The Kapellmeister

Michele Manganelli, the current Kapellmeister of the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore's Cappella Musicale, was appointed by the Opera's Board of Directors.

Michele Manganelli

A native of Siena, Manganelli studied under Cardinal Domenico Bartolucci (Kapellmeister in the 1950s). After graduating from school, he enrolled at the Istituto Musicale Rinaldo Franciin Siena, gaining a diploma in piano under Professoressa Annamaria Mari in 1992.

A crucial role in shaping his musical education was played by the Pontifical Institute for Sacred Music in Rome, where he obtained a diploma in Gregorian chant with Professor Giacomo Baroffio, a master's degree as first organist with Maestro Giancarlo Parodi, and a master's degree in choir conducting and sacred composition with Maestros Walter Marzilli, Italo Bianchiand, above all, DomenicoBartolucci.

He graduated in composition with Maestro Riccardo Riccardi and in orchestra conducting with Maestro Alessandro Pinzauti at the Conservatorio di Musica Luigi Cherubini in Florence in July 2004. And finally, he was awarded a second level academic diploma summa cum laude in orchestra conducting at the same conservatory on 17 May 2007. He has held the chair in choral practice at the Istituto Musicale Rinaldo Franci in Siena since 1999, and was later assigned also the chair of orchestral practice.

He is the director of the Segretariato Compositori della Associazione Italiana Santa Cecilia and an active member of the Consociatio Internationalis Musicae Sacrae.

He has conducted numerous choirs and groups that have frequently come together in the Corale "Cantica Nova" project, in the context of which he has also produced a considerable number of compositions for choir and orchestra.

He was appointed to the post of lecturer in Composition (Harmony, Counterpoint and Fugue) at the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music in Rome in the academic year 2008–9. In 1995 he was named titular organist to the cathedral of Fiesole and has since gone on to become its kappelmeister.

As well as being a composer, organist and conductor with well over four hundred concerts to his name both in Italy and abroad, he also devotes his time and energy to the study of early sacred music.

He is an enthusiastic collector of old music books and his private library currently houses over 10,000 volumes.

He has performed a vast number of symphonies both with the Orchestra Stabile "Rinaldo Franci" Città di Siena, in his capacity as its chief conductor, and with several other orchestras.