Born in Florence in 1994, Samuele Lastrucci belongs to the new generation of Italian conductors who shape their artistic identity through historical research and performance practice. After his training at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole under Federico Maria Sardelli—of whom he later became assistant in numerous productions in major Italian theatres—he deepened his knowledge of the French musical idiom of the Grand Siècle at the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles. There, he was the only young Italian conductor to be admitted to a programme specifically tailored to working alongside the leading interpreters of the French Baroque repertoire. This dual path — the methodological legacy of Fiesole and the direct assimilation of French aesthetics — defines his artistic profile.

In 2017 he founded the ensemble I Musici del Gran Principe, dedicated to sacred and secular Baroque music between Florence and Paris and inspired by Ferdinando de’ Medici, a refined musician, collector and patron, as well as a second cousin of the Sun King: a cultural genealogy that becomes a key to interpreting the repertoire. With the ensemble — comprising orchestra and choir — Lastrucci has recorded for Brilliant Classics, Glossa and Naxos, and undertaken numerous philological projects, including the first modern performance of Ercole in Tebe by Jacopo Melani at the Teatro della Pergola, the opera that in 1661 opened the Florentine theatre to the public for the first time.

His conducting career reached a turning point with his debut at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, where he was invited to conduct the grand motet Exaudiat te Dominus by Jean-Baptiste Lully, marking his emergence as a leading specialist in the French repertoire in Italy. Alongside Sardelli, he also prepared the first complete modern performance of Lully’s mascarade royale Le Carnaval, a project that will tour widely across Italian and European theatres in 2026.

In 2024 the Holy See invited him to conduct one of the official concerts in preparation for the Jubilee, entrusting him with a performance of Handel’s Messiah in the church of Sant’Ignazio di Loyola in Rome. The success of the event led to two further Roman appearances within the Jubilee programme: an evening performance in Sant’Agnese in Agone featuring Allegri’s Miserere and Handel’s Dixit Dominus, and a concert in San Luigi dei Francesi presenting De Lalande’s Miserere and De Brossard’s Stabat Mater.

Alongside his musical activities, since 2019 Lastrucci has served as director of the Museo de’ Medici at the Rotonda del Brunelleschi in Florence, where he reopened to the public a space that had been closed for decades, initiated the musealisation of the former Monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli, and promoted an interdisciplinary vision of the Medici dynasty integrating the visual arts, music and historical documents. Among his most significant achievements is the international presentation of the “Family Pact” of the Electress Palatine, including a full facsimile edition and complete digitisation of the archival corpus in collaboration with the State Archives of Florence and the Region of Tuscany. In 2025 the museum inaugurated the Biblioteca del Museo de’ Medici, comprising over twelve thousand early printed volumes, restoring to the monastic complex its historic role as a humanistic centre and primary place of research.

Under his direction the museum has promoted exhibitions and conferences throughout Tuscany — from Lunigiana to Val di Chiana — and has carried out international initiatives, including an exhibition organised with the Museo Novecento of Florence on the culture of wine at the European Parliament in Brussels, opened by President Roberta Metsola.

In the field of historical research and specialist dissemination, Lastrucci complements his conducting activity with a strong presence in academic and institutional contexts. At the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno he was invited to contribute to the lecture series Cosimo II de’ Medici (1621–2021), where he delivered — together with Federico Maria Sardelli — the lecture “Il Granduca danza. Gusto, stile e avvenimenti musicali alla corte di Cosimo II (1609–1621)”, dedicated to the transformation of Medicean performance culture: from the early experiments in recitar cantando to the choreographic festivities and court spectacles that marked Tuscany’s entry into Baroque modernity.

His activity as speaker and communicator often intertwines with concert programming. In the Salone dei Cinquecento of Palazzo Vecchio he presented a lecture-concert on the imprese of Cosimo I and their resonance in the sound culture of the late sixteenth century, while at Santa Maria della Scala in Siena he explored the ritual and political dimensions of music at the Medici court through another lecture-concert dedicated to the first grand duke. On the international stage, he participated in the conference I due Baptiste: Molière e Lully, hosted by the Institut Français of Florence, contributing a paper later published in the proceedings that analyses the construction of Lully’s “Florentine myth” and its echoes in European theatrical culture.

His editorial work runs parallel to the museum’s exhibitions and to the projects promoted for the Presidency of the Region of Tuscany, which entrusted him with the curation of the entire cycle devoted to Medici dynastic memory in the rooms of Palazzo Strozzi Sacrati. This work has produced three major exhibitions at the intersection of political history and visual culture: Deo simillimum principem. Cosimo III de’ Medici, 300 anni dopo (2023), which opened the cycle with a new reading of the late-Medici grand duchy; Cosimo I de’ Medici 1574–2024 (2024), dedicated to the construction of the state under the first grand duke; and Maria de’ Medici. Alle origini del Grand Siècle 1575–2025 (2025), reconstructing the dynasty’s transition into the political and cultural history of France. In these contexts Lastrucci not only coordinates the scholarly projects and exhibition design, but also contributes essays offering an updated interpretation of Medici dynastic patronage, strategies of representation, and the relationship between public image and power.

On the critical and journalistic front, Lastrucci is present in leading Italian and European publications. Rai Cinque has documented the major Jubilee concert; Quinte Parallele has featured a lengthy interview on the emergence of new Baroque institutions in Italy; Scherzo has highlighted his recording projects and key milestones of his conducting career; and Total Baroque Magazine has dedicated an extensive portrait to him on the occasion of the founding of the Istituto Giovanni Battista Lulli, recognising his role in reshaping Lully’s image and reception in the contemporary European landscape.

Complementing his artistic work, he holds institutional positions at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole (Board of Directors), the Villa Medicea of Montelupo (Special Advisor for restoration and enhancement), the European Cultural Route “The Leonardo da Vinci Routes” (as delegate of the Metropolitan City of Florence), and the Istituto Giovanni Battista Lulli, of which he is co-director.