Umberto made his public debut on cello at the age of seventeen performing Haydn’s D major cello concerto in Japan. After years of performing at the world’s most prestigious concert halls, Umberto was appointed Principal cello of the Teatro Regio di Torino and then of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra (from 2014 to 2021).

In 2018 Umberto made his conducting debut with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra at the Sydney Opera House. Following a swift trajectory of prestigious conducting engagements, he is now in high demand across the Asia-Pacific and Europe. In addition to his role as Chief Conductor of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, he recently conducted Elgar’s cello concerto with Steven Isserlis for the Volksoper Vienna and debuted with Orchestra del Teatro Massimo in Palermo and Orchestra Regionale Toscana. Umberto has also curated a three-week series with the Sydney Symphony for ‘Symphony Hour’ and returned to the podiums of the Dunedin, Melbourne and West Australian Symphony Orchestras.

Highlights in 2025 included conducting Daniil Trifonov playing Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 3 with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, a return to Teatro Massimo in Palermo and his second collaboration with Opera Queensland for which he conducted Puccini’s La bohème.

Umberto remains beloved as a cellist by audiences worldwide, having performed as a soloist at Carnegie Hall, Vienna’s Musikverein, the great Shostakovich Hall of St Petersburg, Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome and the Salzburg Festival. He is one of only two Italians to have ever won a prize for cello in the prestigious International Tchaikovsky Competition.