Damian Iorio

Profile: Music Director

“Showing remarkable attention to detail and refinement of taste this charismatic and gifted young conductor captivated the audience.

 

Damian Iorio makes his debut with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra in April 2015. He already conducts orchestras that include the Detroit Symphony, London Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, St Petersburg Philharmonic, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi (“Showing remarkable attention to detail and refinement of taste this charismatic and gifted young conductor captivated the audience.”), Orchestre National de Belgique, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música and Iceland Symphony Orchestra. His recent debuts with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de Belgique, Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano and Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra saw re-invitations to each whilst last season’s debuts with the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León and Noord Nederlands Orkest have also brought re-invitations, as have this season’s debuts with Norrlands Operan (Sweden) and Sofia National Opera. The current season sees returns to the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica Giuseppe Verdi (Milan) and Helikon Opera in Moscow, amongst many other engagements.


Damian Iorio completed violin studies in Britain and the USA before becoming a member of the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra. It was during his time in Copenhagen that he also studied conducting in St Petersburg before being appointed as Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Murmansk where he became the catalyst in the subsequent success and growth of the orchestra in opera and concert. He has a wide range of repertoire which centres on the late romantic and early 20th century then to the earlier classical period and forward to the contemporary with his Italian/Anglo family background and Nordic/Russian periods being a clear, but not exclusive, influence. He also enjoys working with many youth orchestras in Europe and he is Music Director of the National Youth String Orchestra of Great Britain.


Damian Iorio’s opera work has seen him conduct Verdi’s “Macbeth” at Glyndebourne Festival Opera and Smetana’s “The Bartered Bride” at Opera de Paris. He made his US debut with Central City Opera in Colorado with Britten’s “The Rape of Lucretia” which was much admired by the international press. He has appeared at Bonn Opera conducting a production of Puccini’s “Turandot”, conducted for Norwegian Opera several times, and also at many Italian opera houses that include Como (“… the Ango-Italian conductor Damian Iorio, who led a Bohème that was as fascinating and full of colour as a painting by Renoir”), Teatro Regio di Torino, Brescia and Trento. In St Petersburg he conducted Britten’s “The Turn of the Screw” and, in Moscow, the Russian premiere of Michael Nyman’s “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat”, which was nominated for Best Opera Production at the 2004 Golden Mask Festival.

 

Damian Iorio was born in London to a family of Italian and English musicians. In 2006 he received the Knight of the Order of Sant’Agata from the Republic of San Marino in recognition for his services to music there.