Marcello Palazzo is a British-Italian composer and conductor. Born in London to Italian parents, Marcello has worked with some of the UK's leading orchestras, ensembles and soloists including the London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Thomas Allen, Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, Castalian String Quartet, EXAUDI Vocal Ensemble, Ligeti Quartet, Lumas Winds, BBC Singers and Britten Pears Contemporary Ensemble. He has received premieres at festivals including the Tête-À-Tête Opera Festival (London), Aldeburgh Festival and Vienna Opera Festival. Performances of Marcello's work have been hosted at important venues such as the Oxford Town Hall, Sheldonian Theatre (Oxford), Britten Studio (Snape Maltings), Royal College of Music (London), Glasshouse International Centre for Music (Gateshead) and Borromäus Saal (Vienna).
Marcello's first draft of his first opera, Mount Herzog, premiered at the Tête-À-Tête Opera Festival (2024), and was the best-selling show of the season. Marcello is developing this project through a series of compositions that expand the emotional and thematic core of the story. For instance, Marcello was commissioned by the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra to write Sisyphus, an orchestral work that shares a thematic heart with Mount Herzog. The piece premiered in May 2025 with great acclaim and a sold-out audience. In time, a collection of these opera-related works will develop Mount Herzog's musical and orchestral language in preparation for a fully-staged production.
A previous Britten Pears Young Artist (2022/23), Marcello is currently completing a commission for the London Symphony Orchestra as part of the Helen Hamlyn Panufnik Composers' Scheme (2025/26). He is also composing a new setting of I Sing of a Maiden commissioned for Merton College Choir, Oxford.
Marcello is an accomplished violinist, pianist, and singer, and was a lay clerk in Oxford. He graduated with First Class Honours from Durham University (BA) and earned a Distinction in his MPhil in Composition at the University of Oxford. He is hugely grateful to the Countess of Munster Trust and the Mazzini-Garibaldi Foundation, who have supported his work. He has been awarded a scholarship for a PhD in composition at the Royal Academy of Music, starting in 2025.
