Ezio Bosso, who passed away in 2020 after a long illness—faced with remarkable courage while continuing to make music until the very end—was an Italian composer, pianist, double bassist, and conductor, born in Turin in 1971. He remains one of the most beloved Italian artists of recent years, and his absence is still deeply felt.
Bosso discovered music at a very young age, thanks to a great-aunt who was a pianist and a brother who was a musician. He often recalled listening to Beethoven, Smetana, and Liszt at the age of five and dreaming, for the first time, of becoming a conductor. He studied at the conservatory, where one of his mentors was John Cage, whose strictness he remembered vividly, and later refined his training at the Vienna Academy.
Throughout his career, Bosso conducted major orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra, Teatro Regio di Torino, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Teatro San Carlo in Naples, and many others. He lived between London, where he served as conductor of The London Strings, and Bologna, where he collaborated extensively with the Teatro Comunale, while also maintaining close ties to his hometown, Turin. From 2017 to 2018, he was principal resident conductor at the Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi in Trieste.
In addition to composing for prestigious opera institutions around the world, he wrote music for film—particularly in collaboration with Gabriele Salvatores—and worked with pop artists, including the band Statuto. He also shared a deep artistic bond with cellist Mario Brunello, who is also artistic director of I Suoni delle Dolomiti.
To the wider public, Bosso is remembered not only for his musical brilliance and versatility but also for his warmth, humanity, and disarming sense of humor.
