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Italy’s RAI National Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI) has announced the appointment of Michele Mariotti as its next chief conductor. His term will run for three years starting with the 2026/2027 season.

Mariotti succeeds Andrés Orozco-Estrada, who is stepping down after completing his three-year term, becoming the orchestra’s first Italian chief conductor.

The RAI National Symphony Orchestra is part of Italy’s public broadcaster RAI. It was formed in 1994 by merging orchestras based in Rome, Milan, Turin, and Naples, and is now based in Turin.

Mariootti, 46, was born in Urbino near Pesaro, Italy. He studied composition at the Rossini Conservatory in Pesaro and made his opera conducting debut in 2005 at the Verdi Theatre in Salerno with Rossini’s 《The Barber of Seville》.

From 2008 to 2018, he served as Music Director of the Teatro dell’Opera di Bologna, and since 2022, he has been Music Director of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma. His contract was recently renewed, extending his tenure through the end of the 2029/2030 season. His wife is Russian soprano Olga Peretyatko.

RAI National Symphony Orchestra debut came in 2011, conducting the concert commemorating the 150th anniversary of Italian unification in Reggio Emilia. He has been a guest conductor annually since then.

In 2024, he led the orchestra in a new production of 《Ermione》 at the Rossini Opera Festival, winning the Italian Music Critics Association’s Best Performance of the Year award that same year.


PHOTO：Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI


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