Bio

Stefano Nigro graduated with highest honours in piano in 2013 at the “Giuseppe Verdi” Conservatory of Como. He began studying conducting with Damian Iorio, then continued his training at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste in Zurich under the guidance of Christof Brunner from 2016 to 2017. He honed his skills by participating in several masterclasses in Europe, under the guidance of internationally renowned conductors such as Johannes Schlaefli, Colin Metters, and Sian Edwards.

In September 2014, he won the prize for best student at the “Florence Conducting Masterclass”, debuting as conductor at the age of 23 with Orchestra da Camera Fiorentina. In 2015, he conducted again with the same orchestra, accompanying world-renowned trumpet player Gabriele Cassone, and in the same year he made his debut in the “Toscana Classica” season.

In 2014, he worked as assistant in a production by Orchestra da Camera Fiorentina with Andreas Blau, principal flute of the Berliner Philharmoniker. In November 2015, he participated in a production of Jules Massenet’s Werther as Christopher Franklin’s assistant at Teatro Giuseppe Verdi in Trieste. In March of the following year, he was Damian Iorio’s assistant at the State Opera and Ballet Theatre in Krasnoyarsk for the production of Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly.

In May 2017, he participated in the “55th International Besançon Competition for Young Conductors”, where he was one of 20 finalists chosen out of 450 young conductors from all over the world.

In November 2018, he founded Orchestra Settembre Classico, which he conducted until 2023 in over thirty concerts held in Sala Bianca of the Teatro Sociale in Como, Teatro Giuditta Pasta in Saronno, Villa Erba in Cernobbio, Teatro Antonio Belloni in Barlassina and the Auditorium in San Fermo della Battaglia. In this period, he explored the classical repertoire, performing many symphonies and piano concertos by Franz Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven. In 2021, he conducted a programme celebrating the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, which included the Coriolan Overture, the Fourth Concerto for Piano and Orchestra and the Seventh Symphony, achieving considerable public success.Thanks to his collaboration with the “Giuditta Pasta” Opera Association based in Saronno, he conducts several opera galas and selections from Italian and French opera repertoires. Between 2022 and 2023, his concert activity continued with programmes dedicated to Antonio Vivaldi and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach.

In July 2023, he made his debut at the “Ticino Musica” Festival, conducting Il matrimonio segreto by Domenico Cimarosa, directed by Daniele Piscopo, performing at the LAC in Lugano and in different cities in Ticino. In December of the same year, he conducted Gaetano Donizetti’s Don Pasquale at the “Teatrino di Corte” of the Villa Reale in Monza, having previously directed the production for the Opera Studio “Sequenda” in Luxembourg in September.

In February 2024, he made his debut with Orchestra Sinfonica della Magna Grecia conducting Luca Poletti’s musical fairy tale Peter Pan, with Giampiero Mancini as narrator. In April, he conducted an opera gala at the Teatro Duse in Besozzo, accompanying internationally renowned singers such as Gustavo Castillo, Brayan Avila Martinez, Albertina Del Bo and Erica Cortese. In May 2024, he made his debut in Japan thanks to an invitation from the Kumamoto City Opera with Georges Bizet’s Carmen. He was then invited back to the “Ticino Musica” Festival to conduct Donizetti’s Rita in July and Puccini’s Suor Angelica in August at the conclusion of the Limone Piemonte OperaStudio. In October 2024, he conducted the Symphony Orchestra of the “Conservatoire de musique du Grand Autonois Morvan” in a concert at the municipal theatre in Autun (FR), taking part in a European project aimed at rediscovering the music of Italian composers active at the Napoleonic court in Italy, funded by the European programme Culture Moves Europe.

In 2025, at Salone Estense in Varese, he conducted Orchestra da Camera di Breganzona, accompanying Danilo Rossi, former principal viola of La Scala, as soloist; he subsequently repeated the same programme accompanying Vittorio Benaglia as soloist. In the spring of 2025, he began his collaboration with “On the Bridge” Cello Ensemble, conducting a programme of sacred music by 20th-century composers at the Basilica of San Fedele in Como, continuing in September with a concert at the Church of Sant’Agostino in Como. In May of the same year, he conducted Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata at Teatro Giuditta Pasta in Saronno and then Mozart’s Don Giovanni in Milan, in a production by VoceAllOpera directed by Gianmaria Aliverta. In July 2025, he returned to the Ticino Musica Festival to conduct Donizetti’s Il Campanello, and between August and September he conducted Puccini’s Turandot at Opera in Piazza in Bra and the Castello Sforzesco in Galliate, directed by Elena D’Angelo. In October 2025, he made his debut in Santiago, Chile, invited by the Fundación Faem, conducting Don Pasquale. For 2026, he is already scheduled to conduct Puccini’s La bohème, Maurice Ravel’s L’Heure espagnole and new symphonic programmes.

Stefano is also very active as a composer. After presenting his original transcription for string orchestra of Fryderyk Chopin’s Concerto in E minor for piano and orchestra, Op. 11, with Orchestra Settembre Classico, he gave a concert in November 2023 at Pinacoteca di Brera in which he presented his cycle of six lieder for mezzo-soprano and orchestra based on poems by Luis Garcia Montero, taken from the collection Un año y tres meses. In the concert held in Autun (FR) in October 2023, he performed his duet for soprano, tenor and orchestra based on verses from Il Cinque Maggio by Alessandro Manzoni. In 2025, he performed his composition for viola and orchestra Guerrondò at Salone Estense in Varese, with the world premiere by Danilo Rossi, and his composition for soprano and eight cellos Ascoltate! based on a text by Mayakovsky, with Dafne Colombo and “On the Bridge” Cello Ensemble, at the Church of Sant’Agostino in Como. In 2026, he received a commission from FORM (Fondazione Orchestra Regionale delle Marche), which will be performed in March 2026 in four theatres in the Marche region by the Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana. In the same month, a new world premiere with Danilo Rossi is planned, which will be presented at Salone Estense in Varese together with his transcription for viola and orchestra of Schubert’s Arpeggione Sonata.

Since May 2023, he has been regularly invited as a member of the international jury of the Giuditta Pasta International Opera Competition in Saronno, and in 2026 he will conduct the final.

Committed to promoting music education around the world, he has given concert lectures in Italy, France and Chile, setting up listening guide projects with municipalities, schools and theatres aimed at expanding the community of classical music lovers. In 2021, during the pandemic, he created the podcast “Un mese con Beethoven”, a direct link with listeners to rediscover the most important aspects of the life and work of the great composer from Bonn.