Recently appointed assistant music director for San Francisco Opera, Giuseppe Finzi made his Company debut in 2008 conducting The Elixir of Love for Families and returned for performances of La Bohème. A native of Bari, Italy, he studied composition and conducting at the Milan’s Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory. Finzi has worked as an assistant conductor, coach and pianist at Milan’s La Scala, the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, the Teatro Giuseppe Verdi in Florence and Ravenna’s Teatro Alighieri. He made his conducting debut in 2003 with Tosca at the Teatro Rendano in Cosenza and returned in 2004 for La Traviata. Finzi has since led productions of L’Elisir d’Amore and Madama Butterfly in Catanzaro, Rigoletto in Tirana, L’Elisir d’Amore in Foggia and Carmen in Calabria and Fidenza. His upcoming engagements include Così fan tutte in Brindisi and at Milan’s Piccolo Teatro. In the 2009-10 San Francisco Opera season Finzi conducts performances of Abduction from the Seraglio and La Fanciulla del West.