Antonello Manacorda

Biography

An Italian with a strong affinity for the German repertoire. A ‘natural melodist’ (Der Tagesspiegel) who knows how to convincingly transfer the attention to detail of stylistically informed interpretative practice to the large ensemble. He is a true orchestral practitioner whose artistic creativity is combined with a desire for a collaborative style of music-making. Antonello Manacorda's versatility as a conductor is rooted in his rich musical and cultural background: Born in Turin into an Italian-French family, educated in Amsterdam and at home in Berlin for many years, Manacorda was a founding member and long-time concertmaster of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, founded by Claudio Abbado, before studying conducting with the legendary Finnish teacher Jorma Panula. Today, Antonello Manacorda can be heard just as often in opera productions at the world's most important opera houses as he can at the podium of leading symphony orchestras. Since summer 2025, Antonello Manacorda is honorary conductor of the Kammerakademie Potsdam, which he led as artistic director and principal conductor since 2010.

Opera productions in the 2025/26 seaon took Antonello Manacorda to the Opéra National de Paris (Nozze de Figaro) - where he returns in the 2026/27 season with Idomeneo - the Royal Opera House Covent Garden (La Traviata), the Deutsche Oper Berlin (Zar und Zimmermann) and the Metropolitan Opera (La Traviata). In the field of symphonic music Antonello Manacorda conducts subscription weeks in the 2026/27 season with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the NHK Symphony Orchestra and San Francisco Symphony, amongst others.

In recent seasons, Antonello Manacorda has worked among others with the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, the Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, and the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich. He celebrated great success at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden as well as with new productions of Weber's Der Freischütz by Dmitri Tcherniakov at the Bavarian State Opera and of Debussy's Pelléas et Melisande at the Opéra National de Paris. A highlight, celebrated by audiences and press alike, was his operatic debut at the 2025 Salzburg Festival conducting the Vienna Philharmonic in a new production by Ulrich Rasche of Donizetti’s “Maria Stuarda”.

With the Kammerakademie Potsdam, Antonello Manacorda has recorded a Mendelssohn cycle and a Schubert cycle for Sony Classical, both of which have been critically acclaimed. At the 2015 ECHO Klassik awards, the Kammerakademie Potsdam received the prize in the ‘Orchestra of the Year’ category for its cycle of all Schubert symphonies. In October 2022, Antonello Manacorda and the Kammerakademie Potsdam were awarded the OPUS Klassik in the same category for their recording of Mozart's last symphonies.

The complete recording of Ludwig van Beethoven's symphonies was released by Sony Classical in May 2024, and the recording of Ludwig van Beethoven's 5th and 6th symphonies, previously released in October 2023, was awarded the OPUS Klassik in the category ‘Best Symphonic Recording’.