In a long and distinguished career, Piero Bellugi has conducted leading orchestras in many concerts, with appearances in Paris, Berlin, Budapest, Tel Aviv, Prague, Madrid, Lisbon, Riga, North and South America, South Africa, Russia and Cuba, and at festivals in Ottawa, Paris, Aix-en-Provence, Bregenz, Prague, and the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, as well as all the principal Italian theatres and many of the most important opera houses of Europe and America, collaborating with many of the leading soloists of our time. His vast operatic repertoire ranges from Monteverdi to Mozart, Schoenberg and Penderecki. He has conducted many first performances of new compositions by contemporary composers. At the same time he has given international masterclasses for young conductors and been active in the formation of youth orchestras in Italy and in the United States. Born in Florence, Piero Bellugi studied violin and viola at the conservatory there. He was a composition pupil of Luigi Dallapiccola and studied conducting with Igor Markevitch, furthering his studies under Rafael Kubelík in Chicago and Leonard Bernstein at Tanglewood. He has been nominated Academician of the Fondazione Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.