Italian conductor Antonio Pirolli, born in Rome, graduated with highest honors from the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome, where he studied piano, composition, choral conducting and orchestral conducting. He worked with renowned conductors Zoltán Peskó, Vladimir Delman and Rudolf Barshai, and in 1987 he won third prize at the Arturo Toscanini Conducting Competition.
Since coming to Turkey, Pirolli served as General Music Director of the Ankara State Opera and Ballet between 1995 and 2000, and later held the same position at the Istanbul State Opera and Ballet from 2002 to 2005.
Possessing a very extensive operatic and symphonic repertoire, Pirolli is regularly invited to conduct leading orchestras, opera houses and festivals around the world. These include the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon, Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, New National Theatre Tokyo, Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Teatro Massimo Bellini in Catania, the G. Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra in Bucharest, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, and festivals such as the Aspendos Opera and Ballet Festival, Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago, the Split Summer Festival, the Avenches Opera Festival, the Santander International Festival, and the Caracalla Opera Festival in Rome. In 2016 he conducted the Chinese premiere of Falstaff by Giuseppe Verdi at the Shanghai Opera House. In October 2017 he was invited to conduct Lucia di Lammermoor at Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari.
In Turkey he regularly conducts orchestras such as the Presidential Symphony Orchestra, Bilkent Symphony Orchestra, Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra, and the state symphony orchestras of Istanbul, İzmir, Adana, Antalya and Bursa.
In 2018 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Ankara University. In the same year he was invited to conduct Stabat Mater at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon as part of the 150th anniversary commemorations of Gioachino Rossini. He returned to Lisbon in 2019 to conduct La forza del destino, La Wally, Il tabarro and Ernani, and also conducted Tosca in Bari.
Since 2021 he has served as Permanent Conductor and General Music Director of the TRT 2 Philharmonic Orchestra, and from 2022 he has taken on the role of General Music Director of the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon.