Guest conductor Roberto Abbado is currently an “Artistic Partner” with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and is the first to hold that position. He performs regularly with many noted orchestras, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and New York City’s Orchestra of St. Luke’s.
Born into a musical family, Mr. Abbado’s grandfather was a violin teacher, his father was director of the Milan Conservatory, and his uncle is a conductor. He studied with famed conducting teacher Franco Ferrara at Venice's La Fenice and Rome's Academia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, where he was the only student in Accademia history to be invited to conduct the Orchestra di Santa Cecilia.
In his native Italy, Mr. Abbado regularly conducts the Filarmonica della Scala (Milan), Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia (Rome), Orchestra del Maggio Musicale (Florence) and the RAI Orchestra (Turin). Across the rest of Europe, he has worked with the Royal Concertgebouw, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre de Paris, Dresden Staatskapelle, Gewandhaus Orchester (Leipzig), NDR Symphony Orchestra (Hamburg), Vienna Symphony, Swedish Radio Symphony, and Israel Philharmonic Orchestras
Mr. Abbado made his North American concert debut in 1991 with the Orchestra of St Luke's at the Lincoln Center in New York. As an accompanist, he has collaborated with many of today's most respected soloists including violinists Joshua Bell, Sarah Chang, Kennedy, Midori, Vadim Repin, Gil Shaham, and pianists Alfred Brendel, Yefim Bronfman, Lang Lang, Radu Lupu, Andras Schiff, Mitsuko Uchida, Andre Watts, duo pianists Katia & Marielle Labeque, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and others.