Gualtiero Negrini (born January 24, 1961) is an American conductor, filmmaker, singer, actor, director and vocal coach of Irish-Italian heritage. Origins Gualtiero Negrini was born to Luciano Negrini (a former Catholic Priest and bass opera singer from Milano, Italy), and Clare Mary Negrini (née Young, an Irish-American mezzo-soprano opera singer from Chicago). His great uncle, the tenor Carlo Negrini, created the role of Gabriele Adorno for Giuseppe Verdi, in the premiere of Simon Boccanegra in Venice in 1857. Throughout his youth, Negrini used to say that he had been born in Milano as a tribute to his father who had always lamented that none of his four sons had been born in Italy. Although he spent time there as a child and in subsequent years, he was actually born at the Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in California, and considers himself a proud Angeleno. He attended St Casimir's Elementary School, Daniel Murphy High School, and USC Opera Workshop, all in Los Angeles. Conducting Gualtiero Negrini began his studies at a very early age as a pianist and conductor under former Berlin Philharmonic conductor Fritz Zweig, and Dr. George Dawson of California State University, Long Beach. He conducted his first performances at the age of 13, a two-piano performance of Madama Butterfly with a small local amateur opera company. In his subsequent teen years, he continued conducting productions with full orchestra of Don Pasquale, Faust, and Lucia di Lammermoor. In the early 1990s, he co-founded the Opera Orchestra of Los Angeles, conducting critically acclaimed performances of Puccini's Turandot with Metropolitan Opera stars Ghena Dimitrova and Giuliano Ciannella. With the same orchestra, Negrini also conducted Verdi's Attila, and An Evening with Jerry Hadley – a gala concert featuring the Metropolitan Opera tenor Jerry Hadley. He would go on to conduct Los Angeles productions of Tosca, La Bohème, Madama Butterfly, and Carmen. In 2000, Negrini conducted and produced the popular recording, Broadway Classic, featuring the renowned musical theater soprano, Lisa Vroman. In 2010, he was approached to be the resident conductor of the Opera Arts Festival in Palm Desert, California, a post he held for six seasons. Vocal Coach Negrini is also an internationally respected vocal coach. He began with the USC Opera Workshop, after being offered a position as a repertoire coach there at the tender age of 16, and has maintained private teaching studios in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York