Marcello Cormio

Conductor, Vocal Coach

An Italian-born conductor, opera coach, pianist, and educator with credits across the United States and Europe.

This year Mr. Cormio is returning to Sarasota Opera to conduct Mozart’s Don Giovanni in their 2023 Winter Season. Among his upcoming engagements, he will be guest conducting with the Santa Fe Pro Musica ensemble.

South Florida Classical praised him as "an assured hand in the pit, conducting the score with vitality while leaving the singers room to breathe in their solos" for Così fan tutte at Sarasota Opera's 2016 season. Mr. Cormio’s “notable” conducting debut at the 2014 Sarasota Opera Festival in Il barbiere di Siviglia was praised for a “lovely, light touch with the music”: “the young Italian drew vital and spirited playing, with the fizzing ensemble exciting yet with a fine balancing of solo voices, chorus and orchestra” (The Classical Review).

He has led productions of L’elisir d’amore, Così fan tutte and A Room with a View at the Michigan State University; Street Scene and Hansel and Gretel at the West Virginia University; Le nozze di Figaro, Rita, Il segreto di Susanna, La serva padrona, and Les pecheurs des perles at Sarasota Opera.

As a symphonic conductor, he has appeared with orchestras around the United States and Europe, including the San Antonio Symphony, the Orchestra della Società dei Concerti di Bari, the Orchestra Sinfonica della Città Metropolitana di Bari, and the Bacau Symphony.

Mr. Cormio was Head of the Opera Program at the West Virginia University in 2014-15. He has been on the faculty of the University of Kentucky as Director of the UK Philharmonia for six years. He is currently also the Music Director of the Central Kentucky Youth Orchestras in Lexington, KY. He was the Artistic Director of the Opera Lucca Festival in Lucca, Italy, for three editions.