Fabio Sartorelli

Fabio Sartorelli graduated in piano from the Conservatory of Milan, where he also studied composition, completing the intermediate level diploma. He later graduated with highest honours in Music Studies from the University of Bologna, with a thesis on Girolamo Frescobaldi supervised by Loris Azzaroni. For the past 34 years, he has taught Music History at conservatories, first at the Puccini Institute in Gallarate and later at the conservatories of Bari, Vicenza, Como, and Milan. For the past 24 years, he has also taught the course “Guide to Listening” at the Accademia Teatro alla Scala.

As a public speaker and music educator, he has organised lectures devoted mainly to opera, ballet, and symphonic music, both in Italy and abroad. Among the venues where he has given talks are the Ridotto dei Palchi of Teatro alla Scala, Teatro La Fenice, the National Opera Theatre of Bucharest, Teatro Petruzzelli, the Municipal Theatre of Ferrara, Teatro Lauro Rossi in Macerata, Teatro Persiani in Recanati, Teatro Sociale di Como, Teatro Filarmonico di Verona (Fondazione Arena di Verona), LAC Lugano Arte e Cultura, Palazzo Litta in Milan, the Bolzano Opera Festival (in collaboration with the Accademia Teatro alla Scala and the Busoni-Mahler Foundation), Teatro Sferisterio, Teatro Gerolamo in Milan, Teatro Amintore Galli in Rimini, Teatro Grande in Brescia, Ca’ Granda, the Museum of Music in Bologna, Teatro Valli in Reggio Emilia, Teatro Regio di Parma, Teatro Verdi in Pordenone, and many others.

He has collaborated with numerous academic and cultural institutions, including Bocconi University, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, the University of Padua, the Santa Giulia Museum in Brescia, Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, Fondazione Milano per la Scala, the Museo del ’900 in Milan, the Museo Teatrale alla Scala, and the Bracco Foundation. Numerous videos of his talks are available on the Bracco Foundation’s YouTube channel, including two video guides to La Bohème and Il matrimonio segreto. He has also worked with the conservatories of Vicenza, Mantua, Lugano, Como, and Milan, as well as LIUC University, SDA Bocconi, OperaEducation-AsLiCo, the Ticino Musica Festival, AGIS (Italian General Association for the Performing Arts), Bologna Festival, the Digital360 Awards, BAM – Biblioteca degli Alberi Milano, and companies of various sizes, often through live-streamed events across Europe.

In the field of instrumental music, he has given lectures for the Società del Quartetto di Milano, the Auditorium Toscanini in Parma, and the Mantua Chamber Music Festival, as well as lecture-concerts with live musical examples together with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano “G. Verdi” and the European Union Youth Orchestra. He has also collaborated with the Orchestra “Senza Spine” of Bologna in projects aimed at bringing music to suburban communities.

He has inaugurated numerous editions of “Prima Diffusa” and given talks at the Sala della Balla of the Castello Sforzesco, the MUDEC Museum, the Brera Academy, and the Sala Verdi of the Milan Conservatory. He recorded ten podcasts on the dissemination of opera in the twentieth century for the “Accademia Silver Collection” project and, in 2024, three videos on the music of Giacomo Puccini for Milan’s Piccolo Teatro di Milano in connection with the production Puccini, Puccini, che cosa vuoi da me? by Toni Servillo.

For the first ten years of the Accademia Teatro alla Scala, he edited the texts of a commemorative volume published by Mondadori and, between 2012 and 2013, two catalogues on the costumes of Puccini and Verdi operas for the Bracco Foundation. He contributed to the volume Giorgio Strehler, un uomo per Milano, un teatro per l’Europa (2014) and, in 2022, edited 20 anni di Accademia, 200 di storia for the twentieth anniversary of the Fondazione Accademia Teatro alla Scala. In 2021, he wrote a chapter on the history of the Conservatory for the volume Il Conservatorio di Milano published by Rubbettino Editore. He also contributed to an essay published in the catalogue of the exhibition Puccini Manifesto(Dario Cimorelli Editore), promoted by the Municipality of Lucca for the centenary of Puccini’s death. He collaborates with the Library of the Milan Conservatory on documentary exhibitions, occasionally exhibiting materials from his private collection (Tosca, Macbeth, Don Carlos, La forza del destino, Boris Godunov, Cantata Patria). For the past 25 years, he has directed a concert season in Varese at the Salone Estense and the Basilica di San Vittore, and he is currently serving his second term as Vice President of the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano.