Antonio Pappano

Sir Antonio Pappano is Music Director of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden since 2002, and chief conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra since 2024. He is music director emeritus of the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, having served as music director from 2005 to 2023. As a guest conductor, he is in high demand with the world’s finest orchestras. Both as a conductor and a pianist, Pappano has released a steady stream of CD and DVD recordings and has hosted programmes for the BBC, his introductions to Italian opera and Wagner’s Ring cycle deserving special mention.

Antonio Pappano was born to Italian parents in London in 1959. At the age of thirteen, he moved to the United States with his family, where he studied piano, composition and conducting. Through his work as a repetitor and assistant conductor at several opera houses, Pappano quickly developed into a gifted opera conductor. He has led productions at the New York City Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago and Bayreuth. His first permanent appointment as an opera conductor was with the Oslo Opera, followed by La Monnaie in Brussels.

Pappano first conducted the Concertgebouworkest in 2004 and has returned regularly since. One of the memorable performances he did with the orchestra was the 2013 Prinsengracht Canal Concert, performed live on national television. In May 2019 Pappano conducted the orchestra in Berlioz’ Grand messe des morts. The most recent collaboration took place in January 2025, when he conducted works by Heggie and Berlioz.