FRANCESCO DEFRONZO
FRANCESCO DEFRONZO (Italy)
2nd prize (1st not assigned) 2006
Graduated from the Moscow Conservatory as a clarinetist and conductor. He had teachers such as Evgeny Petrov, Kurt Masur and Valery Gergiev, of whom he was assistant. He has won more than 20 international competitions as a clarinetist, including the International Clarinet Competition “Saverio Mercadante” and has performed as a soloist all over the world with orchestras such as the Chamber Orchestra of Munich and Geneva, the Brussels Philharmonic, the Beijing Philharmonic and many others. Winner of the Solti International Conducting Competition in Frankfurt in 2017, he collaborates with orchestras such as the Wiener Symphoniker, Frankfurt Radio Orchestra, DSO Berlin, Nederlands Philharmonic, Tokyo Symphony, Tapiola Sinfonietta, SWR Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra della Toscana, Orchestra Filarmonica del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Orchestra Haydn di Bolzano, Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, RTE Orchestra Dublin, Badische Staatskapelle Karlsruhe and Philharmonie Zuidnederland. As an opera conductor, he has led highly successful productions at the Stuttgart State Opera, the Bregenz Festival and the Teatro Real Madrid. He was the principal conductor of the Rostov Don Symphony Orchestra from 2015 to 2021. In 2021-22 he held the position of principal conductor at the Novaya Opera in Moscow.
