ROBERTO MOLINELLI

PRINCIPAL CONDUCTOR

A versatile and eclectic musician, unanimously appreciated for over twenty years on the national and international scene, Roberto Molinelli is renowned for his ability to create, compose, and realize projects across classical, jazz, pop, and rock, forging a distinctive dialogue between different genres and styles. As conductor, composer, arranger, and violist, he has collaborated with major artists such as José Carreras, Andrea Bocelli, Celine Byrne, Erwin Schrott, Giovanni Sollima, Federico Mondelci, Enrico Dindo, Tony Hadley, Amii Stewart, Mahmood, Arisa, and many others. His works have been performed by leading orchestras and in prestigious venues including Carnegie Hall, the Filarmonica della Scala, Kremerata Baltica, the Arturo Toscanini Symphony Orchestra, the Ravello Festival, the Hermitage Theater in St. Petersburg, the Presidential Symphony Orchestra in Ankara, and the Teatro de las Bellas Artes in Mexico City.

Molinelli’s output includes concertos that have enriched the repertoire of the saxophone, cello, and accordion—among them Four Pictures from New York, Twin Legends, Iconogramma, and Il Bosco della Musica. His orchestration of Paganini’s 24 Caprices for violin and orchestra premiered during the inauguration of Parma Italian Capital of Culture 2020, and his opera Montessoriana has been performed internationally following its original staging for the Maria Montessori Centenary. His cross-disciplinary work spans cinema, theatre, television, and popular music. His arrangements of Andrea Bocelli’s most celebrated hits—including Con te partirò, Romanza, and Canto della Terra—are performed worldwide, and for many years his music was the hallmark of Barilla’s global advertising campaign.

His longstanding relationship with the Sanremo Festival represents another important facet of his career: he arranged and conducted the Festival Orchestra in several editions, received first place from the Festival’s Quality Jury for his arrangement of Biancaneve (Mogol–Lavezzi), and in 2021 arranged and conducted Bianca Luce Nera and Medley Rosamunda for Extraliscio, earning third place in the orchestra vote. He also served for three consecutive years as member and President of the Jury of SanremoLab – Sanremo Song Academy, selecting young artists for Italy’s most iconic music festival.

In recent years he has created major symphonic projects with Extraliscio and curated the orchestral version of Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballé’s Barcelona, performed live in its entirety at the Valley of the Temples. He maintains long-standing collaborations with prominent Italian orchestras and currently serves as Director for Innovation of the G. Rossini Symphony Orchestra of Pesaro, Principal Guest Conductor of the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra in Moscow, and Director for Special Projects of the Abruzzese Symphony Institution.

Born in Ancona, he completed his viola studies with highest honors at the “G. Rossini” Conservatory in Pesaro, pursued advanced training in Geneva with Alberto Lysy, and continued his artistic development with composition studies under Luca Lombardi, Fulvio Delli Pizzi, and Edgar Alandia, as well as conducting studies with Gustav Kuhn.