Hailing from Sicily, Calogero Palermo was appointed principal clarinettist of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in August 2015.
After completing his studies at the Palermo Conservatory and with Thomas Friedli in Geneva, he was appointed principal clarinettist – at the age of twenty-two – of the Orchestra del Teatro V. Bellini in the Sicilian city of Catania.
He won the Orchestra del Teatro dell’Opera di Roma principal clarinet audition in 1997, and served as principal clarinettist of that orchestra from 1997 to 2008 and from 2012 to 2015. During the intervening years, he was a member of the Orchestre National de France. Palermo has worked as a substitute with the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala in Milan and with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.
Calogero palermo has made an international name for himself as a soloist and chamber musician, having performed in all the leading Italian cities, and in Spain, Germany, France, Tunisia, Russia, China, Taiwan, Japan and the US. He has featured as a regular soloist on radio and television broadcasts in Italy, France and Romania, including a RaiTrade performance of Weber’s Clarinet Concerto No. 1.
He is also an experienced teacher who regularly gives masterclasses. He is the author of the didactic method Soli d’orchestra, containing revisions and arrangements for clarinet and piano of well-known works.