Stefano Montanari - conductor

One of the most outstanding baroque violinists of his generation, Stefano Montanari is now much in demand as a conductor with both modern and period orchestras. Stefano Montanari was nominated for a Grammy Award for his recording of Purcell’s O Solitude with Andreas Scholl for Decca. His recording of Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas was published for the Italian music magazine Amadeus. He wrote the “Baroque Violin method” published by Carisch.

In Venice, where he regularly appears both in opera and concert, he recently conducted Cavalli’s Eritrea (first performance in modern times), L’Inganno Felice and Don Giovanni. He also made his debut with the Opera in Rome at the Terme di Caracalla conducting Il Barbiere di Siviglia, an opera he also conducted at the Teatro Filarmonico in Verona. Always active as a virtuoso violinist, Stefano Montanari had played the whole series of Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas at the Opéra de Lyon and later at the Settimane Musicali in Stresa Festival. After a successful concert with the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, he has been reinvited to conduct Dido & Aeneas at the Opera in Florence, Bach’s B minor mass and series of symphonic concerts. Stefano Montanari obtained a huge success conducting Il Viaggio a Reims (new production by Damiano Michieletto) in Amsterdam. His most recent engagements include: Caldara’s Dafne at the Palazzo Ducale in Venice, Don Giovanni at the Arena in Verona; Le Nozze di Figaro for Opera Lombardia circuit; La Clemenza di Tito in Moscow with the State Chamber Orchestra of Russia (Moscow Chamber Orchestra); an all Haydn concert series for MiTo Festival and a series of concerts with the Orchestra I Pomeriggi Musicali in Milan and at the Opera in Florence. Stefano Montanari regularly collaborates and records with jazz saxophonist, clarinetist and composer Gianluigi Trovesi.

After his successes in Così fan tutte and La Clemenza di Tito, M° Montanari returns to Moscow at the Bolshoi Theatre conducting revivals of Mozart’s masterpiece.
Future plans: Händel’s Rinaldo in Brussels, Paris and Karlsruhe; Agrippina in Antwerp; Il Barbiere di Siviglia, L’Elisir d’Amore and series of symphonic concerts at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice; Rossini’s Stabat Mater with the Warsaw Philharmonic in Warsaw; Händel’s Gloria in excelsis Deo in Zurich with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra; concerts in Turin with the Filarmonica del Teatro Regio di Torino, in Milan with the Orchestra I Pomeriggi Musicali, in Montreal with the Arion Baroque Orchestra, at the Teatro Real in Madrid and at the Handel Festival in Karlsruhe. He will return to the Opéra de Lyon involved in several new projects, among which Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Alceste, Don Giovanni (on tour in Oman) and a series of concerts.