarded a Special Prize at the Fux International Opera Competition at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in

Graz Graz (; sl, Gradec) is the capital city of the Austrian state of Styria and second-largest city in Austria after Vienna. As of 1 January 2021, it had a population of 331,562 (294,236 of whom had principal-residence status). In 2018, the popul ...

. *'' Il caso Mortara'': a two-act opera based on the true story of

Edgardo Mortara The Mortara case ( it, caso Mortara, links=no) was an Italian ''cause célèbre'' that captured the attention of much of Europe and North America in the 1850s and 1860s. It concerned the Papal States' seizure of a six-year-old boy named Edgardo ...

. It is the first Italian opera commissioned to an Italian composer by a New York opera company since the times of

Giacomo Puccini Giacomo Puccini (Lucca, 22 December 1858Bruxelles, 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he was descended from a long li ...

at the

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is operat ...

. The opera was commissioned and produced by the

Dicapo Opera Dicapo Opera Theatre was co-founded in 1981 by General Director Michael Capasso and Artistic Director Diane Martindale. It suspended operations in 2013. Programming and premieres Dicapo Opera Theatre’s presentations range from traditional re ...

Theatre in New York in 2010. The New York Times critic

Anthony Tommasini Anthony Carl Tommasini (born April 14, 1948) is an American music critic and author who specializes in classical music. Described as "a discerning critic, whose taste, knowledge and judgment have made him a must-read", Tommasini was the chief ...

hailed it as one of the most important events of New York's 2010 operatic season.

References

External links

Francesco Cilluffo's official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cilluffo, Francesco Living people 1979 births Alumni of King's College London Italian male conductors (music) Italian male classical composers Italian classical composers 21st-century classical composers 21st-century Italian conductors (music) Italian opera composers Male opera composers University of Turin alumni Musicians from Turin 21st-century Italian male musicians