The Amherst College Orchestra Online: Lanfranco Marcelletti

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Lanfranco Marcelletti (director emeritus)

The Brazilian conductor and pianist Lanfranco Marcelletti was brought to the United States by the late Maestro Eleazar de Carvalho to study on a full scholarship at the Yale University School of Music.

Currently, Mr.Marcelletti is the Conductor and Director of Instrumental Music at Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts, and the principal conductor of the Cumberland Valley Chamber Players, Pennsylvania.

First prizewinner of the 1998 Selection of Latin-American Conductors in Santiago, Chile, Mr. Marcelletti made his debut with the Chilean National Orchestra last November. Future engagements include two concerts in Mendoza, Argentina (March 1999) and two in Brazil. In 1996, the São Paulo Association of Critics of Art awarded him the prize Debut Artist Conductor of the Year, after his debut with the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra in the fall that year.

In the summer of 1998, Mr. Marcelletti worked at the Glimmerglass Opera, Cooperstown, NY, as assistant conductor and coach pianist for the Maestro Stewart Robertson. This summer, he will return to Cooperstown as assistant conductor for Maestros George Manaham and Stewart Robertson.

For three consecutive years (1995-1997), Mr. Marcelletti was the music director and principal conductor of the Greater Waterbury Youth Symphony in Waterbury, Connecticut, and also conducted and taught at the Itu Arts Summer Festival, Brazil, where he served as musical coordinator and Maestro de Carvalho's assistant. For two summers (1996, 1997), he was the guest conductor of the Garret Lakes Arts Festival Orchestra in Maryland, having the renowned violinist Erik Friedman as his soloist both times.

Since he has been in the United States, Mr. Marcelletti served as assistant conductor of the Norwalk Symphony Orchestra (1996/97) and Yale Symphony Orchestra (1995/96); he has also served as the accompanist and assistant conductor of the New Haven Chorale. He has often conducted the Yale Philharmonia Orchestra and appeared as conductor and pianist in the New Music New Haven concert series. In the spring of 1997 he was also invited by the Yale School of Drama to be the Music Director of Kurt Weils' musical, Happy End. Among the other soloists with whom he has appeared are violist Nobuko Imai and bassoonist Frank Morelli. He has often been invited by the Maestro Gustav Meier to serve as cover conductor for the Greater Bridgeport Symphony Orchestra. In August of 1997, he also conducted the Northeast Philharmonic in Brazil.

Mr. Marcelletti has participated in master classes led by Leopold Haager, Znedek Macal, Peter Oundjian, Glen Cortese and Kurt Masur. In the spring of 1996, he was one of the ten conductors invited to participate in the Manhattan School of Music Conductor's Workshop, New York, led by Maestros Kurt Masur, Glen Cortese, Julius Rudel and Sixten Ehrling.

Mr. Marcelletti received from the Yale School of Music a Master of Music degree in May 1996 and an Artist Diploma in May 1997. At Yale, he has studied under Lawrence Leighton Smith, to whom he served as assistant, Günther Herbig and Eleazar de Carvalho and has received many honors for his work. In 1997, Mr. Marcelletti was the first student to be honored with the Eleazar de Carvalho Prize. In 1996, he was awarded the Irving S. Gilmore and Lucy G. Moses Fellowships as well as the Dean's Prize for being an outstanding student in the graduating class. In 1995 he received the Charles Ives Scholarship.

Mr. Marcelletti began his musical education on the piano in his hometown of Recife, Brazil, with teachers Maria Auxiliadora de Melo and Dolores Portella. After graduating from the Conservatório Pernambucano de Música in 1982, he moved to Vienna, Austria to study piano with Professor Maria Regina Seidlhofer and composition with Professor Thomas David at the Musik Hochschule. He concluded his piano studies with Professor Jürg von Vintscheger at the Zürich Academy in Switzerland. In 1989, he was von Vintschger's assistant at the Corsi Internazionale di Norcia.

As a pianist, he won the first prize in the 1988 Giovanni Solisti di Roma competition. He has performed in many countries, including Brazil, Italy, San Marino, Switzerland, Finland, Austria, Germany and Hungary. His concerts have been broadcast in Italy and Brazil.

In 1990 he returned to São Paulo, Brazil, and began his conducting studies with Professor Ronaldo Bologna. At the TV Cultura network, he was in charge of artistic coordination of the classical music program First Movement, and was assistant conductor of the LBV Youth Orchestra.

Mr. Marcelletti returned to Recife in 1991, where he was appointed assistant conductor of the Recife Symphony Orchestra under Maestro Diogo Pacheco. One year later he became the principal conductor and directed many concerts including programs for children. He also created and taught classical courses for the general public and taught piano at the Conservatório Pernambucano de Música. In November 1992, the Pernambuco State Legislature unanimously awarded him a citation for his contribution to the cultural and artistic community. Mr. Marcelletti remained in Recife until enrolling at Yale in 1994.

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