MASSIMO MERCELLI gained his diploma from the Conservatorio G.B. Martini of Bologna with the highest marks at a very early age. Mercelli, a student of the famous flautists Maxence Larrieu and André Jaunet, at the age of 19 became the first flute of the Teatro La Fenice of Venice and won the ‘Francesco Cilea Prize’, the International Competition ‘Giornate Musicali’ and the Stresa International Competition. He plays regularly in the most important concert halls of the world: Carnegie Hall in New York, Herculessaal and Gasteig in Munich, Colon Theatre in Buenos Aires, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Auditorium RAI in Turin, Victoria Hall in Geneva, Saint Martin in the Fields and Wigmore Hall in London, Parco della Musica in Rome, Philharmonic S. Petersburg, Philarmonica in Warsaw, Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow and at the festivals of Ljubljana, Berlin,Santander, Vilnius, S. Petersburg, Bonn, Cervantino, Rheingau, Jerusalem and Warsaw. He performs with artists such as Yuri Bashmet, Krzysztof Penderecki, Philip Glass, Michael Nyman, Massimo Quarta, Ennio Morricone, Luis Bacalov, Peter-Lukas Graf, Maxence Larrieu, Aurèle Nicolet, Anna Caterina Antonacci, Ramin Bahrami, Albrecht Mayer, Gabor Boldowsky, Jiri Belolhavec, Federico Mondelci, Jan Latham Koenig, Catherine Spaak, Susanna Mildonian, and with orchestras such as the Moscow Soloists, the Wiener Symphoniker, the Solisti della Scala, the Prague Philarmonia, the S. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Virtuosi Italiani, the Salzburg Soloists, the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, the F.Liszt Chamber Orchestra and the Musici.He is the artistic director and founder of the Emilia Romagna Festival and since 2001 has been a member of the directing committee of the European Festivals Association (EFA) and in April 2011 he was elected as vice president of this prestigious European association, position held until 2017.He played in the first performance of ‘Facades’ by Philip Glass accompanied by the composer on the pianoforte, he has performed at the Grande Sala of the Mozarteum of Salisburg and has held a masterclass for the Rostropovich Foundation. On 11th September 2006 he played at the UNO Auditorium in New York. During the 2008 season he performed at the Berlin Philharmonic during the official season and at the Moscow Philharmonic in a Galà with Yuri Bashmet and Gidon Kremer.