About
Ettore F. Volontieri is active in the music industry since October 1989, when he started working at the age of 25 as personal assistant to the founder of the agency Old and New Montecarlo, the controversial Valentin Proczynski.
Born in Milan in 1964, Ettore F. Volontieri studied singing and music at the Scuola Civica di Musica “Claudio Abbado” in Milan and graduated in History of Music (cum Laude) under the guidance of Prof. Sergio Martinotti at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore of his native city, with a dissertation on the methods of singing in the first half of the XIX century, later published as Le regole della Canora Repubblicain 1995.
Assistant to the impresario Mario Dradi between 1992 and 1994, he was involved for three consecutive years in the multi-media production of “Christmas in Vienna”, an event featuring stars as Placido Domingo, José Carreras, Diana Ross, Dionne Warwick and Charles Aznavour. In 1995 he joined AGR, the agency of his lifetime friend Antonio Gnecchi Ruscone in Milan and started his activity as independent manager and producer, acquiring the Italian Management of the Mariinsky Theatre, as well as signing for General Management – among others – the Armenian tenor Gegam Grigorian and the young Italian conductor Gianandrea Noseda and Japanese conductor Yutaka Sado, as well as pianist Alexander Toradze for local management.
In 1997 he founded the management and production company AMP (Artists Management and Productions) in Milan and until 2001 he realized significant projects as the Festival “Da Roma a San Pietroburgo” with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Festival “Le Notti Bianche a Milano” and the Festival “Pushkin a Milano” in cooperation with the Municipality of Milan, the project “Parsifal in Ravello” featuring Placido Domingo, in cooperation with RAI and RM Arts, as well as a number of projects with the Toradze Piano Studio. In also produced important tours and residencies with the Mariinsky Theatre and Valery Gergiev in Italy, culminating with the presentation of the monumental production of War and peace by Prokofiev directed by Andrei Konchalovsky at Teatro alla Scala in October 2000 and the opening event of the Verdi Festival in Parma for the 100th anniversary of the death of the composer in 2001.
From 2002 he focused on the activity of artist manager, increasing the importance of his roster signing for General Management the young Daniele Rustioni in 2006. He also served as representative of the Mariinsky Theatre in Italy until the end of 2006, when he produced the “Shostakovich Festival” in collaboration with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia for the centenary of the composer. In 2005 he produced the documentary “An Italian journey with Rachmaninoff” in cooperation with RAI, featuring the Toradze Piano Studio.
In 2008 he moved to Switzerland as founding member of Interarts Lausanne, where he developed and consolidated his activity of artist manager, focusing on the general management of conductors, with the only exception of his lifetime friend, pianist Alexander Toradze, who he has represented worldwide until his death in 2022. In January 2014 he incorporated his activities with Artists Management Company, founding the Conductor Division of the company and signing new conductors for General Management as Jérémie Rhorer (2017), Donato Renzetti (2018), Alevtina Ioffe (2019) and Alessandro Bonato (2020).
Between 2005 and 2022 he served as producer and later General Manager of the Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation, contributing to the preservation of Villa Senar as cultural heritage.