Francesco Siragusa

Francesco Siragusa is the first double bass soloist player of the Milan La Scala Orchestra and of the La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra. He has won the most important
international music competitions. He was born in 1974; he started studying the double bass at the age of 10. His teacher was his father. He obtained a first class degree in 1995 and attends several training courses with Franco Petracchi.
During his studies at the Conservatory, he won the first prize at the Wherter Benzi National Contest for Double Bass Playing and passed his first audition for the Teatro Massimo Vincenzo Bellini Orchestra in the city of Catania.
In 1999 he won the first prize at the Giovanni Bottesini international competition for double bass players and the second prize at the CIEM international competition of Geneva, thus becoming a reputed artist all over the word.
In 2002, when he was just 27 years old, he became first double bass player at La Scala theatre.
He exhibited himself as soloist in Italy and abroad: at the Alighieri theatre (Ravenna), the Dal Verme theatre (Milan), the Stadthalle (Hagen), Institut National Genevois (Geneva), the Auditorium of Aarau, the Macedonio Alcalà (Oxaca, Mexico), the La Scala theatre (Milan) and so on.
He is a member of the group "I Virtuosi del teatro alla Scala". With this group he exhibited himself at the Musikverein of Vienna and played (for the first time at the La Scala theatre) the Bottesini's Allegro de Concert in Mendelssohn style. His performances are very much appreciated thanks to his extraordinary temperament and to the great singability he gives to double bass.
He recorded an album of Giovanni Bottesini piano and double bass music for the "Concerto
Edizioni musicali Musicmedia" label. The album has been republished due to its great success. In 2007 he published the II volume of Bottesini piano and double bass music for the prestigious music magazine Amadeus (that for the first time dedicated an album and a cover to double bass). In 2010, together with the group "I Virtuosi del teatro alla Scala", he published a new album of Bottesini double bass and orchestral pieces for the Amadeus magazine.
He is also a teacher: he has run for 4 years the advanced training courses at the Perosi Academy of Biella, he runs advanced training courses at the La Scala Academy and runs regularly national and international masterclasses.