Claudio Scimone

Italian conductor Claudio Scimone was born in Padua on 23 December 1934. He studied conducting with Dmitri Mitropoulos and Franco Ferrara. His opera conducting debut was with L'Elisir d'Amore at Covent Garden in London.

As a conductor, he was known internationally for reviving much renaissance and baroque music. He conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra in first recordings of Muzio Clementi's symphonies, and was the leading light in the discovery of Vivaldi's theatre works, beginning with Orlando furioso (Verona, 1978). He also gave the first modern performances of works by Rossini and Salieri, and was one of the collaborators of the Rossini Foundation in Pesaro to produce the critical edition of Rossini's complete works.

From 1979 until 1986 he was principal conductor of the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon, and remained an honorary conductor of the orchestra for the rest of his life.

Scimone, who was also a composer, died in Padua on 6 September 2018, aged eighty-three, leaving over 150 recordings. Most of these recordings were made with I Solisti Veneti, the ensemble he founded.