• about Lorenzo

Lorenzo Castriota Skanderbeg graduated in trumpet, composition and conducting at the Conservatory of Music Santa Cecilia in Rome. As a conductor Castriota is specialized in the Italian operatic repertoire, having been the assistant conductor of Giuseppe Patané until his untimely death. In 1995 he received a special acknowledgement in the 1st International Competition of Conducting Franco Ferrara, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma.

Maestro Castriota has worked at numerous important opera houses in Italy and abroad: Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Teatro San Carlo di Napoli, Bonn Opera, Teatro Lirico di Cagliari etc. His operatic repertoire include La Traviata, Otello, Falstaff, Aida, Nabucco, Attila, Lucia di Lammermoor, Die Zauberflöte, Madama Butterfly, The Medium (Menotti), Werther (Massenet), Norma and many others.

Maestro Castriota has been the artistic and musical director of many italian orchestras and festivals such as Slovenian National Opera and Ballet, Maribor, Symphony Orchestra of Alessandria, the Novi Musici orchestra of Napoli, the Orchestra Sinfonica della Città di Grosseto, the festival of Santa Margherita Ligure, the Lyric Festival del Verismo, Foggia, the Oderzo Opera Festival and others. In 2008, Castriota was awarded the prestigious culture price Sebetia-Ter for the career (former winners: M° Riccardo Muti, M° Claudio Abbado, M° Aldo Cicolini).

He collaborates with the recording company Pentaphon Italia. With Saturn Live Recordings he has produced Il Tabarro, Suor Angelica, Gianni Schicchi, La Traviata, Il Rigoletto, La Notte di un Nevrastenico and Compositions of the Great Symphonic Repertoire of the 1800.  In 2002 a CD with EMI was produced, containing symphonic works by Musorgskij and Respighi, live recorded with the Orchestra Sinfonica Umberto Giordano della Provincia di Foggia.

Out of the letter of recommendation of Arvo Pärt:

„His secure way of working with an orchestra, creating a good and motivating working atmosphere and his ability to make score to sound made a deep impression to me.

There are several groups of conductors, the ones with one ear, whom we don’t need to talk about, the others who do their work well but don’t leave any trace and then there are those who have additionally an ear fort he composer. Maestro Castriota Skanderbeg belongs to this smal but worthfull group.“