Born in Lecce, Eliseo Castrignanò studied conducting under the guidance of Fabrizio DORSI, Piero BELLUGI, Bruno APREA and Nicola SAMALE. He took specialized courses at the foundation I Pomeriggi Musicali in Milan, master classes at the Scuola di musica di Fiesole, and continued his education at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen in courses led by Markus LEHTINEN and Jorma PANULA. He received his Master's Degree in Orchestral Conducting at the Umberto Giordano Conservatory of Foggia with Donato RENZETTI, Bruno BARTOLETTI, Lu JIA, Lior SHAMBADAL, who unanimously awarded him a scholarship for being best of class.

 

Eliseo’s conducting debut was hailed by critics as one of the most promising of the new Italian music scene. The musicologist Alessandro Macchia said (He is a) “…refined musician and indefatigable chaser of sound, able to consider the current tradition while passionately proposing new repetoire."

 

The repertoire ranges from Benjamin Britten to Manuel de Falla, from Johann Sebastian Bach to Michael Nyman (Eliseo conducted the Italian premiere Nyman’s Symphony no. 2). Furthermore, he conducted the Soloists of Accademia del Teatro alla Scala, the Choir and Orchestra of the Bergamo Musica Festival for the 214th anniversary of the birth of Gaetano Donizetti, and recently debuted at Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari with a special concert dedicated to the composer Silvestro Sasso on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his birth.

As guest conductor, he has worked with Orchestra del Teatro Lirico in Cagliari, Orchestra Sinfonica ICO Tito Schipa in Lecce, Orchestra della Provincia di Bari (with whom he performed world premieres of religious compositions by Scardicchio and Maiellari), Orchestra Nuova Cameristica in Milan, Vincenzo Galilei Orchestra of Fiesole, Orchestra della Magna Grecia in Taranto, Florence Symphonietta, Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Copenhagen, Radio Orchestra of Athens, Kapu Calls Orchestra in Helsinki, Bourgas Symphony Orchestra, and Orchestra Giovanile G. B. Sammartini in Lecce.

Roberto Cappello recently invited him to tour with Orchestra del Conservatorio di Parma at Teatro Comunale Luciano Pavarotti in Modena and at Auditorium Sala Verdi in Milan. During the tour, Eliseo conducted a monographic program about George Gershwin, achieving great acclaim from audiences and critics. He recently debuted at Teatro Regio di Parma in occasion of Festival Verdi 2015 succesfully conducting an opera-symphonic concert with the winners of Concorso Internazionale Voci verdiane “Città di Busseto” . He has also conducted several works of Italian operatic repertoire, including Aida (Cluj Orchestra), Pagliacci (Kiev Orchestra) and The Barber of Seville, and a few other opera concerts as part of the 2011 Traditional Opera Season, organized by the Province of Lecce. 

 

The years in which he worked with prestigious opera houses in Italy and abroad were fundamental for Eliseo Castrignanò’s musical training. He has worked as Maestro Sostituto and prompter at Teatro Lirico Sperimentale A. Belli in Spoleto, Teatro Grande in Brescia, Teatro Donizetti in Bergamo. He has worked as Chorus Master and Stage Music Director at Teatro Politeama Greco in Lecce, Sichuan Conservatory of Music in Chengdu (China), Auditori of Barcelona, Bunka Kaikan Theatre in Tokyo, Teatro Arena in Prague and Rossini in Wildbad Festival in Germany.

 

Roberto Cappello, Beatrice Rana, Paata Burchuladze, Salvatore Cordella, Valeria Esposito, Raúl Giménez, Gregory Kunde, Bruno Praticò, Désirée Rancatore, Lorenzo Regazzo, Dimitra Theodossiou are among the artists he has collaborated with.

 

He records for Naxos and is currently Music Director of Festival delle Arti in Salento. 

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