Gea Garatti completed her musical studies in her home town of Bologna, at the Conservatory G.B. Martini, earning a Diploma in Piano with Prof. Valeria Cantoni, Choral Music and Choral Conducting Diploma, under the guidance of Maestro Tito Gotti, and further conducting studies with Maestro Pier Paolo Scattolin. At the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia in Rome, she obtained the Level II Degree in Piano Accompaniment.
In 1990 she obtained a teaching degree in music education at both I and II degree, and won the competition for Regular Examinations and Qualifications in the Conservatories of Music D.M. 07.18.90 for the classes of Choral Practice and Piano Accompanist.
In 1987 she began her parallel activities of chorus master and pianist that lead her to found the Coro Polifonico Armònia (with which she performs rarely heard repertoire) and to explore chamber music often using old instruments, including the Pleyel piano belonging to Gioachino Rossini currently kept at the Bibliographical Museum of Bologna.
In 1992 she went to study the Kodaly choral method at the University of Esztergom in Hungary after winning a scholarship from the Italian Ministry of Education. In the same year she began her collaboration with the Teatro “V. Bellini” in Catania as Assistant Chorus Master to Maestro Marcel Seminara, with whom she moved to the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma in 1992 until 2000.
From 2000 to 2010 she was assistant to Maestro Andrea Giorgi at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma and from season 2004 was appointed Second Chorus Master at the Fondazione Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, at which she worked as the Assistant Chorus Master to Maestro Roberto Gabbiani till September 2017. From 2010 to 1016 she played for M° Riccardo Muti, preparing the most important Verdi’s operas.
Since 2010, in piano duo with Maestro Roberto Gabbiani she has performed several concerts including the Liebeslieder Waltzer, the Deutsches Requiem by J. Brahms in the version for two pianos, and the Petite Messe Solennelle by G. Rossini in the first performance version in the Pillet-Wills House in Passy, curated by Philip Gosset and performed at the National Theatre Rome, the Teatro Costanzi and the Cathedral of St. Pierre in Montpellier.
As either pianist or continuo she has been involved in several performances of Carmina Burana by Carl Orff, the Petite Messe Solennelle by Gioachino Rossini, the Weinachts Oratorium by J.S. Bach and the Gloria, Credo and Magnificat by Vivaldi, including performances at several important festivals, including the Medieval Festival of Anagni, the Easter Festival of Orvieto, the opening of the 2011 season of the Società Aquilana di Concerti “Barattelli”, and the Concert in honour of Pope Benedict XVI at the Sala Nervi in 2011, hosted by President Giorgio Napolitano.
On 8th of December 2015 she was organist for the Women’s Chorus of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, for the Jubilee concert directed by Maestro Roberto Gabbiani, at the Church of St. Agostino in Roma, in collaboration with the Sistine Chapel Choir.
From 2000 to 2011, as Chorus Master, at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, she signed sixteen productions, including the K.Weill musical “Lady in the Dark“, “La fille du régiment“, “Così fan tutte “, “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” and “Madama Butterfly“, and for “Rigoletto” and “Tosca”, on tour in Japan in the Biwako Hall Otsu, Bunkamura and NHK Hall in Tokyo.
In January 2003 she was invited by the Teatro Comunale di Bologna to be Chorus Master for the production of “Un Ballo in Maschera” by Verdi conducyed by Daniele Gatti and “The Magic Flute” W.A. Mozart, and for the preparation and performance of the “Deutsches Requiem” J.Brahms, conducted by Maestro D.Gatti, in memory of Professor Marco Biagi, filmed by RAI and in the presence of President M.P. Casini, at the inauguration of the new Teatro Manzoni.
From December 2003 to July 2005 she was engaged by the Teatro di Tradizione “Luglio Musicale” di Trapani, as Chorus Master, for “L’elisir d’Amore“, “Le Nozze di Figaro” “Un ballo in maschera”, “Cavalleria rusticana” and “I Pagliacci“.
In 2007 her interest in contemporary opera led her to work on “The Punkitititi mask” as Chorus Master. A work commissioned by the Rome Opera from the composer Marco Taralli and directed by Quirino Conti. In 2009 thanks to her french language knowledge, she realised a pilot project of the Lycée Chateaubriand, the French School of Rome, who commissioned an opera for children “La Fugitive” with libretto by Daniel Goldenberg and music by Lucio Gregoretti, preparing the children’s choir and solo voices. The opera was staged at the National Theatre in Rome under the baton of Tonino Battista with the Young Opera Orchestra of Rome.
