My Life in Music

A passionate and illuminating memoir by the celebrated Chief Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra.

‘Mesmerising.’ DANIEL BARENBOIM

Sir Antonio Pappano is one of the best known and most celebrated conductors alive today. His deeply held belief in the power of music to inspire and enlighten is the motivation behind this long anticipated memoir.

In 1969, decades before he was chosen to conduct the music at the Coronation of King Charles, Sir Antonio Pappano was a ten-year-old boy accompanying his father’s singing lessons. My Life in Music tells the moving tale of a legendary conductor who, nurtured in childhood by his parents and their dedicated work ethic, goes on to conduct at many of the most influential opera houses of Europe and North America. Pappano skilfully evokes an extensive selection from his wide-ranging repertoire - operas and orchestral works spanning from Mozart to Birtwistle and Mark Anthony Turnage, as well as art song and chamber music works in which he has performed as a pianist - and makes a compelling case for the potential classical music has to captivate new and wider audiences.