Italy

A conductor and music educator, Marco Berrini is one of the most active choral directors in Italy today. He graduated from the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi in Milan, where he studied piano, conducting, composition and musicology. Currently a professor of choral music at the Conservatorio Antonio Vivaldi in Alessandria, his conducting includes the direction of vocal ensembles and choirs with and without instruments and orchestra. He is the founding Artistic Director of the professional vocal ensemble Ars Cantica Choir & Consort. Since 1988, Ars Cantica has won numerous prizes in both national and international competitions (1st prize at the National and International Arezzo Choral Competition and Grand Prix Guido d’Arezzo, in 2003), and has participated in major national and international festivals. Berrini has worked in major festivals and concert seasons throughout Italy, as well as in Portugal, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Israel and the United Arab Emirates. In 2013, he worked as choirmaster at the Carlo Felice Opera Theatre in Genoa. He also presented workshops at the XVI and XVIII Europa Cantat, for A.DI.CO.RA (Argentine National Association of Choral Directors), for whom he conducted the Co.Na.Jo (National Young Choir, 2008), the XXIII Encuentro Coral (Málaga, Spain) and the Vox Mirabilis workshops (Vélez-Málaga, Spain). Since 2009, he has also been the Artistic Director of the Milan Choral Academy, a unique international training program for choir directors and singers. He edits choral scores for several publishers, including Suvini Zerboni, Carrara, Rugginenti, Discantica, Carisch and BMM. He regularly sits as a jury member for various national and international choir competitions. He conducts professional orchestras with and without choir, in symphonic and choral-symphonic repertoire: with choirs and vocal ensembles, he has been recognized for his outstanding recordings, in early and contemporary music, some of which are first world recordings. From 1989 to 1992 he was Deputy Director of the RAI (Italian National Broadcasting Network) Chamber Choir in Rome, with whom he made recordings for RAI Radio-3. Berrini is also the founding Artistic Director of the Chamber Choir of the Conservatorio Antonio Vivaldi in Alessandria, Italy, and the Artistic Director of Vocalia Consort in Rome, of whom he’s been a guest conductor since 2009.
Since 2014, he has conducted the Gesualdo Consort of Gesualdo, a professional vocal quintet, specialized in early music. From 2009, he is Artistic Director and conductor of the National Choir of CEI (Italian Episcopal Conference).