Massimo Mercelli studied flute with the famous flautists André Jaunet and Maxence Larrieu. At just nineteen years of age, he became the first flute at Teatro La Fenice in Venice, and subsequently won the Premio Francesco Cilea, the Concorso Internazionale Giornate Musicali and the Concorso Internazionale di Stresa.
He has performed as a soloist in some of the world most prestigious concert halls, like Carnegie Hall of New York, Moscow Conservatory, Oslo’s Conserthuset, Monaco’s Herkulessaal and Gasteig, Colon Theatre of Buenos Aires, RAI Auditoriums at Turin and Naples, Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, St-Martin-in-the-Fields of London, Mozarteum of Salzburg, Victoria Hall of Geneva, Parco della Musica of Rome and Saint Petersburg Philarmonic, and important festivals, such as Ljubljana, Berlin, Santander, Beethoven of Bonn, Saint Petersburg, Cervantino, Rheingau and Jerusalem.
He has worked with artists such as Yuri Bashmet, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Krzysztof Penderecki, Philip Glass, Peter-Luckas Graf, Maxence Larrieu, Aurèle Nicolet, Cecilia Gasdia, Anna Caterina Antonacci, Susanna Mildonian, Federico Mondelci and Patrizia Tassini, and with orchestras such as the Moscow Soloists, the Lituanian National Symphony Orchestra, the Wiener Symphoniker, the European Union Chamber Orchestra, the Soloists of Teatro alla Scala, the Roma Opera House Orchestra, the Salzburg Soloists, the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, the Slovanian Radio and Television Orchestra and the Riga Philarmonic Orchestra.
Massimo Mercelli is artistic director and founder of Emilia Romagna Festival. Since 2001 he is a member of the board of counseling of the European Festival Association. More recently he performed at London’s Wigmore Hall and Salzburg’s Mozarteum, held a Master Class at the Rostropovich Foundation and played a first performance of Philip Glass’s composition “Façades” for flute and piano, with the autor at the piano. On 11 September 2006 he performed at the Dag Hammarskjold Library Auditorium of the United Nations. This season he will perform with the Berliner Philharmoniker.