Anthony Barrese (Assistant Conductor)

Anthony Barrese has earned accolades as both a composer and a conductor, winning numerous awards for his original works, and being engaged by a number of opera companies in the United States and Italy.

He began studying composition with Robert Ceely of the New England Conservatory of Music, and received his bachelor’s degree under the tutelage of Dr. Timothy Kramer at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. In 1996 he studied in Milan, Italy with Maestro Roberto Andreoni. That summer he attended the prestigious Darmstadt summer courses in composition in Darmstadt Germany. After completing his Master’s degree in composition from the New England Conservatory, Mr. Barrese returned to Milan as a Frank Huntington Beebe Award winner. During this sojourn Mr. Barrese studied composition with Maestri Roberto Andreoni, Luca Francesconi, and Paolo Perezzani.

Mr. Barrese also participated in the 2nd annual conducting course held by Maestro Sandro Gorli and the Divertimento Ensemble where he studied and rehearsed chamber and orchestral masterworks of the 20th century. In addition to his contemporary music conducting, as a student of Maestro Alessandro Gorli, Mr. Barrese studied opera and was appointed music director to the Felix Company for their 1999-2000 season. He made his operatic conducting debut in Milan with La bohème and conducted successful performances of Cavelleria rusticana, and Il barbiere di Siviglia. In the summer of 2000 he rehearsed and recorded Roberto Andreoni’s quattro luci sul lago with ”I solisti della scala” (a chamber group made up of the first chair musicians of the La Scala Philharmonic) for broadcast on Italian National Radio (RAI 3). Also while in Italy he served as music director for the Associazione Italiana Scuola di Musica, an Italian Youth Orchestra, and took that ensemble on a tour of Northern Italy and Norway.

Mr. Barrese is the recipient of numerous composition awards including a N.E.C. Contemporary Ensemble Composition Competition Award for his Madrigale a 3 voci femminili. He is the recipient of two B.M.I. Student Composers. In April of 2002 the American Composer’s Orchestra chose his orchestra work, Project Mayhem, to be read as part of the 2002 Whitaker New Music Readings. In 2004 he was commissioned by the Walt Whitman Foundation to write a piece for organ and soprano, inspired by Whitman's “Proud Music of the Storm”. As a musicologist, Mr. Barrese has recently finished preparing and editing the critical edition of Franco Faccio’s little known opera Amleto, in conjunction with Casa Ricordi, to which he holds exclusive performance rights.

Currently Mr. Barrese works as a freelance composer and conductor. Some of his recent engagements have been with Boston Lyric Opera (chorus master for Carmen, assistant conductor for Rigoletto), New Hampshire's Opera North (music director and conductor for L'incoronazione di Poppea, Alcina), and Sarasota Opera where he served as Associate Conductor from 2003-2004. In March 2005 Mr. Barrese returned to Sarasota Opera as guest conductor for a new production of Lakmé, and was invited back to conduct Le nozze di Figaro in 2006. Mr. Barrese has also conducted Carmen with the Commonwealth Opera in Northampton MA, and he was assistant conductor at the Spoleto summer festival in South Carolina for a production of Respighi's La bella dormente nel bosco. In the fall of 2005 he also served as Assistant Conductor for New York City Opera's production of Tosca.

Most recently, Mr. Barrese has been appointed the Assistant Conductor of the Dallas Opera for their 2006-2007 season where, in addition to serving as cover conductor for all of the operas, he will conduct three performances of Il barbiere di Siviglia, and other concerts with the Dallas Opera Orchestra.