Michael Volpe O.B.E. is a writer and opera company leader best known for founding Opera Holland Park. Born to an Italian immigrant family in London, Michael attended Woolverstone Hall school, where he explored his love of music and drama – an experience he wrote about in his memoir Noisy at the Wrong Times. In 1996 he founded Opera Holland Park, and became a specialist in late Italian opera. He retired from Holland Park in 2020, and was awarded an OBE for services to opera; he now leads the pioneering company If Opera. He lives in London with his wife and three children.