Alessandro de Marchi first studied organ and composition at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome. He made his début as a conductor in 1984 and laid the foundation of his collaboration with the Radio Symphony Orchestras of Rome and Naples. With the Accademia Montis Regalis of Turin, an early instrument ensemble, he has won considerable success with performances of operas by Haydn and Vivaldi. In 1989 he began a period as assistant to and harpsichordist with René Jacobs who, like Daniel Barenboim a year later, encouraged his career and introduced him to the leading opera houses of Europe. Since the mid-1990s he has served as guest conductor at the Staatsoper unter den Linden in Berlin, where he has conducted Il barbiere di Siviglia, Haydn's L'isola disabitata and Il matrimonio segreto. On the invitation of the Stuttgart Staatsoper he directed Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria and Keiser's Masaniello, and at the Hamburg Staatsoper he conducted Il barbiere and L'incoronazione di Poppea. In Brussels he conducted at La Monnaie Don Pasquale, Cenerentola and Don Giovanni. He has appeared at the Montreux and Halle Handel Festivals and regularly at Rossini in Wildbad. His recording of Rossini's La pietra del paragone has been released on Naxos (8.660093-95).