Maximilien Seren-Piccinni, Director, President of the Niccolò Piccinni Fund and Artistic Director of the Garda Festival, was born in Verona into a family with deep roots in the history of music: he is a descendant, through his mother's side, of the famous Italian composer and master of opera buffa Niccolò Piccinni. His training took place in the Department Schauspiel, Regie & Applied Theatre at the Universität Mozarteum in Salzburg, where he obtained the Regie Diplom in 2014. In 2019, he obtained a Master's degree in opera directing at the Polo Nazionale Artistico di Alta Specializzazione sul Teatro musicale e coreutico in Verona. He then attended several directing masters courses conducted by renowned professionals in the field, including Emilio Sagi, Paul Curran, Stephen Medcalf, Lorenzo Mariani, Jacopo Spirei and Andrea Chiodi. Franco Zeffirelli also contributed to his training, on the occasion of the director's famous opera productions at the Arena di Verona. In 2008, he was hired as assistant to actress and playwright Franca Valeri for the 65th Venice International Film Festival, a position he also held the following year for director Mario Monicelli, whose he become personal assistant. This experience allowed him to take his first steps into the world of cinema as a collaborator on audiovisual projects, including the 2008 documentary short film Vicino al Colosseo...c'è Monti. Since July 2010 and in subsequent editions, Maximilien Seren-Piccinni has worked as a director in France, directing plays such as Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Othello, and Molière's The Miser at the Festival de Ramatuelle, where he distinguished himself as one of the festival's youngest directors. In 2016, he was assistant set designer for Verdi's Nabucco at the Arena di Verona and the following year he was assistant director at the Salzburger Festspiele for Verdi’s Aida, directed by Shirin Neshat and conducted by Riccardo Muti. Also as part of the Salzburg Festival, he worked as production assistant for Verdi's I due Foscari with Plácido Domingo and for the Young Singers Project under Eva Maria Wieser. He collaborated on Sylvano Bussotti's revival of Verdi's Simon Boccanegra at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples in 2018 and the following year he was chosen by Pier Luigi Pizzi as assistant director at the Festival della Valle d'Itria in Martina Franca for Cimarosa's Il Matrimonio Segreto and Manfroce's Ecuba. In 2022, he made his debut as opera director in Verdi's La Traviata at the Flaiano Theatre in Rome. in his capacity as President of the Niccolò Piccinni Fund, an appointment he obtained in 2018, he launched an intense programme of celebratory activities to honour the composer's memory, contributing to keeping his musical and cultural legacy alive. After an interruption of about twenty years, in 2022 he decided to restore and bring back to Italy the prestigious Piccinni Prize, a historic award dedicated to excellence in the performing arts. In this context, he also collaborated with the well-known actress and Fellini muse Sanda Milo to realise the docu-interview Sandra Milo - Album di una diva, dedicated to her film and television career. In 2023, he promoted the creation of the Garda Festival - Lake Garda International Music, Dance and Cinema Festival, organised by the Niccolò Piccinni Fund on the shores of Lake Garda. This summer cultural events series celebrates performing arts, offering a repertoire ranging from baroque to contemporary, as well as the art of dance in its many expressions, from classical ballet to contemporary dance. As part of the Garda Festival, it has initiated a collaboration with the Accademia del Cinema Italiano - Premi David di Donatello, creating an annual concert aimed at highlighting film music and soundtracks from Italian cinema. In August 2025 he presented at the Venice International Film Festival, the short movie, Orfeo, realised in collaboration with the ICNN - Istituto Cinematografico Nuovi Narratori.