Ermanno Florio has impressed both audiences and critics in the major centers of Europe, North America, and Asia. The extremely versatile Mr. Florio has well distinguished himself in genres of symphonic, operatic and balletic repertoire. Mr. Florio maintains an active conducting schedule which has included extensive engagements with the world's major ballet companies in New York, London, Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Amsterdam, Milan, Rome, Florence, Tokyo, and Geneva, Sweden, Norway and Finland.
In 1985 Mr. Florio was appointed Principal Conductor and Music Administrator of the National Ballet of Canada by Erik Bruhn and since 1992 has held the position of Music Director of Houston Ballet. From 1998 to 2001 Mr. Florio held the position of Music Director of American Ballet Theatre. In March 2004 Mr. Florio was appointed Music Director of Het Nationale Ballet in Amsterdam and currently continues his relationship with the Company as Principal Guest Conductor.
Mr. Florio's extensive discography includes DVD releases of critically acclaimed performances of The Sleeping Beauty, La Sylphide, Onegin, Cinderella, The Merry Widow, Alice, The Nutcracker, La Ronde and Le Corsaire with ABT which won an Emmy for Outstanding Classical Program in the Performing Arts. Mr. Florio's DVD recording of Don Quichotte with L'Orchestre de L'Opera National de Paris also won the Cannes Classical Music Award for Best DVD in the category of Concert and Ballet Recordings.
Mr. Florio's music arrangement include scores for Patrice Bart's Tchaikovsky, Das Flammende Hertz and Gustaf III: Stanton Welch's Marie Antoinette and La Bayadère, and Asami Maki's La Dame aux Camelias.
Mr. Florio attended the University of Toronto, where he focused on conducting at the suggestion of Sir Andrew Davis whose protege he became. After graduation, Mr. Florio participated in conducting courses at the Toho-Gakuen school in Tokyo, and was the recipient of numerous awards for study in Rome and Siena. Mr. Florio later studied with Franco Ferrara and Sergiu Celibidache.