Antonio Pappano

Best known as an opera conductor, Antonio Pappano expanded his activities into orchestral music in the late '90s. Since 2002, he has been the music director of London's Royal Opera at Covent Garden. Pappano was born to Italian immigrant parents in Epping, Essex, U.K., on December 30, 1959. His father was a chef who was a tenor singer and a voice teacher on the side. Pappano started piano lessons at age six. After several years, he resolved to make the piano a career. When Pappano was 13, his family moved to Bridgeport, Connecticut, so that his father could take a full-time mu...