Piero Bellugi

Who was Piero Bellugi?

Piero Bellugi was an Italian conductor from Florence.

He received a diploma in violin and viola from the Luigi Cherubini Conservatory in Florence, and also studied composition there with Luigi Dallapiccola. He also studied at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena and at the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg. Subsequently he studied conducting with Igor Markevitch, Rafael Kubelík, and Leonard Bernstein. With Bernstein he studied at the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood. On 10 August 1951 he conducted a performance of Maurice Ravel's Ma mère l'oye at Tanglewood's main shed.

In 1954-1956 he was conductor of the Tri-City Symphony Orchestra in Davenport, Iowa. He was the conductor of the Oakland Symphony Orchestra 1955-1959 and the Oregon Symphony 1959-1961. He declined to conduct the next season with Portland due to having so many engagements elsewhere.

In 1960, he made his debut at La Scala, Milan with George Frideric Handel’s opera Serse in the original version. In 1961, he became guest conductor at La Scala. He became the permanent conductor of the RAI Orchestra in Turin in 1967.