Salvatore Di Vittorio, born in Palermo on October 22, 1967, is an Italian composer and conductor. He is the music director and conductor of the Chamber Orchestra of New York. He was recognized by Luigi Verdi (Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna) as "a lyrical, musical spirit, respectful of the ancient Italian tradition... a leading emerging interpreter of the music of Ottorino Respighi."
He began his musical studies with his father, Giuseppe, in Italy. He then studied composition with Ludmila Ulehla and Giampaolo Bracali at the Manhattan School of Music in the United States. He conducted with Giampaolo Bracali, Francesco Carotenuto, and the late Piero Bellugi in Italy.
He is the author of 15 orchestral works, 7 transcriptions and revisions of orchestral music by Ottorino Respighi, 2 Operas, 4 choral/vocal works, and some chamber compositions. Hector Berlioz and Richard Strauss influenced his symphonic music and followed in the footsteps of Ottorino Respighi. He has worked and written works for orchestras around the world. He has taught at Loyola School in New York City and Adelphi University.
In 2007, he gained considerable attention with the Chamber Orchestra of New York when he was invited by Elsa and Gloria Pizzoli (Respighi's great-grandchildren) and Potito Pedarra (curator and cataloguer of the Respighi archive) to edit, orchestrate and complete several of Respighi's early works including the first Violin Concerto (from 1903), for publication by Edizioni Panastudio and Casa Ricordi in Italy. He premiered and subsequently recorded three of these critical editions, along with his own Overture Respighiana and the first two symphonies, in 2010, with the New York Chamber Orchestra for Naxos Records. These early recordings were released in 2011.
Other notable restorations of historical interest include Respighi's 1908 orchestration of Claudio Monteverdi's Lamento di Arianna (from the lost opera Arianna, 1608), revised in 2012, and Di Vittorio's completion of Respighi's orchestration of Tre Liriche (Tre canti d'arte, 1913) edited for his centenary in 2013. In 2019 Di Vittorio completed the first printed edition of Respighi's Second Violin Concerto "all'Antica". With the Chamber Orchestra of New York, he went on to record the Violin Concerto "all'Antica" in 2019, along with Respighi's Ancient Airs and Dances Suites and the Mezzo-soprano Songs in 2021, also for Naxos Records.
In November 2012, he performed the world premiere of his Symphony No. 3, "Templi di Sicilia," in his debut with the Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana at the Teatro Politeama in Palermo. RAI interviewed him on the evening news. He was soon thereafter awarded the Palermo Medal by Mayor Leoluca Orlando, who recognized the great importance of Di Vittorio's work as a promoter of the city of Palermo in the world.
He conducted the world premiere of "Fanfara del Mare: Su un Tema di Monteverdi" with the San Diego Symphony, commissioned for the centennial of Balboa Park and its Organ Pavilion at Copley Symphony Hall in 2015, and "Venere e Adone" for the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia in 2016. During that summer, he achieved a significant milestone when he became the first native Italian composer to be invited to donate an autographed manuscript of his opera to the music archive of the Morgan Library & Museum. Villa d'Este, a Tivoli for small orchestra, was composed in 2015 for Morgan as part of its exhibition, "City of the Soul: Rome and the Romantics," in June 2016.
In late 2018, he completed his Symphony No. 4, "Metamorphoses," based on Ovid's Metamorphoses and three Italian paintings related to the story. In June 2021, he released a second album for Naxos, which includes several world premiere recordings, including his new Fourth Symphony. The London Philharmonic released a recording of Nebbie from Tre Liriche under Renato Balsadonna and tenor Freddie de Tommaso, and the Orchestra dell'Opera del Teatro Alla Scala recorded Aria for strings under Riccardo Chailly.
Between the 2021/2022 and 2024/2025 seasons, Di Vittorio will premiere his direction of Sinfonia Metamorfosi and Viaggi di Enea with the Orchestra dell'Opera del Teatro Massimo in Palermo.
Di Vittorio resides with his family in New York and Palermo.