At the age of eight, Nicola Colafelice began his musical studies on the cello under the guidance of Maestro Vito Paternoster. In 2009, he obtained his Diploma in Singing, and in 2017 he graduated in Orchestral Conducting with top marks and honors under Maestro Giovanni Pelliccia.
From 2009 to 2012, he served as Stage Conductor at the Fondazione Lirico Sinfonica Petruzzelli e Teatri di Bari. In August 2016, he took part in the masterclass on Verdi’s La Traviata held by Maestro Riccardo Muti at the Italian Opera Academy.
In February 2017, he won a scholarship to the Catholic University of America in Washington D.C., where he earned his Master’s degree in Orchestral Conducting. In May 2017, he also attended, as an active participant, the conducting masterclass led by Maestro Donato Renzetti at the Teatro Dal Verme in Milan with the Orchestra dei Pomeriggi Musicali.
In 2018 and 2019, he worked as Resident Conductor at the State Opera House of Stara Zagora (Bulgaria), where he conducted three chamber operas: Kurt Weill’s Mahagonny – Ein Songspiel and Die sieben Todsünden, and Paul Hindemith’s Hin und Zurück. In May 2019, he conducted Verdi’s Rigoletto at the Stara Zagora Opera House.
Later that year, he performed Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with pianist Leonardo Colafelice for the Piano and Friends Festival in Molfetta, conducting the Orchestra Filarmonica Pugliese (OFP).
In September 2019, he conducted the Bari Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra with violinist Maria Serena Salvemini, performing works by Beethoven, Tartini, Saint-Saëns, and Haydn.
Since October 2019, he has collaborated with Maestro Simeone Tartaglione at the Music Center at Strathmore in Maryland as Assistant Conductor of the MCYO Orchestra.
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