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 also 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. At the end of the 2024/25 season, Antonello Manacorda stepped down as artistic director and principal conductor of the Kammerakademie Potsdam. With this internationally sought-after ensemble, he has produced a series of award-winning recordings since 2010 and will remain associated with the orchestra as honorary conductor .

At the 2025 Salzburg Festival, Antonello Manacorda conducted the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in Gaetano Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda in a new production by Ulrich Rasche to great critical acclaim. In the 2025/26 season, opera productions take Antonello Manacorda to the Opéra National de Paris (Nozze de Figaro), 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 in the 2025/2026 season Antonello Manacorda undertakes an international concert tour with Les Siècles and Isabelle Faust and conducts subscription weeks with the Oslo Philharmonic, the Munich Philharmonic, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and the Cleveland Orchestra, among others.

In recent seasons, Antonello Manacorda has worked with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, the Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, among others. He enjoyed great success with a new production of Weber’s Der Freischütz by Dmitri Tcherniakov at the Bavarian State Opera, his debut at the Semperoper Dresden (Der Freischütz) and a new production of Debussy’s Pelléas et Melisande at the Opéra National de Paris.

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’.