Maestro Fernando Raucci has conducted professionally in the USA for the past six years. Mostly recently he opened the summer season 2008 at Opera of New Jersey with Verdi’s La Traviata. He spent three successful years as Assistant of American Symphony Orchestra, Lincoln Center, NYC, with Mo. Leon Botstein. He was previously Music Director of Opera International, Princeton; Principal Guest Conductor, Greater Trenton Symphony Orchestra; Permanent Conductor, Nicola Amati Chamber Orchestra; Artistic Director, Armonie Notturne, Isernia, Italy; and Assistant to Mo. Maurizio Barbacini, Opera Company of Philadelphia for Don Carlo. He has conducted orchestras in Poland, Russia, Hungary, Italy, Romania, and Bulgaria. In summer, 2005, Raucci was an invited participant at the renowned Spoleto Festival in Italy.

Maestro Raucci‘s educational background includes studies beginning with conservatory training in Italy emphasizing piano performance, contrapoint and fugue. He began to study conducting at age 17, attending conservatories in Italy and throughout Europe. He completed a Master’s degree at Hartt School of Music in Hartford, receiving the Recognition of Excellence Award in Orchestral Conducting. Mo. Harold Farbermann comments,”Raucci instinctively understands line, color and pacing, and his performances are always interesting and satisfying. He has a bright future”.

In addition to Raucci’s musical activities in his adopted USA homeland, he has been committed to educating others about Italy, and its music and cultural heritage. He has brought traditional Italian favorites to the American stage, and introduced audiences to unique Italian traditions. In 2003, he was awarded the prestigious Accademico, an annual international prize from European Academy for Economical Cultural Relations (AEREC) for advancing cultural exchanges between nations. In 2004, he was inducted into the Italian–American National Hall of Fame in Atlantic City, NJ. In 2002, then NJ Governor James McGreevy commended Raucci for making the Greater Princeton Youth Orchestra one of the best cultural organizations in New Jersey.

Mr. Raucci’s exceptional conducting accomplishments have earned high praise from many other sources too. In the words of Mo. Zubin Metha, "Fernando Raucci is a promising young conductor, intelligent, serious with innate musicality. He is on his way to a successful career.” In the words of Maestro Piero Bellugi, “Raucci shows a remarkable musicality and an inborn conducting talent.” Maestro Raucci’s debut with Greater Trenton Symphony Orchestra received high acclaim: “At the opening measures, there were audible murmurs of approval from the audience. Raucci’s crisp, clear directions brought alert response from the musicians.” (The Times) Alex Ross declared, “the Chamber Symphony of Gavril Popov was presented at Bard in a fine performance under the direction of Fernando Raucci.” (The New York Times) Maestro Raucci’s success with Greater Princeton Youth Orchestra is summed up in their debut concert review headline, “GPYO Dazzles Under Director Raucci.” (Don Delaney, The Times) The reviewer termed the concert, “a display of music-making that can be described without exaggeration as startling, almost unbelievable… Such is the excellence and vitality enjoyed by the fortunate ensembles under Maestro Raucci’s direction.”

Mr. Raucci is concurrently Music Director of Greater Princeton Youth Orchestra, a Professor of History of Italian Opera, Rutgers University’s Department of Italian. Most recently, he served as an adjunct faculty at Rutgers University-Mason Gross School of Music.