Tommaso Nista - Conductor
Tommaso Nista
Assistant Conductor, RRO
Born and raised in the mountains of northern Italy in a family from Tuscany, Tommaso began studying music at the age of four in a private school in his hometown, Trento. He started as a trumpet player, but soon fell in love with the enveloping sound of the tuba, and over the years forged relationships with various wind orchestras in the area.
The school's strong focus on choral singing made him passionate about this practice, and over the course of 10 years in the youth choir ‘I Minipolifonici’, he participated in competitions and performances in the most extraordinary venues in Europe, from the Reichstag in Berlin to Vienna City Hall, from St. Peter's Cathedral in the Vatican City to the 2014 World Choir Games in Riga. This bond with choral music continues today, as he is a tenor in St. Chad’s Cathedral in Birmingham.
It was choir singing that made him explore the idea of starting to conduct, and over the years he attended his first courses with professors Stefano Chicco and Elena Sartori. After high school, he graduated in 2022 with honours at the ‘Claudio Monteverdi’ Conservatoire in Bolzano, in the tuba class of Professor Alessandro Fossi. He also attended Masterclasses with important brass teachers from all over the world: Oystein Baadsvik, Ricardo Carvalhoso, Gerard Bouchet, Stefan Tischler, Peter Leib, Anne-Yelle Visser, Perry Hoogendijk, Martin Schippers, Katey Wooley, Miroslav Petkov. In the meantime, he began to develop his conducting skills, by attending courses in wind orchestra conducting with Professors Andrea Loss, Michele Mangani, Bart Picqueur, Hardy Mertens and Alberto Roque, conducting wind bands from all around Italy, and by undertaking the first engagements as guest and chief conductor.
Although symphony orchestras have always been his number 1 goal, in 2020 he made his first real contact with the orchestral world, attending the Italian Opera Academy in Ravenna, held by Riccardo Muti on Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci. From this moment on, he developed a deep love for late 19th century Italian opera, which continues to this day. In 2023 he was accepted for the Master of Music in Conducting at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire under Daniele Rosina and then moved to the UK. He has recently taken part in numerous master classes with internationally renowned conductors, such as Kazuki Yamada, Michael Seal and Paul Murphy, and has been assistant conductor for a couple of opera productions at RBC: Cendrillon by Jules Massenet, conducted by Paul Wingfield, and Hansel and Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck, conducted by Tony Kraus. In 2024 he was awarded the Guy Woolfenden Prize for young conductors and conducted off-stage for Martyn Brabbins with RBC Symphony Orchestra. Since 2023 he has formed a strong partnership with the Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra, becoming its librarian and assistant conductor with Michael Lloyd, Richard Laing and James Ham. In 2024 he had the pleasure of conducting the orchestra in the Concerto Competition Final, in works by Antonin Dvorak. He has also recently conducted the Wolverhampton Symphony, the RBC Leap Orchestra, the Romantic Revival Orchestra, the Amati Orchestra and the Warwickshire Symphony Orchestra. He also enjoys working with young people, to spread the joy of working as a team and creating great music. He is currently chief conductor of the Junior Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Symphony Orchestra. Tommaso's interests touch on different areas of music. He is very passionate about film music, as demonstrated by his undergraduate dissertation on John Williams, but also and above all about video game soundtracks. In 2024 he was appointed chief conductor of the Birmingham Game Music Ensemble, founded by composer and friend Vinicius Motta. This small orchestral reality aims to help young and old discover the wonders that this media can offer, and they just recorded their first project together, focused on music from Final Fantasy X. Moreover, he often conducts performances of contemporary works and pop music. He has assisted Daniele Rosina with the Thallein Ensemble and recorded works by Joshua Defor and Mason Siu-Wai Ma with the Orchestra of the Swan. In March 2023 he conducted the UK Premiere of Marine, the Womb of all Life by Mason Siu-Wai Ma with the Romantic Revival Orchestra, and in December 2024 he conducted two live performances of Michael Bublé’s Christmas Album at RBC. In the coming months, Tommaso will make his debut conducting the Solihull Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Symphony Orchestra at Symphony Hall, and will assist Paul Wingfield again at RBC, in Benjamin Britten’s Albert Herring.