Saimir Pirgu

Born in 1981, he starts his musical studies in his hometown Elbasan (Albania) as a violinist and continues studying singing at the Conservatories of Tirana and Bolzano (Italy), with Vito Brunetti, who is still his teacher. After moving to Italy, he wins in 2002 the International Competition „Enrico Caruso“ in Milan and the „Tito Schipa” International Competition in Lecce. He has recently received the important Franco Corelli award at Teatro delle Muse in Ancona (February 2009)

He makes his debut at the Rossini Opera Festival. Later starting an important collaboration with the Wiener Staatsoper, winning the prestigious prize „Eberhard Waechter Gesangsmedaille” for his interpretation of Nemorino in L'elisir d'amore. At Teatro Comunale di Ferrara he sang Così fan tutte directed by Claudio Abbado and at the Salzburger Festspiele with Philippe Jordan. Important debuts follow, which brought him to the major opera houses throughout the world from the Hamburgische Staatsoper, to the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, from the Berlin Staatsoper, to the Teatro dell'Opera and Accademia Santa Cecilia in Rome. He regularly sings at the Opernhaus in Zurich, at the Covent Garden, at the Teatro Real in Madrid; he makes his debut in Valencia, at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna and at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.

He collaborates with conductors like Claudio Abbado, Lorin Maazel, Daniele Gatti, Seiji Ozawa, Franz Welser Möst, Gustav Kuhn, James Colon, Antonio Pappano and Nikolaus Harnoncourt.

2008 he sang the role of Idomeneo at the styriarte Festival in Graz, conducted and directed by Harnoncourt.