The new Principal Conductor
Diego Ceretta on the ORT podium
The Orchestra della Toscana has a new Principal Conductor, a young talent among the best of his generation, 26-year-old Diego Ceretta. This nomination is the first significant act of the newly appointed artistic director, Daniele Spini, a choice that confirms the distinctive trait of the institution: always recognizing and nurturing young talents.
Diego Ceretta is the new Principal Conductor of the Orchestra della Toscana. He was appointed by the artistic director Daniele Spini on behalf of the Foundation’s Board of Directors last Feb. 28.
Milanese, 26, Diego Ceretta is among the most promising young Italian conductors of his generation. Ceretta conducted the orchestra for the very first time last year on the occasion of the concerts in the Medici Villas: a stroke of lightning that was renewed again a few days ago in the five fantastic and applauded concerts conducted in Florence and Tuscany. Ceretta is a promising talent with a fast-growing career; in 2023, he will be among the very few to conduct in three important festivals, historically known to have launched the careers of young conductors: the Festival of Valle d’Itria in Martina Franca, the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro and the Wexford Festival Opera (Ireland), for which he will be conducting the opening with a new production of Zoraida di Granata, a rare Donizetti’s opera.
By appointing Diego Ceretta, the ORT inaugurates a new exciting chapter, one of the most important since its foundation do date. The role of the principal conductor had been vacant since June 2020, when Daniele Rustioni concluded his mandate of over nine years within this foundation. Rustioni would then return a few months later with the role this time of artistic director. Since then the appointment of a principal conductor had always been pending.
“I’m really happy that Diego Ceretta accepted the role of Principal Conductor of the Orchestra della Toscana – Daniele Spini commented – Once you recognize such a talent, you shouldn’t let him go! Daniele Rustioni and I thought of Ceretta practically at the same instant: What he has demonstrated in the past months and the great success of the recent concerts has confirmed the opinion we had been developing about him; he is the right person to give further impetus to the change taking place in our orchestra, a renewal whose intentions are to create a structure that is more modern, original, and inserted in the regional context with even greater determination.”
This is the first novelty of Spini’s direction, with more to come in the coming months, not only on the artistic level, but also on the organizational, communicative and managerial levels.
Moreover, the ORT has always tried to be an original model, and it is such due to the high quality of its artistic offer, the ability to connect with the audience, and its strong link with the territory. Developing young talents has always been a relevant goal of the Foundation; indeed, the orchestra was co-funded by 27-year-old Andrea Tacchi in 1980, while Lü Jia, Daniel Harding and Daniele Rustioni himself, among others, began their artistic path thanks to the Orchestra della Toscana.
Daniele Spini appointed Daniele Rustioni as conductor emeritus, a recognition of the role he played over the years in the development of the institution.
