Italian conductor and violinist Riccardo Minasi is celebrated as one of the most exhilarating talents in the European classical music scene. Since 2022, he has been the Principal Guest Conductor of the Ensemble Resonanz at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Artistic Director of the Orchestra La Scintilla at the Zurich Opera House and Music Director of the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa. From 2012 to 2015, he co-founded and conducted the ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro, and from 2017 to 2022, he was Chief Conductor of the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra.

In the 2024/25 season, Minasi makes several symphonic debuts: with Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, conducting Bach’s St Matthew Passion, with Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra featuring Michael Spyres in Berlioz Nuits d'été, and with Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse with Antonín Kraft Cello concerto in C major with Jean-Guihen Queyras. He returns to Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra featuring Martin Fröst in the Copland clarinet concerto.

Minasi also returns to Dresden Staatskapelle for their ZDF Advent televised concert, and for three performances of Le Nozze di Figaro at Semperoper Dresden. He returns to Glyndebourne Festival Opera conducting the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in Le Nozze di Figaro, and to Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia for Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites. For his final season with the Teatro Carlo Felice, he conducts Britten’s The Turn of the Screw, alongside three symphonic concerts.

His collaboration with Ensemble Resonanz continues as he records and conducts Beethoven’s Eroica at Musikfest Berlin, Kronberg, Bonn, Antwerp, Hamburg, Dortmund and Cologne. The Ensemble made their BBC Proms debut last season to great acclaim featuring Timothy Ridout and Clara-Jumi Kang.

Recent engagements include a successful debut last season with the Berliner Philharmoniker as well as concerts with Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra.

Past opera performances included Die Zauberflöte and Rodelinda at the Dutch National Opera; Don Giovanni at Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía; Così fan tutte for Glyndebourne Festival Opera; Mozart’s Idomeneo and Bellini’s Beatrice di Tenda with Teatro Carlo Felice; Les Pêcheurs de Perles for Salzburger Festspiele; Così fan tutte, Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Orlando Paladino for Opernhaus Zürich; Alcina, Le nozze di Figaro and Agrippina for Hamburg State Opera and Carmen for Opéra National de Lyon.

Riccardo Minasi has a wealth of recording experience with the world’s top artists, including Diana Damrau, Joyce DiDonato and Juan Diego Flórez. He appeared on four Echo Klassik Award-winning albums in 2016 alone and most recently his Harmonia Mundi recordings with Ensemble Resonanz of Joseph Haydn’s The Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross (2018), the C.P.E. Bach Cello Concertos (2019), and the Antonín Kraft Cello Concerto with Jean-Guihen Queyras (2024) were awarded the Diapason d’Or de l’Année.

Minasi’s performances are characterized by their musicological integrity. He has acted as a historical advisor for the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. Minasi was curator and editor with Maurizio Biondi of the 2016 Bärenreiter critical edition of Bellini’s Norma, a piece he later performed with Ensemble Resonanz and at Teatro Carlo Felice, following the great success of the production at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence in 2022.

As a soloist and concertmaster, Riccardo Minasi has performed with the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Accademia Bizantina, Il Giardino Armonico, Le Concert des Nations, Al Ayre Español, the Orquesta Barroca de Sevilla and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid. Minasi has collaborated with musicians such as Veronika Eberle, Bryn Terfel, Franco Fagioli, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Viktoria Mullova, Reinhard Goebel, Luca Pianca, Christophe Coin and Albrecht Mayer.

Photo credit: Lorelei Heyligers