Swiss-born conductor-composer Adriano lives in Zurich. As a musician he is mostly self-taught.

In the late 1970s he established himself as a specialist on Ottorino Respighi and he has conducted many other recordings of obscure or neglected symphonic repertoire. On Marco Polo/Naxos he initiated and recorded a series of 15 albums mainly of European film music composers, and created and directed a series of classical music videos. All of his recording projects, realised with orchestras in Moscow and Bratislava (49 albums, 21 of which featuring music by Swiss composers) have found wide recognition, and his commitment is totally dedicated and uncompromising. Between 2003 and 2017 he has recorded the complete orchestral works by Fritz Brun over 10 albums.

Adriano’s compositions include concertinos for piano, celesta, harpsichord and Ondes Martenot and an Obscure Saraband for organ, chimes, timpani and strings. His quintet for clarinet and strings is entitled Thoughts and Associations. His many instrumental adaptations include songs by Modest Mussorgsky (four cycles), Ottorino Respighi (five cycles), Johannes Brahms (Vier ernste Gesänge), Hugo Wolf, Othmar Schoeck, Fritz Brun, Jacques Ibert, Louis Gruenberg and Johann Strauss II. Ravel’s Tzigane (premiered in Halle’s Handel-Haus in 2013) also belongs to this list, as well as two different short chamber versions of Antonin Dvořák’s opera Rusalka, one of which ran for 53 performances in Krefeld’s and Monchengladbach’s theatres. Adriano’s successful arrangement of Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune for flute, clarinet, harp and string quartet (2008) has been performed in Switzerland, Germany, Italy and England by internationally renowned artists.