People · conductor, pianist
Mario Paci
梅百器Méi Bǎiqì · 1878–1946
Italian pianist and conductor who led the Shanghai Municipal Orchestra from 1919 until it was disbanded in 1942.
Mario Paci (梅百器, Méi Bǎiqì) conducted the Shanghai Municipal Orchestra for more than two decades, from 1919 to 1942.
Paci was born in Florence in 1878 and trained as a pianist in Naples and Rome, winning a prize in a Liszt piano competition in 1895. He then studied composition at the Milan Conservatory, worked as assistant conductor at three Milan opera houses, and from 1902 toured as a performer around the world.
In September 1919 the Shanghai Municipal Council hired him to lead its orchestra. He stayed until the orchestra was disbanded in 1942. During those years, the gazetteer says, he brought in a number of strong players from the West and gave the first Shanghai performances of many well-known works, making the ensemble one of the leading orchestras in the Far East. He died in 1946.