The Italian conductor Francesco Cagnasso has served as Assistant Conductor to Michael Sanderling at the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra since 2024.

He has conducted ensembles including the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, the Sinfonieorchester St. Gallen, the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, the Mecklenburgische Staatskapelle Schwerin, the Hamburger Symphoniker, the Göttinger Symphonieorchester, the Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie Konstanz, the Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra, and the Martinů Philharmonic Orchestra.

In the field of opera and musical theatre, he has led numerous productions. Highlights include Benjamin Britten Peter Grimes at Luzerner Theater, Janáček’s Alexander bis and The Knife Tears, Im weißen Rössl, and Gräfin Mariza at the Fricktaler Bühne in Basel, as well as The Gypsy Baron and The Duchess of Chicago at the Stadttheater Sursee.

From 2022 to 2024, he was Assistant Conductor to Michael Francis at the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz. He also worked as assistant to François-Xavier Roth with the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne in 2022 (Momentum: Our Future, Now), and to Kent Nagano in Hamburg.