Italian choral conductor Massimo Palombella is a Salesian priest and director of the Sistine Chapel Choir (Coro di Cappella Musicale Pontificia Sistina). He studied philosophy and theology at the Salesian Pontifical University, and his teachers in music composition at the Conservatory of Turin were Luigi Molfino and Valentino Miserachs Grau. Palombella was ordained a priest on September 7, 1995, and he joined the faculty of theology at the Salesian Pontifical University, as well as the faculty of the Sapienza University of Rome. He founded the Interuniversity Choir in Rome to bring students together to study polyphony and the Roman Catholic choral tradition, and he was awarded the Pontifical medal by Pope John Paul II for service to the Church and to culture. In 2010, he became the director of the Sistine Chapel Choir, and in 2017, he was appointed a consultant to the Congregation for Divine Worship. His recordings have been released by EuroArts and Deutsche Grammophon. ~ Blair Sanderson