Gianluca Capuano - conductor

Born in Milan, he graduated in organ, composition and conducting from the Conservatory of his city. He then specialized in early music at the Scuola Civica in Milan. Gianluca Capuano also graduated with honors in Theoretical Philosophy from the University of Milan. Since its foundation, he is the artistic director of the festival Musica negli horti, which takes place every September in Val d’Orcia. He has performed as a soloist and conductor throughout Europe, the United States, Russia and Japan, collaborating with artists such as Michael Chance, Emma Kirkby, Cecilia Bartoli, Max Emanuel Cencic, Philippe Jaroussky, Diego Fasolis, Lorenzo and Vittorio Ghielmi. He has performed and conducted in some of the major concert halls of Europe and Japan. In 2006 he founded the period instrument and vocal ensemble Il canto di Orfeo, with whom he recorded a CD dedicated to Giacomo Carissimi published by Italian music magazine Amadeus and a CD dedicated to Baldassarre Galuppi for Avie (“Editor's choice” of “Gramophone” in January 2007).

He regularly collaborates with I Barocchisti and Concerto Köln. In September 2011 he took part in the recording of Artaserse by Leonardo Vinci (Virgin Classics) with Concerto Köln, with whom he made a long European tour in 2012. He then conducted revivals of Artaserse at the Cologne Opera in December 2012. With the ensemble Il Canto d’Orfeo he took part in the opera Heart of a Dog by Alexander Raskatov at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, revived in January 2014 at the Opéra de Lyon. In January 2015 Il Canto d’Orfeo appeared again at La Scala in Die Soldaten by Zimmermann. In May and August of 2013 he conducted the choir of the Italian Swiss Radio in Bellini’s Norma with Cecilia Bartoli at the Salzburg Festival. Particularly appreciated in the baroque and classical repertoire, he has worked with the choir of the Opéra de Nancy, Lyon and Montpellier and with many orchestras such as Milano Classica, I Virtuosi Italiani, Arpeggione, the Opera Orchestra of Manaus (Brazil), Musica Florea (Czech Republic), LaVerdi Barocca (Milan).

In October 2014 he conducted Hasse’s Leucippo at the Opera in Cologne with Concerto Köln with critical acclaim. He Capuano recently took part in the revival of Norma with Cecilia Bartoli in Zurich and at the Salzburg Festspiele and conducted Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice with the Orchestra Arpeggione in Hohenems, as well as concerts with the orchestra of the Opéra de Montpellier. Plans include: Handel’s Ariodante  at the Cologne Opera, Orlando Paladino by Haydn at the Zurich Opera and in Winterthur. He will take part in the production of Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. With his own ensemble Il Canto d’Orfeo he will conduct several baroque programs in Milan and in Switzerland.