Conductor José Maria Sciutto passed away. He was 79.

Sciutto was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina on Feb. 10, 1947. He studied at the Facultad de Bellas Artes of the Universidad Nacional de La Plata where he obtained a diploma in Choral and Orchestral Conducting .

He served as concert master at Teatro dell’Opera di Roma and directed several choirs including the Choral Laboratory, and the Children’s Choir of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome. He was a guest conductor of orchestras such as the Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional Argentina, the Orquesta Sinfònica de Bahia Blanca, Giuseppe Verdi Orchestra of Milan, Abruzzese Symphony Orchestra, Junior Orchestra of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia of Rome, Ensemble Lírico-Orquestal de Buenos Aires, and the Pesaro Symphony Orchestra. Sciutto also led many university masterclasses for the training of choir and orchestra conductors.

Sciutto taught Choral Conducting in Music Education at the Luisa D’Annunzio Conservatory of Music in Pescara and was a professor of Methodology of Musical Education at the Faculty of Educational Sciences of the University of L’Aquila.

In 2016 he was published “Schola cantorum. A method for creating a choir of children’s and ‘no longer children’s’ voices.” In 2021, Sciutto received the Gaetano Catena Lifetime Achievement Award.

Sciutto passed away in Mar del Plata, Argentina on June 20, 2026.