Massimo Palombella

Conductor from Italy
1967, December 25th in Turin, Italy -

Massimo Palombella (born 1967) is an Italian Salesian priest, choral conductor and composer, best known as director of the Sistine Chapel Choir (Cappella Musicale Pontificia Sistina) from 2010 to 2019. Born in Turin on 25 December 1967, he was educated at the Salesian schools of Colle Don Bosco, studied philosophy and theology at the Pontifical Salesian University, and studied composition with Luigi Molfino and Valentino Miserachs Grau, graduating from the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi in Turin. He joined the Salesians of Don Bosco and was ordained priest on 7 September 1996.

In 1995 he founded the Coro Interuniversitario di Roma, a choir for university students in Rome, and in 2003 he created the Orchestra and Choir of Italian Conservatories, which he went on to lead for the Italian Ministry of Education. He taught dogmatic theology at the Pontifical Salesian University and music at the Sapienza University of Rome, the conservatories of Turin and Novara and the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music, and edited the liturgical music magazine Armonia di voci from 1998 to 2011.

Appointed director of the Sistine Chapel Choir by Benedict XVI on 16 October 2010, in succession to Giuseppe Liberto, and reconfirmed by Francis in 2015, he focused the choir on the Renaissance polyphonic repertoire written for the papal chapel and led its recordings for, Deutsche Grammophon, including Habemus Papam (2013), Cantate Domino (2015, the choir's first commercial recording made in the Sistine Chapel itself), Palestrina's Missa Papae Marcelli (2016) and Veni Domine (2017). He left the post in July 2019 and was succeeded by Marcos Pavan. From 2021 to 2025 he was director of the Cappella Musicale of Milan Cathedral. Source: Rondo DB

Usual Name Massimo Palombella
Ensembles Sistine Chapel Choir from 2010 to 2019 (as choral conductor)
Links Wikipedia (Italian)

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