Fabio Luisi Receives Premio Belcanto "Rodolfo Celletti"

Luisi accepted the award following his performance of Bellini's "Norma" at the Festival della Valle d'Itria

Italian conductor Fabio Luisi is the 2024 recipient of the Premio Belcanto "Rodolfo Celletti" award, which is administered by the Festival della Valle d'Itria. Founded in 2010 by Alberto Triola, the prize is given in memory of the novelist and musicologist Rodolfo Celletti, who was Artistic Director of the festival from 1980 to 1993.

Luisi received the prize following his performance of Bellini's Norma at the festival on August 2, 2024.

Previous recipients of the Premio Belcanto "Rodolfo Celletti" include Pier Luigi Pizzi, Bruno Campanella, and Grace Bumbry.

The prize is given "for the appreciated artistic merits of a luminous career as concertmaster and conductor, for many years among the elite of international orchestra conductors, who saw his first experiences precisely in the Festival della Valle d’Itria in Martina Franca, in that a hotbed of training in the value and profound meaning of operatic singing and, in particular, of the Italian style of Belcanto, to which Rodolfo Celletti and Alberto Zedda left an indelible and still vital imprint," the foundation wrote.

"The Award recognizes the merits of a person and an artist who stands out not only for his activity as an interpreter, but also for the training of artists, for the richness, sincerity, and coherence of his abilities, placed at the service of music and art."

"Last but not least, we must remember the merit and profound meaning of his long connection with the Valle d’Itria Festival, ‘where I started and where I always want to return’ to use his own words, which fully testifies to the human as well as artistic generosity towards a Utopia such as that of the Festival and its people which has been perpetuated, also thanks to him, for fifty years now."

One of the most respected conductors of our time, Fabio Luisi is presently the Music Director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, and Tokyo's NHK Symphony Orchestra. In the operatic realm, he previously served as Principal Conductor of the Metropolitan Opera and spent nine seasons as General Music Director of the Zurich Opera.