He was born in Trieste, Italy in 1957. He was born of an Italian father and a Greek mother. He studied violin in his home country until 1980, then conducting at the Vienna Music Academy with Karl Österreicher and chorus directing at the "Benedetto Marcello" Conservatory in Venice. During his studies, he worked as first violinist at Teatro Comunale Giuseppe Verdi di Trieste and concertmaster at Stadttheater Baden. He has conducted opera productions at the festivals of Bregenz and Tenerife, as well as in various European cities: Pisa, Regensburg, Nuremberg, Rome, Oviedo, Salerno, Graz. He has collaborated with the Württembergisches Philharmonieorchester Reutlingen and Tonkünstler Orchester Niederösterreich. As music director of the Budapest Chamber Orchestra (1986-1992) he conducted around 150 concerts across Europe. As music director of the Stadttheater Klagenfurt (1993-1998) he conducted a broad repertory of opera and symphonic music. He was music consultant at Teatro Lirico of Spoleto, musical consultant at the European Opera Center in Manchester, assistant artistic director at the Teatro Comunale di Trieste (1996-2002) and artistic director of the Festival Arena di Verona (2002-2007), and since 2002 artistic consultant at the Fondazione Arena di Verona. During the years 2010-2014, he served as the general director of the Teatro Carlo Felice of Genoa. He was co-founder of the Festival and Academy in Riva del Garda and member of the panels of judges in the music competitions "Belvedere" (Vienna), "Adriano Belli" (Spoleto) and "Mario del Monaco" (Marsala). He has recorded and has translated into Italian Leopold Mozart’s textbook "Violin School." During his tenure as artistic director at the Greek National Opera (2008/10) performances staged included first Greek productions of operas by Rossini, Bellini, Zemlinsky, Dvořák, Donizetti, Piazzolla, Xarchakos and Yannis Constantinidis. // Last update of the biography: December 2015 - The list of productions below is continually updated.