NEWS
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NEWS
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Boccacci joins RCS as staff member of the Conducting department
NEWS
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NEWS ·
Boccacci joins the BBC SSO as assistant conductor to Ryan Wigglesworth for the 2025/27 Seasons
Boccacci has been appointed as the Leverhulme Conducting Fellow in partnership with BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Opera and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland for the 2025/27 seasons
Colombian-Italian conductor Stefano Boccacci is a versatile opera, ballet, choral and contemporary music conductor. He has worked with professional orchestras and opera productions in both Europe, USA and Latin America.
He has just been awarded the Leverhulme Conducting Fellowship in partnership with BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Opera and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Boccacci is the assistant to Ryan Wigglesworth and the BBC SSO, he will also accompany the orchestra to its performances at the BBC Proms in London and the Edinburgh International Festival for the 2025/26 and 26/27 seasons.
Upcoming commitments include assistant conductor in Fanciulla del West at Opera Holland Park in 2026. In the Summer of 2025, Boccacci was cover conductor at the Colorado Music Festival (USA) and guest conductor at the Peninsula Music Festival (USA). Previous engagements include the Immling Opera Festival (Germany 2023, 2024), Ballet Cymru (UK 2022, 2023), Buxton International Opera Festival (UK 2022), and the Ensemble Multilatérale (France 2022).
He was the assistant conductor of the Yale Philharmonia at Yale University for the 2023/24 and 24/25 seasons, working with its principal conductor Peter Oundjian, as well as assisting Giancarlo Guerrero, Rune Bergmann, Earl Lee and Rossen Milanov. During his time at Yale he collaborated with composer Joan Tower, soloists such as Augustin Hadelich, went on tour to Carnegie Hall, and led the orchestra in several performances at the renowned Woolsey Hall in Connecticut.
Boccacci conducts and assists opera productions in the UK, Austria, Switzerland, USA, Brazil and Colombia. He has worked with conductors such as Carlo Rizzi, Daniel Spaw, Daniela Candillari, Roberto Fischer, Cornelia von Kerssenbrock. His repertoire includes Aida (Immling Festival, 2024), Die Dreigroschenoper (Immling Festival, 2024), Seven Deadly Sins (Yale Opera 2024), The Rake's Progress (Yale Opera, 2023), María de Buenos Aires (Immling Festival, 2023), Mahagonny Ein Songspiel (Musik-Akademie Basel, 2023), Così fan tutte (Cardiff Opera, 2022), Turn of the Screw (Royal Welsh College of Music, 2021), Dido & Aeneas (Royal Welsh College of Music, 2020), Suor Angelica (Royal Welsh College of Music, 2019), La Bohème, La Traviata, Rigoletto (Vienna Opera Academy, 2019), Carmen (FEMUSC, 2016) among others. He works as a vocal and language coach in Italian, French, German, English and Spanish.
He is a visiting teacher at the University of Oxford, a visiting artist and orchestral tutor at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and from 2023/25 he worked as a conducting teacher and orchestral tutor at Yale University’s Music in Schools Initiative, collaborating with New Haven’s public schools in Connecticut.
Boccacci has trained with Jac van Steen, Carlo Rizzi, Sebastian Lang-Lessing, John Fisher, Patrick Fournillier, Johannes Wildner and Toby Purser. He studied at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama under the mentorship of David Jones, and was awarded the Gemma Sharp Memorial Award for giving the greatest contribution to the institution during his studies.
He is a currently completing his PhD at the Université de Strasbourg with Theodor Guschlbauer and Jean-Philippe Wurtz, his research focuses on programming and production of 20th century’s chamber operas by Xenakis, Weill and Piazzolla.
A versatile musician, Boccacci has been the conductor and creative producer of hybrid productions with the Welsh Ballet and the Contemporary Dance Programme of the University of South Wales, developing cross-discipline projects with orchestra, choir, dancers, actors, stage and costume design. He has created several projects and ensembles, including the award-winning Orquesta de Cámara Tutta Forza (Colombia, 2016) and he was the conductor of the Nashville Big Band (Colombia 2015), recording for TigoMusic that same year. In 2018, he won the Bob Harding Bursary for Young Conductors, becoming the assistant conductor of the Havant Symphony Orchestra for the 2018/19 season.
Following his interest in access to opera he became the Programming and Project supervisor of the National Student Opera Society UK in 2020, developing a free online platform of events for students and young artists with leading figures of the opera world. In 2018, alongside animateur/educator Tom Redmond and the RWCMD Symphony Orchestra, he toured around Wales performing for 3000 children. He is an avid music educator, thoroughly investing in social projects through culture, fomenting audience participation and educational concerts. He has developed workshops for schools as well as family concerts in Colombia, UK and USA, creating activities for children and approaching classical music through storytelling, dance and singing.