He graduated ‘summa cum laude’ in ‘Materie Letterarie’ at the University of Parma, supervised by Professor Gian Paolo Minardi, presenting a thesis on the impresarial activities and the music periodicals of the publishing house, Casa editrice Sonzogno. His thesis was published in 1995 by Sonzogno. Since 1985, he has worked at the Centro Internazionale di Ricerca sui Periodici Musicali (CIRPeM) of Parma, first as an archivist and researcher, and later as Director of the institute (from 2001 to 2016). From 1989 to 2002, he collaborated with the Répertoire International de la Presse Musicale (RIPM) as an author and co-editor of volumes dedicated to Italian periodicals.
From 2000 to 2003, he was a member of the National Committee of the Società Italiana di Musicologia, with responsibility for the ‘Co-ordination of editorial activities’.
In 2002, he was appointed as ‘Professore Associato’ in the discipline area of ‘History of Music and Musicology’. Currently, he teaches courses in ‘History of Modern and Contemporary Music’ and in ‘History of Music Theatre’ at the Università degli studi di Parma.
In 2002, within the auspices of the Casa della Musica of Parma, he collaborated in the initial development and later directed the realisation of the multimedia museum, ‘L’opera in scena. Viaggio nel teatro musicale a Parma’ (‘Opera on stage. Journey through the lyric theatre of Parma’).
From 2005 to 2015, he has been the President of the Istituzione Casa della Musica of Parma.
From 2005 to 2007, he was responsible for the coordination of the research in Parma for the Project of Relevant National Interest (PRIN 2005): "Banca-dati della critica musicale in Italia: 1900-1950".
In 2007, he organised an international conference: "Arturo Toscanini e la direzione d'orchestra del suo tempo" (Parma, 4-6 May 2007).
In 2007, he led a research project sponsored by the Ministero Beni Culturali and the Istituzione Casa della Musica entitled "Fortuna critica di Arturo Toscanini".
In 2008, he is supervising the development of the "Casa del Suono", an institute for research and exhibitions dedicated to the history and evolution of the relationship between music and technology, with particular reference to recording techniques and the transmission of sound.
In 2019 he was appointed member of the scientific committee of Istituto Nazionale di Studi Verdiani.
His publications concern above all topics of material history (institutions, systems of information and music criticism, theatrical production), and of the reception of Italian music from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. Especially noteworthy are his contributions dedicated to the birth and evolution of criticism and the Italian musical press in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; the nineteenth-century publishing trade, musical societies and theatrical institutions; the composers of the ‘Giovane Scuola’; Arrigo Boito, Luigi Cherubini, Giacomo Puccini, Arturo Toscanini; and particular aspects of the ‘oeuvre’ of Giuseppe Verdi (‘L’illuminazione sulla scena verdiana ovvero “L’arco voltaico non acceca la luna?”’, in ‘La realizzazione scenica dello spettacolo verdiano’, 1997; ‘”Effekt, nicht als Effekt”. Aspekte der Rezeption der Opera Verdis im Italien des 19. Jahrhunderts’, in ‘Giuseppe Verdi und seine Zeit’, 2001; ‘Verdi e la critica musicale di estrazione letteraria: il caso di Carlo Collodi’, in ‘Verdi 2001’, 2003; 'Verdi in prima pagina. Nascita, sviluppo e affermazione della figura di Verdi nella stampa italiana dal XIX al XXI secolo', 2014).
