Debut at Luzerner Sinfonieorchester on June 21st 2024
Francesco Cagnasso has been assistant conductor with Maestro Michael Sanderling’s Luzerner Sinfonieorchester since January 2024. He has also held the same position since the 2022/23 season with the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, under its chief conductor Micheal Francis. In 2021-2023 he was a scholarship holder at the Forum dirigieren (German Conductors’ Forum) and in 2022 a finalist at the Kritisches Orchester Berlin.
He has been invited to take part in the Malko Competition For Young Conductors 2024 in Copenhagen, where he will conduct the Danish National Symphony Orchestra. Born in Italian-speaking Switzerland, the conductor successfully completed his bachelor’s degree in orchestral conducting at the Hamburg University of Music and Performing Arts in 2021 under Prof. Ulrich Windfuhr. Since then he has lived in Zurich, where he has been studying in the renowned class of Prof. Johannes Schlaefli and Prof. Christoph Mathias Mueller for a Master’s degree in orchestral conducting at the Zurich University of the Arts since 2021.
Francesco Cagnasso has taken part in numerous masterclasses and has received valuable input from renowned conductors such as Daniele Gatti, Tomas Netopil, Johannes Schlaefli, Nicolás Pasquet, Pavel Baleff and Ole Kristian Ruud.
He has assisted conductors such as François Xavier Roth with the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne (2022 – Momentum: our future, now), Kent Nagano with the symphony orchestra of the HfMT and, for the 2016/17 season, Nicolas Fink and Philippe Savoy with the Swiss Youth Choir. Francesco Cagnasso gained operatic experience on various stages and through productions, such as two chamber operas by Leoš Janáček: “Zweimal Alexander” and “Messertränen” in 2022. He then conducted the operetta “Im weissen Rössl” at the Fricktaler Bühne (Basel). He also conducted productions of “Der Zigeunerbaron” in 2023 and “Die Herzogin von Chicago” in 2024 at Stadttheater Sursee (CH).
In the course of his career, he has gained experience with various European orchestras, including the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, the Mecklenburgische Staatskapelle Schwerin, the Symphoniker Hamburg, the Göttinger Sinfonieorchester, the Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie Konstanz, the Hradec Králové Symphony Orchestra (CZ), the Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra (GR), the Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic Orchestra Zlin (CZ), the Baden-Baden Philharmonic Orchestra, the Regensburg Philharmonic Orchestra and the Rousse Philharmonic Orchestra (BG).
