Riccardo Minasi

Italian-Japanese conductor Riccardo Minasi currently serves as Principal Guest Conductor of Ensemble Resonanz, resident at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie. His previous appointments include co-founder and conductor of Il Pomo d’Oro from 2011 to 2016, Chief Conductor of the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra from 2017 to 2022, Artistic Director of Orchestra La Scintilla at the Zurich Opera House and Music Director of Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa from 2022 to 2025.

In the 2026/27 season, Minasi returns to several prominent ensembles with whom he has established ongoing relationships, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, the Dresden Staatskapelle, the Gürzenich Orchester Köln, the Royal Northern Sinfonia, the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. Further highlights of the season include engagements with the Toronto Symphony, St. Luke Symphony, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Warsaw Philharmonic, Wiener Symphoniker, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, and Essener Philharmoniker.

On the operatic stage, he makes a major debut at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where he will conduct two Mozart productions: Le Nozze di Figaro and Così fan tutte.

His ongoing collaboration with Ensemble Resonanz has included appearances at Beethovenfest Bonn, the Berliner Philharmonie, the Kölner Philharmonie, the Wiener Konzerthaus, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam amongst others, as well as a critically acclaimed debut at the BBC Proms in 2024 where he returned in the summer of 2025, leading the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in a production of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro originally staged at Glyndebourne Opera festival. In the current season, he reunites with Ensemble Resonanz for a European tour, performing Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 across major international venues.

These engagements follow a highly active 2025/26 season, during which Minasi was Artist in Residence at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, leading five programs. Further appearances included the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen for an European tour with Beatrice Rana, and a South America tour with James Ehnes, Münchner Philharmoniker, Luxembourg Philharmonic, SWR Symphonieorchester, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Copenhagen Philharmonic, and Dresdner Philharmonie. 

In the same season, Minasi made his debut with Mahler Chamber Orchestra performing Mahler’s Symphony no. 3 in Essen, Dortmund, and Köln, and conducted the Western Australian and Queensland Symphony Orchestras.

Past symphonic and operatic highlights include performances with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, and Swedish Radio Symphony. On the opera stage, Minasi has conducted Die Zauberflöte, Le Nozze di Figaro, and Rodelinda at the Dutch National Opera; Dialogues des Carmélites and Don Giovanni at Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía; Le Nozze di Figaro and Così fan tutte for Glyndebourne Opera Festival; and numerous productions at Opernhaus Zürich, Hamburg Staatsoper, Opéra National de Lyon, and Teatro Carlo Felice.

Riccardo Minasi has an extensive award-winning discography, which includes multiple Diapason D’Or de l’Année and four Echo Klassik awards in the same year (2016), as well as a Grammy Award nomination.

Minasi’s performances are grounded in musicological research. He has served as a historical advisor for the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and, alongside Maurizio Biondi, curated and edited the 2016 Bärenreiter critical edition of Bellini’s Norma – a work he subsequently conducted in Hamburg, Köln, Genova, and at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence.