Aurelio Canonici, orchestra conductor, is a well-known figure in Italy for his three-year run on the popular and successful television program “La Gioia della Musica”, broadcast on the national channel Rai 3. The program was a resounding success, averaging nearly one million viewers each evening. Aurelio Canonici illustrated—including with piano performances and while conducting the RAI National Symphony Orchestra—symphonic and operatic masterpieces from Rossini to Beethoven, from Strauss to Gershwin, from Verdi to Puccini, and many others.
In recent seasons he has performed with the following orchestras and theatres: Arpeggione Kammerorchester, Auditorio National de Musica de Madrid, Budapest Concert Orchestra, Karkhiv Opera, Filarmonia Veneta, Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra, Kiev National Presidential Orchestra, Warsaw National Radio Orchestra, Seoul Orchestra, Sinfonieorchester Wuppertal, Sinfonietta Cracovia, Sofia Philharmonic, Solisti Aquilani, Warsaw Chamber Opera, Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen, Yogyakarta Royal Orchestra (2025, Tribute to Giuseppe Verdi).
Aurelio Canonici in 2016 conducted Mozart’s Coronation Mass at the Vatican (Sala Nervi) receiving the compliments of the Holy Father Pope Francis.
In 2016 Continuo Records released “Between Earth and Heaven”, a CD devoted entirely to the music of Aurelio Canonici performed by a cast of prestigious Italian performers. In 2021 the CD Flowers was released, published by Flipper Music, in 2022 Piano Preludes (Aulicus Classics), and in 2023 True Love (Vol. 1 and 2).
Aurelio Canonici has been Artistic Director of the “Richard Wagner” Symphonic Section of the Ravello Festival. Here he has performed in many editions. In particular, in 2003 he had the honour of conducting the first Symphonic Dawn Concert, a concert which, due to its growing success, he was subsequently invited to repeat for 8 consecutive years: in 2004 and 2005 (with the Krakow Opera Orchestra), in 2006 (with the Verdi Philharmonic of Salerno), in 2007 and 2008 (with Orchestra Nuova Scarlatti of Naples) and in 2009 and 2010 (with Savaria Symphony Orchestra).
He studied Piano and Composition, received a degree in Philosophy, after which he specialised in Orchestral Conducting at the renowned Vienna Academy (Hochschule für Musik). Within a few years he has conducted the Virtuosi di Santa Cecilia, the Pomeriggi Musicali Orchestra, the Orchestra Internazionale d’Italia, the Moldavian Radio-Television Orchestra (in Carlo Felice Opera House), the Symphony Radio Bucharest, the National Opera of Warsaw (La Traviata), the Krakow, Katowice and Szczecin Philharmonic Orchestras and at the Wratislavia Cantans Festival in Wroclaw. He recorded in Warsaw a CD (music by Bellini, Leoncavallo, Tosti, Bixio) with the tenor Ryszard Karczykowski and the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra. He was also guest Conductor at the Krakow Opera (Rigoletto, Un Ballo in Maschera, La Bohème). His new production of Rigoletto has been described by all the national press as one of the best musical performances in recent years.
Aurelio has worked with prestigious soloists such as Giovanni Angeleri, Giovanni Bertolazzi, Gilda Buttà, Michele Campanella, Luca Canonici, Massimiliano Damerini, Duo pianistico Paola Biondi – Debora Brunialti, Filippo Gamba, Giuseppe Gibboni, Francesco Libetta, Eugenij Nesterenko, Ettore Pagano, Francesca Patanè, Paolo Restani, Samuele Telari, Anna Tifu, Guy Touvron, Edoardo Zosi.
Some of his musical compositions were recorded on the CDs Open Dialogues for Emotional Melodies, Orchestral Movements and Amore nascente (Edizioni musicali “Rai Trade”). In 2012 the CD entitled Al sorgere del Sole was released: contemporary sacred music orchestrated by Aurelio Canonici conducting the Budapest Mav Symphony Orchestra.
In 2009 Le Cáriti Editore (Florence) published Aurelio Canonici’s Book “Musica e Sofia – Problematiche filosofiche nell’opera di Richard Wagner” (Music and Sophia – Philosophical Issues in Richard Wagner’s opera). Recent is the publication of “Uno alla volta per carità” (Castelvecchi Editore, Rome, 2016), a book in which Aurelio Canonici analyses the music of the Barbiere di Siviglia by Rossini, and “Ode al Reno” (Zecchini Editore, Varese, 2024, written with Adele Boghetich and Marco Mazzoleni).
He regularly gives lectures on classical music for Institutions and Companies such as: Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Associazione Richard Wagner (Venezia), Centro Russo di Scienza e Cultura (Roma), Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia (Roma), Feltrinelli (Roma, Milano, Torino, Napoli), Ferrara Musica, Fondazione Marco Besso (Roma), IBM, La Repubblica delle Idee (Bologna), Museo Macro (Roma), PiazzAsiago, Price Waterhouse, Ravenna Festival, Ravello Festival, Salone del Mobile (Milano), Teatro Argentina (Roma), Teatro Cucinelli, Teatro Eliseo (Roma), Teatro Salieri (Legnago), Teatro alla Scala (Milano), Teatro Vittoria (Roma), Telecom Italia, Università di Genova, Università di Kharkiv, Università La Sapienza (Roma), Università di Salerno, Verona Festival.
Alongside his concert work, Aurelio Canonici teaches, holding the chair of Orchestral Conducting and Orchestral Training at the Conservatory “Niccolò Paganini” of Genoa.
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