Massimo Carpegna, the triumphant victor of the inaugural 2023 edition, kindly provided us with a charming photo capturing the moment he received this prestigious honor.
MASSIMO CARPEGNA
After concluding the Scientific Lyceum studies with the highest score, he graduated in Choral Music and Conducting at Antonio Vivaldi Conservatoire (Alessandria, Italy), and he specialized in Orchestra Conducting (Accademia Musicale Chigiana, Siena; Verona Arena; Accademia Ottorino Respighi, Rome) with Maestro Franco Ferrara, who was teacher of Riccardo Muti, Riccardo Chailly, Gianluigi Gelmetti and some of the most prestigious Italian and European orchestra conductors.
For the Alpine Ski World Championship opening ceremony, Bormio 2005, he composed the lyrical- symphonic official anthem "It's Time to Celebrate", transmitted worldwide; for the Italian Winter Sports Federation (FISI) he composed the official anthem "Honour and Glory", presented at Herbert Von Karajan Theatre in St. Moritz. Carpegna also composed the anthem "The Five Rings" for the celebration of the Italian athletes during the Olympic Games in Turin, 2006, transmitted by RaiSatSport, as well as scores for commemorative celebrations.
He taught Chamber Music and Orchestral Practice at Dall'Abaco music Conservatoire Verona, and since 1984 he's been teaching Choral Practice, Orchestral Practice, Orchestra Conducting, Choral Composition and Conducting laboratory, Music and Moving Image (Masterclass), Stanislavskij Method for Opera Singers (for the students of Masterclass in vocal interpretation – Raina Kabaivanska) at Orazio Vecchi-Antonio Tonelli music Conservatoire in Modena. After his retire in October 2021, he is teaching as Visiting Professor at London Performing Academy of Music.
He worked as Choir Conductor in some operas: La bohème (Giacomo Puccini) with Luciano Pavarotti, Tosca (Giacomo Puccini) with Raina Kabaivanska, Boris Godunov (Modest Mussorgsky), Otello (Giuseppe Verdi) with Nicola Martinucci, The Canterville Ghost by Claudio Scannavini and he was concertmaster and conductor for The Little Sweep by Benjamin Britten.
In January 2015 he was in the concert in honor of Karl Jenkins at Carnegie Hall in New York City as conductor of the choir, and Distinguished Concerts International New York invited Carpegna on April 3, 2016 at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (Avery Fisher Hall) for the world premiere of his cantata Speculum Magiae for baritone, choir and orchestra conducted by Jonathan Griffith. In November 2021 the Pavarotti-Freni Theater of Modena presented his symphonic piece Hymn to the fallen for Freedom in world premiere.
Active as a conference speaker, especially on Giacomo Puccini’s theatre (Manon Lescaut, Bohème,Tosca, Butterfly, Turandot, Aida (Giuseppe Verdi), Carmen (Georges Bizet) with the cooperation of the Raina Kabaivanska’s opera students masterclass, published on DVDs) he also organised the tutorial with Mirella Freni, The Puccinian Heroines (1994), and for the twenty-fifth anniversary of Luciano Pavarotti in theatres he collaborated in the documentary Luciano Pavarotti and the Italian Tenor (1989), produced by the New York Center of Visual History and South Carolina Educational Television. In 1986 Carpegna conducted the Choir of the Conservatoire Vecchi Tonelli in a Christmas concert with Luciano Pavarotti at the Cathedral of Modena.
Carpegna wrote the manual To Make a Choir (Dino Audino ed., Rome, 2006) and Commercial, a 30 Seconds Long Film (Franco Angeli ed., Milan, 2008) both currently in use as university texts. In 2010 he published his first narrative book, the conspiracy thriller Allah's fire (Spring, Caserta), in 2012 the crime story There, she will fall in flight (Firenze Libri, Florence), in 2017 Praesagium, in 2018 Il fuoco e la tempesta and Procedura Butterfly – Il metodo Stanislavskij e il teatro dell’opera, in 2020 Opere e Grandi Musicisti in Pillole, in 2021 Pillole di Musica (GDS Publisher).
In 2023 he won the third edition of the Swiss International Composition — Lugano, the Bach International Music Competition, the Elizabeth International Music Competition, the United Kingdom International Music Competition and the World Classical Music Awards in London.