Valentina Peleggi, who in February conducted ‘La Boheme‘ at the English National Opera, is not the only great Italian woman conductor on the international music scene. Beatrice Venezi, born in Lucca, the hometown of Giacomo Puccini, in 1990, is another gifted Italian conductor who’s skills are appreciated all over the world. She performed in Sofia, Georgia, Barcelona, Naples, and more recently at the Suntory Hall in Tokyo.
Venezi started studying piano when she was 7, and, as she puts it, she “grew up on bread and Puccini.” Many years later, she started studying composition under the guidance and mentorship of Maestro Gaetano Giani Luporini, who challenged and encouraged Beatrice to follow her heart and to satisfy what she identifies as her “inner necessity”: conduct.
She debuted in 2012 in her hometown with the Lucca Philharmonic orchestra and immediately began her international career directing the Sofia Philharmonic, the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra, the Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra, the Ukrainian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Classical Orchestra of Madeira.
Venezi also continued to perform with several important Italian orchestras such as the Orchestra I Pomeriggi Musicali in Milan, and the Orchestra della Toscana. Over the years, she has worked for many renowned theatres and festivals, including the Bolshoi Theatre in Minsk, the State Opera House of Georgia, New European Festival of Stuttgart, the Bellagio and Lake Como Festival, and the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.
In 2014, Venezi performed for the first time with the Neapolitan Nuova Orchestra Scarlatti and, two years later, she was appointed Principal Conductor of the “Orchestra Scarlatti Young”, and began using technology and new media to create a fresh way for the orchestra to interact with young people. The same year she also debuted at the Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago with Ferruccio Busoni’s opera, ‘Turandot’ to be appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Puccini Festival the following year.
Photos are frames from YouTube