MA, Music Performance (Conservatory of Milan, 1986); Laurea, Philosophy/Aesthetics (University of Milan, 1994); Post-doc, Philosophy (EHESS, Paris, 1995-1997); PhD, Musicology (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2007). Studied Jewish musicology and ethnomusicology with Israel Adler, and received his PhD under the mentorship of Prof. Edwin Seroussi with a Dissertation on “The Musical Traditions of the Jews in Piedmont, Italy.” Taught at the University of Milan (Lecturer, 1998-2002); University of California at Santa Cruz (Diller Visiting Lecturer, 2004-2006); and was Associate Adjunct Professor of Music and Jewish Studies, as well as Curator of The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, at the University of California, Berkeley, from 2010 until his retirement in 2025. Anchor for Radiotre, the Cultural Programming station of RAI (Italian National Radio, Rome), 1998-2003. Currently Director of the Jewish Museums of Florence and Siena, Italy, Visiting Professor (Jewish Aesthetics) at the Center for Judaic Studies of the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, and Scholar-in-Residence for the “Jews & Music” initiative of the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, San Francisco (since 2015).
Editor of Italian Jewish Musical Traditions. Curator of over 40 museum exhibitions. Author of numerous essays and book chapters on Italian Jewish music and synagogue life, Jewish music and liturgy in Corfu, Greece, musical relations between Israel and Italy, and the sound study of the synagogue. Academia.edu page at https://berkeley.academia.edu/FrancescoSpagnolo.