Between 2008 and 2009, she worked in collaboration with RAI 2 on the program “Ti Lascio una Canzone” (I Leave you a Song), directed by Antonella Clerici. She took part in concerts organized by the Rome Opera for the exhibitions “L’Opera Teatro” and “Aperitif Concerts” sponsored by ETI. Across Lazio she has worked as accompanist for both singers and choirs, and as an instrumentalist in the jazz group “Giasscritto”, in different theaters of the city of Rome and the Lazio Region: Teatro Italia and Teatro Manzoni, Municipal Theatres of Formello and Cassino.
From 2008 to 2014 she prepared the Coro Giuseppe Verdi di Roma in a series of operatic and symphonic concerts, including: the Memorial Concert, broadcast on RAI 1 for the commemoration of the victims of 11th of September 2001, preparing the Stabat Mater by Rossini, conducted by Maestro Paolo Olmi and winning the 1st prize at the International Competition of San Gemini, chaired by Maestro Giorgio Vidusso, in 2008.
For the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy and the founding of the Italian Army, she worked with the Band of the Italian Army in concert at the Auditorium Parco della Musica, presented by Michele Mirabella and aired on Sky TV.
She worked as Chorus Master for the forth episode of Woody Allen’s film “To Rome with Love” with the tenor Fabio Armiliato.
In June 2014 she was invited by Maestro Quirino Conti to the Capriccio Musicale at the Teatro Caio Melisso of Spoleto, in the presence of Maestro Riccardo Muti, organised by Carla Fendi Foundation.
Since 2010 with the Verdi Choir she has taken part in the Umbria Music Festival with performances of the Requiem by Giuseppe Verdi and the Deutsches Requiem by Johannes Brahms performed in Rome at the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore and the Basilica of Assisi under the direction of M ° Walter Attanasi.
In April 2014 at the invitation of Maestro Jean-Paul Scarpitta, she coached young artists for the opera La Traviata at the Montpellier’s Theater, directed by Maestro Giuseppe Grazioli.
In 2014 she founded the International Opera Choir, a new choral group, open to young singers of all nations who wish to deepen their understanding of great choral repertoire. Its inaugural concert Pacem in Terris was on the 28th of November 2014, supported by the Carla Fendi Foundation in the Basilica of St. John Lateran. In February 21, 2015 she performed at the Cathedral of Avezzano, the Concert dedicated to the centenary of the 1915 Avezzano earthquake under the baton of Jacopo Siparo di Pescasseroli.
With the Ensemble of the IOC, on February 14, 2015, in an evening dedicated to St. Valentine, she directed the lyrical show “La Magie du Farnèse” with opera arias and choruses of the Italian and French tradition, at the magnificent French Embassy in Rome.
She prepared the International Opera Choir at the 58th, 59th and 60th Spoleto Festival for the inaugural works: Così fan tutte and Le Nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni by Mozart, the latter broadcasted live by RAI5, under the baton of Maestro James Conlon, conducting the Cherubini Orchestra.
The 2015 year ended with Il Barbiere di Seviglia at the Teatro Argentina in Rome on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the first performance in the very theatre in which it was premiered.
In 2017 she won a Chorus Master position at Teatro Massimo Vincenzo Bellini in Catania and the the following year she was appointed Chorus Master in Real Teatro di San Carlo in Naples for three years. Currently, she works as Chorus Master in Teatro Comunale in Bologna.
In 2024 with the Teatro Comunale’s Choir, she was invited by Orchestra Mozart, founded by Claudio Abbado to perform Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, under the baton of Sir John Elliot Gardiner in Ferrara, Bologna and Milan.
Over twenty years she has worked in various Italian opera houses, in a wide repertoire of operas, sacred and symphonic works, and performed under the baton of many great conductors including: Nello Santi, Daniel Oren, Zoltan Pesko, Peter Maag, Yuri Ahronovitch, Bruno Bartoletti, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Gary Bertini, Donato Renzetti, Jeffrey Tate, Daniele Gatti, Bruno Campanella, Gunther Neuhold, Steven Mercurio, Alain Lombard, Pinchas Steinberg, Sir John Elliot Gardiner, Riccardo Muti, Sir John Eliot Gardiner.
And she has worked with directors including: Hugo de Ana, Peter Stein, Franco Zeffirelli, Graham Vick, Mario Martone, Damiano Michieletto, La Fura dels Baus.
Choirmaster in “2 Agosto” International Composing Competition, Edition 2023
Choirmaster in “2 Agosto” International Composing Competition, Edition 2025
