The mezzo-soprano Francesca de Giorgi was born in Lecce and qualified in organ and composition at the Tito Schipa Conservatory there, also studying the piano. She trained as a singer at the Verdi Conservatory in Milan and in various courses and master-classes with distinguished teachers. She was a finalist in the Sixtieth Concorso Lirico at Spoleto and won prizes in a number of other competitions, including the Alessandria C, Mosso, and the Milan Conservatory Assami. In 2005 she took the special prize for the best performance of operatic arias or chamber songs by Zandonai and was awarded a scholarship by the MusicaRiva Festival. She has appeared in major concert halls, conservatories and theatres including the Como Teatro Sociale in Berlioz’s Les nuits d’été, and participated in concerts at the Lecce Basilica of Santa Croce and the S. Castromediano Provincial Museum. At the 2006 Valle d’Itria Festival she sang in Salieri’s La Passione di Gesù Cristo and in 2007 in Richard Strauss’s Salomé and Giordano’s Marcella.