Francesco Di Rosa, born in Montegranaro in 1967, is considered by the public and critics to be one of the best oboists on the international scene. He is the solo oboe of the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome and holds the oboe chair at the Scuola Universitaria di Musica della Svizzera italiana in Lugano.
Francesco Di Rosa
From 1994 to 2009, he held the same position in the Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala and in the Filarmonica of the same name under the direction of Riccardo Muti and Daniel Barenboim.
Francesco graduated from the Conservatorio ‘G. Rossini’ in Fermo with top marks and honours with Maestro Fabio Fabrizzioli and Maestro Luciano Franca in 1986. He specialised first with Maestro Pierre Pierlot at the Summer Academy in Nice and then with Maestro Maurice Bourgue at the ‘Scuola di Alto Perfezionamento Musicale di Saluzzo’.
He won second prize in the oboe competition Jugendmusik Wettbewerb ‘European Prize 1988’ in Zurich and six other prizes in national chamber music competitions in duo with piano.
As a soloist or in chamber music ensembles, Francesco has given several concerts in the most prestigious halls all over the world, including the Musikhalle in Hamburg, the Musikverein in Vienna, Carnegie Hall in New York, Tonhalle in Zurich, Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, Zipper Hall in Los Angeles, Teatro degli Arcimboldi in Milan, Teatro Roldan in Havana, Teatro Coliseo in Buenos Aires, Bunka Kaikan in Tokyo.
He has worked and collaborates daily with the most important contemporary conductors such as Daniel Baremboim, Riccardo Muti, Claudio Abbado, Antonio Pappano, Riccardo Chailly, Daniele Gatti, Pierre Boulez, Carlo Maria Giulini, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Valery Gergiev, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Lorin Maazel, George Pretre, Myung Wun Chung, Daniel Harding, Gustavo Dudamel, Kirill Petrenko and Herbert Blomstedt.
The only Italian oboist to have played as first oboe with the prestigious Berliner Philharmoniker Orchestra, he has been invited by important orchestras such as the Bayerischer Rundfunk in Munich, the Mahler Chamber, the Camerata Salzburg, Claudio Abbado’s Mozart Orchestra, the Orchestre National de France in Paris and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in Geneva.
He has recorded much of the oboist repertoire for Decca, Emi, Thymallus, Bongiovanni, Preiser Records, Musicom, Real Sound, Tactus, Dad Records, Aulia, Brilliant and the music magazine Amadeus.
Francesco has premiered pieces dedicated to him by Ezio Bosso, Giancarlo Aquilanti, Bert Appermont, Andrea Strappa and Raffaele Bellafronte.
He has taught at the Conservatories ‘G. Frescobaldi’ in Ferrara and “San Pietro a Majella” in Naples, at the Scuola Musicale in Milan, at the Accademia del Teatro alla Scala, held master classes at the Guildhall Scholl in London, at Stanford University, at the Toho Graduated School in Tokyo, at the Conservatory of Valencia, at the University of Stuttgart, at the Central Conservatory and the China Conservatory of music in Beijing, at the Paderwsky Academy in Poznan, at the University of Bogotá, at the Conservatory of Mexico City, at the Oboe Fest in Belgrade and in more than 22 Italian conservatories.
He currently teaches oboe at the master classes of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia and the Accademia Filarmonica in Bologna.
Francesco is the Artistic Director of the ‘Amici della Musica di Montegranaro’, a founding member and President of the association Musicians for Human Rights and of the Human Rights Orchestra, as well as Artistic Director of the Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana FORM.
He was also Vice President of the Filarmonica della Scala from 2005 to 2009.
In June 2004 at the Palazzo del Campidoglio in Rome, the Centro Studi Marche awarded him the 2004 Marchigiano dell’anno 2004 prize and in the same year Montegranaro, his home town, proclaimed him Honorary Citizen.
In June 2021, he was appointed Knight of Merit of the Italian Republic by President Sergio Mattarella.
Francesco is a Buffet & Crampon Artist and plays a Buffet oboe model ‘Legende’.