Riccardo Minasi

Riccardo Minasi, born in Rome in 1978, is one of the most compelling musicians to have crossed over from the world of historically informed performance into the mainstream of orchestral conducting. He trained as a violinist, first on the modern instrument and then on the baroque violin, and built a formidable reputation as a soloist and concertmaster with many of the leading early-music ensembles, working alongside figures such as Jordi Savall, René Jacobs and Giovanni Antonini. He was principal conductor of the virtuoso period-instrument ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro from its foundation in 2012 until 2015, and his award-winning discography made his name internationally. As a conductor he has led the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra as chief conductor, was music director of the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, and now serves as principal guest conductor of Ensemble Resonanz in Hamburg and artistic director of Orchestra La Scintilla at the Zurich Opera. Minasi brings to a great modern orchestra like the Concertgebouworkest the rhetorical urgency, transparent textures and rhythmic bite of the period-performance tradition.