Manuel Staropoli graduated in Recorder at the “Giuseppe Tartini” Conservatory in Trieste and in Baroque Flute at the “Giuseppe Verdi ” Conservatory in Turin. His musical education was further enriched by participating in masterclasses and seminars with musicians such as Kees Boeke, Walter van Hauwe and Barthold Kuijken. He then worked with renowned recorder players as Dorothee Oberlinger, Maurice Steger, Gudrun Heyens, Dan Laurin, Pamela Thorby. He also studied baroque oboe with Giovanni Caviglia and Paolo Faldi. He has performed as a soloist, with chamber ensembles and orchestras in more than 600 concerts in Italy and abroad, taking part in major international festivals and music festivals (Festival van Vlaanderens, Teatro alla Scala in Milan, etc.). Soloist with Accademia del Ricercare, he works also with I Sonatori della Gioiosa Marca, Academia Montis Regalis, laVerdi Baroque Orchestra in Milan. As a permanent member he has taken part in all the recordings of the heavy metal band Rhapsody of Fire, distributed worldwide. He has recorded for labels as Sony, Stradivarius, Tactus, Amadeus, Brilliant Classic, Dynamic. He is also “Flauto Dolce & Dintorni” columnist and editor for the quarterly magazine FaLaUt. He gave masterclasses and seminars on recorder, baroque flute and the interpretation of early music at the Musik Hockschule in Mannheim (Germany), at the Muzička Akademija of Zagreb (Croatia), at the Musik Hockschule in Duisburg-Essen (Germany), at the “Béla-Bartòk” University of Miskolc (Hungary) and in Musikschule in St. Georgen im Attergau (Salzburg, Osterreich). Since 2005 he is director of the “International Early Music Course” in Romano Canavese (Italy). He has taught at the “Agostino Steffani” Conservatory in Castelfranco Veneto and at the “Niccolò Paganini” Conservatory in Genoa. Currently he teaches Recorder at the “Niccolò Piccinni” Conservatory in Bari and Baroque Flute at the “Arrigo Pedrollo” Conservatory in Vicenza.