On Tuesday 7 February there will be another screening of Rebel of the Keys at JW3. Following the screening there will be a Q&A with musicologist Dr Anastasia Belina-Johnson and Mark Charles, pictured here while filming scenes for the documentary in Paris. We are now pleased to announce that the Q&A will be chaired by the composer and conductor Dimitri Scarlato.

Dimitri began studying the piano at the age of 5, and aged 6, the violin. At 18, he enrolled at the Conservatorio di Musica S.Cecilia in Rome, as well as also gaining a BA in philosophy at Università La Sapienza. He then worked as pianist, musical director and composer at prestigious Italian theatres: amongst them, Teatro Regio in Parma and Teatro Argentina in Rome. After a masters degree in composition at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, he composed for many short films, including the 66th Venice Film Festival selection, The City in the Sky. He was in the music pre-production of Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd, was selected as a film composer for the Berlinale Talent Campus 2011, and was the conducting coach of Sir Michael Caine in the critically acclaimed film, “Youth”, by Oscar winning director, Paulo Sorrentino.

Dimitri then obtained a Doctorate in Composition at the Royal College of Music (he was selected as 2010’s RCM rising star). His music has been performed at various prestigious venues such as London’s Barbican and Cadogan Hall, and Rome’s Teatro Olimpico and Teatro Palladium. In 2011 he was selected to join the VOX 3 – Composing for Voice workshop at the Royal Opera House in London, and in 2015 he won the 3rd Composition Competition at the International Spring Orchestra Festival, with his piece Caduceo, for two pianos. Two of his operas, Fadwa and La tregua di Natale, have been fully produced and staged by Accademia Filarmonica Romana and Nuova Consonanza (two of the most important music institutions in Rome).

In recent years he has focused on conducting Russian romantic symphonic works and operatic repertoire, as well as premiering new works of living composers. He has also worked on various projects as a songwriter, producer and arranger for singers and bands such as Appassionante, Amici Forever, Monica Iconica, Barbara Cavaleri, David Habbin, Sahara Collective, and Sacha Morgan.  He lectures History of Music at the Royal College of Music and regularly collaborates, as teacher and Composer in Residence with MiSST, a trust funded also by sir Andrew Lloyd Webber.