Maestro Carlo Ponti is known for taking audiences of all ages on musical journeys of unique interpretive depth.
He has worked at the Conductor’s Institute in the U.S. under Harold Farberman, with Andrey Boreyko, Mehli Mehta and Zubin Mehta in Los Angeles, and furthered his studies in Europe at the Vienna Music Academy under Leopold Hager and Erwin Accel.
Ponti was awarded Italy’s Premio Galileo Award in 2006 for exceptional musical achievement. In the United States, he was the recipient of the 2008 Artistic Achievement Award from the Virginia Waring International Piano Competition and the 2009 Spirit of Hope Award from the Childhelp Foundation for his contributions to the advancement of young musical talent throughout the world. In 2011 the Roman City Council also bestowed upon him and his family the Lupa di Roma Prize on the heels of an orchestral performance honoring film producer Carlo Ponti, Sr.
Maestro Ponti served as associate conductor of the Russian National Orchestra from 2000 to 2010 and was music director of the San Bernardino Symphony Orchestra from 2001 to 2012.
As guest conductor, Ponti has appeared with the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta de Valencia, Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Roma Sinfonietta Orchestra, Orchestra del Teatro di San Carlo, Verbier Festival Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfonica de Galicia, Orquesta Sinfonica de Mineria, Pro Arte Orchestra, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Ural Philharmonic, Moscow Chamber Orchestra, Budapest Strings Chamber Orchestra, Cyprus Symphony Orchestra, Napa Valley Symphony, Budapest Concert Orchestra, UCLA Philharmonia and American Youth Symphony.
International festival appearances include Festival d’Echternach, Festival Vancouver, Taichung Music Festival, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Bratislava Spring Music Festival, St. Petersburg Palaces Music Festival, Festival Internacional de Musica de Villena, Napa Valley Festival del Sole, Tuscan Sun Festival, and the Köln Musik Triennale.
Celebrated as "a brilliant debut" (Audio and Record) Ponti's recording with the Russian National Orchestra of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition on Pentatone Classics quickly garnered critical acclaim. A second album with the RNO featuring Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade was hailed as "superb" (All Music) and "a work in which every little instrumental timbre has a meaning all its own" (Audio Video Club of Atlanta).
Ponti’s work has been profiled on NPR, NBC, ABC, CBS Insider, Fox News, Leonard Lopate, Dennis Miller, Symphony Magazine and the Associated Press. His performances have been featured on American Public Media’s Performance Today and America’s Music Festivals radio programs.
Updated April 2013