There is a strain of Italian conducting that values seriousness over showmanship — meticulous preparation, clarity of gesture, the slow craft of revealing what a score actually contains. Diego Ceretta belongs squarely in that tradition. L’Ape Musicale described his work as combining “clarity of gesture, seriousness of approach, and meticulous preparation,” noting how he “handles even the most intricate textures with a wise search for balance, bringing out both precision and expressive depth.”

Chief Conductor of the Orchestra della Toscana since 2023, Ceretta studied composition, violin and conducting at the Milan Conservatory under Maestro Daniele Agiman, then continued at the Italian Conducting Academy with Gilberto Serembe and at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena with Luciano Acocella and Daniele Gatti — receiving the Diploma of Merit in 2019. He served as assistant to Gatti for the world premiere of Giorgio Battistelli’s Julius Caesar at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, and collaborated with the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Fabio Luisi on Mahler’s Symphony No. 2.

Italy’s major orchestras have welcomed him at successive milestones — among them the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino during the 85th Festival, the Teatro Regio di Torino, the Filarmonica Toscanini, the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, the Arena di Verona, the Haydn Orchestra of Bolzano and Trento, and the Sinfonica Rossini of Pesaro. Internationally, he has appeared with the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic, the Orchestre National de Montpellier (with Alexandre Tharaud) and the Krakow Philharmonic. His operatic work includes La Sonnambula (Cagliari), Donizetti’s Zoraida di Granata (Wexford), a new La Battaglia di Legnano at the Festival Verdi, Il Matrimonio Segreto (Ancona), a Pierluigi Pizzi Macbeth (Rete Lirica delle Marche), Don Quixote at the Louvre with the Teatro San Carlo di Napoli, and Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Teatro Regio di Parma). Festival debuts include the Rossini Opera Festival, Turku Music Festival, Festival Verdi, MiTo, the Festival della Valle d’Itria and the Ravello Festival.

The 2026/27 season brings debuts with the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, the MAV Symphony, the Lille National Orchestra, the Luzerner Symphonie, the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia and the Orchestre National de Montpellier, alongside returns to the Bolzano Haydn Orchestra, the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris and the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano. Operatic engagements include a Massenet production with the OMPC.