The only Italian conductor nominated for the 2023 Grammy Awards in Los Angeles for classical music, Enrico Fagone has been defined by the classical music press as one of today’s most promising conductors at the international level and despite his young age “the quality and vastness of his musical experiences (ranging from the Grammy Awards to the Juilliard school in New York) are there to support this statement.”
Music Director and Artistic Director of the Long Island Concert Orchestra in New York, he is regularly invited to conduct orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, the RAI National Symphony Orchestra of Turin, the Milan Symphony Orchestra, the Sicilian Symphony Orchestra, the Marche Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hungarian State Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of Padua and Veneto, the Italian Virtuosi, the Mendelssohn Chamber Orchestra, the Savaria Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Serbian National Theatre, the FOI Opera Orchestra Italian (Festival Verdi, Teatro Regio di Parma).
His debut in January 2019 at the helm of the RAI National Symphony Orchestra with the famous pianist Martha Argerich as a soloist received great acclaim from the public and critics and was broadcast on the National TV RAI5 (currently visible on RaiPlay).
Also active in the operatic field, Maestro Fagone conducted Mozart’sopera “Così Fan Tutte” at the Kammeroper in Munich and in 2019 he was invited to conduct the Gala concert “Fuoco di Goia” at the Verdi Festival in Parma, sharing the stage with singers including M. Pertusi, F. Cedolins, A. Chiuri and V. Stoyanov. In the 2024/25 season, debuts await him on the podiums of important musical venues such as the Teatro Carlo Felice of Genoa, the Teatro Petruzzelli of Bari, the Teatro Lirico of Cagliari, the Orchestra of Italian Switzerland, the Royal Opera Festival of Krakow and Belcanto Opera Festival Bad Wildbad.
After graduating in double bass studies, he dedicated himself to studying orchestral conducting at the “Claudio Abbado” Civic School in Milan and with Daniele Agiman at the Parma Academy for the operatic repertoire. He completed his training with the legendary Mo Jorma Panula in Helsinki , which inspired him to pursue his career. At the same time he deepened his studies in composition with Jorge Bosso and Ivo Antognini.
During his studies he also had the opportunity to learn the technique of the great Russian conducting teacher ll’ja Musin through his students Alim Shack and Semyon Bychkov, whose performances he followed in Spain and the Czech Republic.
Always in search of “the new”, Maestro Fagone collaborates closely with composers creating new works and when proposing the great composers of the past, the Maestro seeks out composers who are rarely performed but whose work is of undisputed value such as Muzio Clementi, Giuseppe Martucci, Aldo Finzi and clearly Giovanni Bottesini, to whose work he is deeply attached given his role as Artistic Director of the Bottesini Competition. It is precisely through the study of Bottesini, the in-depth study of Verdi’s manuscripts and the assiduous attendance of the theaters of Busseto and Parma that he arrived at his orchestral conducting direction.
In the symphonic repertoire, Fagone pays particular attention to the practice of the various classical time periods in an attempt to get closer – whenever possible, to the concept of “historically informed” performance. This is particularly true in the classical and early romantic repertoire with composers such as J. Haydn, W. A. Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms.
He has recorded for the EMI, Deutsche Grammophon, Warner, Stradivarius and Da Vinci record labels and, among the recently released recordings, his latest recording project has received particular attention from music critics. “ASPIRE”, published by Musica Solis, featuring the Maestro leading the London Symphony Orchestra.
About him:
“Enrico Fagone is an extraordinary musician!”
Martha Argerich
”Enrico Fagone owns a natural ability to approach musically everything he conducts. His charismatic personality makes him an interesting conductor.”!
Jorma Panula
“at the baton, Fagone has become highly appreciated as a conductor”.
La Gazzetta di Parma
“What a joy it was to perform with fantastic Fagone! A true artist.”
Vadim Repin
“Fagone is a wonderful musician with big personality and charisma!”
Katia and Marielle Labeque
“On the podium, Enrico Fagone, who in the concert of Liszt let himself be guided by Martha Argerich following any agogic and dynamic request, in the captivating work of De Falla, shows a real narrative awareness in which the choreographic element of the latin score is enhanced without falling in to the easy absorption of the musical language.”
L’Ape Musicale
“The evening ended with two great scores by the Andalusian maestro Manuel de Falla.
The choice of Enrico Fagone to deal with this author is courageous, but certainly it shows his maturity to conduct and wisdom to select a repertoire that can fully exploit the potential of the RAI Symphony Orchestra. The final result proves him right because the performance really enhances all the elements among the instruments in orchestra and brings to the audience the energy of the young conductor, releasing in the cold city of Savoy with twenty minutes of music the bright colors and intense aromas of the heat of a sunny summer afternoon in the Andalusian countryside”
Amadeus