FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
RIMINI, Italy
Alberto Cappiello, the Italian horn soloist and artistic director of the Rimini Chamber Orchestra, has established himself as one of the most widely travelled interpreters of the horn-concerto repertoire, performing with orchestras across Europe, Asia, and the Americas.
From Cles to the World’s Concert Halls
Born on 25 June 1969 in Cles, a small town in the Trentino province of northern Italy, Alberto Cappiello began studying the French horn at the age of ten. He completed his diploma at the Conservatorio Statale di Musica “G. Rossini” in Pesaro in 1988 with top marks, undertook scholarship-funded study in Budapest within the Franz Liszt Academy tradition of horn pedagogy, and in 1996 received the special soloist diploma (Solistenexamen) from the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber in Dresden, again with the highest marks.
His early promise was confirmed on the international competition circuit. In 1993 he was awarded a Special Prize at the Philip Farkas International Horn Competition in Budapest, and in 2010 he was a finalist at two further international horn competitions, in London and in Copenhagen.
A Soloist in Demand Across Continents
For much of his early career, Cappiello was a fixture of the Italian orchestral scene, collaborating with the orchestras of Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, and the RAI National Symphony Orchestra in Rome, as well as the Turin Philharmonic, the Sanremo Symphony, and the Lugano Radio Orchestra. He also performed in the festival orchestra of the Sanremo Music Festival in 2010 and 2013, before a national television audience reported in the millions.
In 2014 he committed to a full-time solo career. Since then he has appeared as a concerto soloist with the Korea Symphony Orchestra, the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra, the Cuban National Symphony Orchestra, the Metropolitan Philharmonic Orchestra of Mexico City, the National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia, and the Moscow and Kiev Chamber Orchestras. His November 2023 performance of Richard Strauss’s Horn Concerto No. 1 in Seoul, and his subsequent Korean appearances, were reported by Italian press to have been received “as a star.”
His engagements have ranged widely. In 2022 he performed Strauss’s Horn Concerto No. 2 with the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra in the United States and appeared with the Warstein-Ruthen Chamber Orchestra in Germany. In 2024 he toured Central America and the Caribbean, performing with the Cuban National Symphony Orchestra, and in 2025 he returned to Mexico City and appeared in Brazil.
Leadership of the Rimini Chamber Orchestra
Since 2017, Cappiello has served as principal horn soloist and artistic director of the Rimini Chamber Orchestra (Orchestra da Camera di Rimini), programming an annual season built around the classical and Romantic chamber repertoire. With the ensemble he gave the premiere of Reinhold Glière’s Horn Concerto in a chamber arrangement for horn and strings. He also holds principal-horn positions with the Dolomiti Symphony Orchestra in northern Italy and the Adıyaman Philharmonic Orchestra in Turkey.
Recordings and Discography
Cappiello’s recordings are available on Spotify, Deezer, Apple Music, YouTube, and YouTube Music. They include his debut album The Weber Concertos – featuring Carl Maria von Weber’s Concertino for Horn – the Richard Strauss Horn Concertos, the Bach Suites, and the Forster Horn Concerto. An earlier studio recording of Strauss’s Horn Concerto No. 2 was made at the Farm House Studio in the Republic of San Marino.
Italian regional press has described his playing as uniting the Central European brass school of his Budapest and Dresden years with the operatic and chamber traditions of his Italian training, praising his “sound power and innovative style.”
About Alberto Cappiello
Alberto Cappiello is an Italian horn soloist and artistic director based in Rimini, Italy. Known internationally for his interpretations of the standard horn-concerto repertoire – including works by Richard Strauss, Reinhold Glière, Michael Haydn, Christoph Forster, and Carl Maria von Weber – he performs across Europe, Asia, and the Americas and leads the Rimini Chamber Orchestra. His recordings are available on Spotify, Deezer, Apple Music, YouTube, and YouTube Music. Further information is available at albertocappiello.it.
