About the Conductor

Mº Gioacchino Longobardi

Conductor, pianist

Mº Gioacchino Longobardi is currently President and Artistic Director of Neapolitan Music Society, a nonprofit organization for the studies, research, preservation and performance of the Eighteenth Century Neapolitan School of Music.

Mº Longobardi begins studying music at the age of six under the guidance of his father. In 1976, after he has completed piano training with Professoressa Tita Parisi, he graduates from the Conservatory of Music San Pietro a Majella di Napoli.

It was during this time at the Conservatory that he was first exposed to the highly remarkable but lost and forgotten Neapolitan music of the Eighteenth Century.

His interest in these little known composers and largely unheard music, set Mº Longobardi on the first steps of what has since become his lifelong love for an extraordinary area of musical study.

In the following years he graduated in Choral Music, Choir Conducting and Composition, under the guidance of Mº Carmine Pagliuca, Mº Aladino Di Martino, and Mº Ugo Rápalo with whom he also studied Musica Sacra, Opera and Orchestrazione.

In 1980, after completion of studies at the Conservatory of Music, Mº Longobardi expanded his knowledge through a rigorous program at the Musikhochschule Mozarteum in Salzburg, under the supervision of Herbert von Karajan, Kurt Prestel and Bernhard Konz.

In 1982, M° Longobardi was invited to Switzerland as guest-conductor of Orchesterverein Brugg-Aargau, and during the Luzerner Musikfest-Wochen, he takes another step towards a high professional accomplishment under the guidance of Rafael Kubelik.

In 1983, he returns to Naples and takes the position as permanent conductor of Orchestra Nuovo Concerto Strumentale.

In 1987, he wins Axel Munthe San Michele Prize, instituted by the Swedish Government, and in the following years, at the invitation of the Swedish Ministry of Culture and Education, carries out an intense activity as piano soloist and conductor throughout Sweden.

He returns to Switzerland under the patronage of Orchesterverein Brugg-Aargau, and in 1990 is invited to Germany for performances as pianist.

In 1996, Mº Longobardi is invited to Sofia, Bulgaria as guest-conductor of the prestigious Sofia Festival Orchestra and the following year he is appointed principal guest-conductor of the Orchestra.

In 1998, he conducts Sofia Festival Orchestra, in the first edition of Festival Internacional de Musica & Artes, Grandes Interpretes, in Palma de Mallorca.

In 1999, on the occasion of the first edition of Festival Internazionale del ‘700 Musicale Napoletano, Naples, the Associazione Domenico Scarlatti, invites Mº Longobardi to conduct Messa Solenne per Soli, Coro e Orchestra by Niccolò Jommelli, with the Chamber Orchestra of Naples.

In July 2001, during the XIX Rassegna Internazionale delle Orchestre in Mercogliano, (International Festival of Orchestras) Italia, Mº Longobardi conducts the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra with the participation of the legendary pianist Aldo Ciccolini.

In December 2002, he is invited to Japan to conduct Symphony No. 9 of Ludwig van Beethoven with Kasugai Symphony Orchestra and Choir, on the occasion of a decennial dedicated to the great German composer.

In April 2004, he recorded Messa Solenne in Re Maggiore by Niccolò Jommelli, at Bulgaria Hall, Sofia, with Sofia Festival Orchestra and Vassil Arnaudov Festival Choir.

In August 2006, he is invited to Italy by the soloists of Neapolitan Chamber Orchestra for the premiere performance of works by the Neapolitan masters Leonardo Leo and Nicola Fiorenza. The following year he returns to Italy for a series of concerts dedicated to the commemoration of 250 years from the death of Domenico Scarlatti.

In April 2008, he conducts the newly founded Neapolitan Symphony Orchestra in the presence of The Honorable Mario Cuomo former Governor of New York State and Mrs. Matilda Raffa Cuomo, a ground breaking world premiere concert, co-presented by the Skirball Center for the Performing Arts and Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, at New York University.

Mº Gioacchino Longobardi is a resident of Albany, NY, where he continues his endeavor as conductor, pianist and President of the nonprofit organization Neapolitan Music Society, and devotes his utmost efforts in pursuit of further studying and revealing the works of the Neapolitan School Masters of the Eighteenth Century.