Antonello Manacorda

An Italian with a strong affinity for the German repertoire, Antonello Manacorda is a true orchestral practitioner whose artistic creativity is combined with a collaborative approach to music-making. Born in Turin to an Italian-French family, educated in Amsterdam, and now living in Berlin, Manacorda was a founding member and long-time concertmaster of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra before studying conducting with the legendary Finnish teacher Jorma Panula.

Since summer 2025, Manacorda is honorary conductor of the Kammerakademie Potsdam, which he led as artistic director and principal conductor since 2010. Starting with the 2027–28 season he has been appointed music and artistic director of Les Siècles, one of Europe’s leading ensembles for historically informed performance practice.

In recent seasons, Manacorda has worked with The Cleveland Orchestra, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, and Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, among other ensembles. He also celebrated great successes at The Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House, Deutsche Oper Berlin, and Bavarian State Opera. One highlight, acclaimed by audiences and press alike, was his operatic debut at the 2025 Salzburg Festival conducting the Vienna Philharmonic in a new production of Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda.

Upcoming highlights of the 2026–27 season include Idomeneo with the Opéra National de Paris and subscription weeks with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, and San Francisco Symphony.

With the Kammerakademie Potsdam, Manacorda has recorded Mendelssohn and Schubert cycles for Sony Classical, the latter of which received the Orchestra of the Year prize at the 2015 ECHO Klassik Awards. In October 2022, Manacorda and Potsdam received the OPUS Klassik Award in the same category for their recording of Mozart’s final symphonies. A recording of Beethoven’s complete symphonies was released in May 2024; the recording of his Fifth and Sixth symphonies, previously released in October 2023, was awarded the OPUS Klassik in the Best Symphonic Recording category.