BIOGRAPHY
Matthias Manasi has been music director and chief conductor of the Nickel City Opera in Buffalo, NY (USA) since the 2016/17 season, making him to head of one of USA’s big opera houses. His acclaimed debuts in several international operas and with international orchestras solidified his place as one of the outstanding conductors of his generation. From 2013 to 2015 he was conductor at the Opera Wroclawska. In the season 2016/17 he was conductor at the Opera Poznań. In 2010 he took up the position of music director of the International PuntaClassic Festival in Montevideo. From 2000 to 2013 he was chief conductor of the Orchestra Camerata Italiana (since 2010 also artistic director).
Mr. Manasi has also enjoyed great success at the Oper Leipzig, the Staatsoper Stuttgart, the Theater Bremen, the Opernhaus Halle, the Staatstheater Braunschweig, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Opéra de Marseille, the Opera Constanta, the Stadttheater Klagenfurt, the Polish National Opera in Warsaw, the Opera Poznań, the State Opera Rousse, the Rossini Festival Bad Wildbad and at the Eutiner Festspiele.
As a symphonic conductor, Mr. Manasi has conducted the Münchner Rundfunkorchester, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vantaa Orchestra Helsinki, the SWR Symphonieorchester, the Kazakh State Philharmonic Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic, the Staatsorchester Stuttgart, the Staatsorchester Braunschweig, the Staatsorchester Kassel, the Niedersächsisches Staatsorchester Hannover, the Oldenburgisches Staatsorchester, the Mecklenburgische Staatskapelle Schwerin, the Nürnberger Symphoniker, the Symphoniker Hamburg, the Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen, the Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma, the Philharmonie Baden-Baden, the Bach-Collegium Stuttgart, the Romanian National Radio Orchestra, the Orchestra Sinfonica do Teatro Nacional Claudio Santoro, the Montevideo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Sofia Festival Orchestra, the Vratsa Symphony Orchestra, the Orquestra Sinfonica do Rio Grande do Norte, the Polish Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra Sopot, the Orchestra Sinfonica Metroplitana di Bari, the Sanremo Symphony Orchestra, the Orquestra Filarmonia das Beiras, the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra, the Györ Philharmonic Orchestra, the Liepaja Symphony Orchestra, the Adana State Symphony Orchestra, the Südwestdeutsches Kammerorchester Pforzheim and the Wiener Mozart Orchestra in the Musikverein Wien.
In the 2024/25 season, he will appear at the podium of the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra in addition to concerts with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Prague Philharmonia and the Astana Opera Symphony Orchestra. His operatic repertoire also includes numerous 20th and 21st century operas, such as Rodion Shchedrin’s Anna Karenina, Peter Eotvos’ Angels in America, Penderecki’s Paradise Lost, Alban Berg’s Lulu and Wozzeck, Elena Langer’s Figaro Gets a Divorce (2016) and Marc Aurel Floros’ A Bad Man’s Life (1918). He also conducts film-in-concert events worldwide (Harry Potter Film Concert Series) for CineConcerts (Los Angeles).
Matthias Manasi has also gained international acclaim as a pianist. He has appeared as a pianist in Europe, the United States and South America and has led piano concertos by Mozart, Beethoven, R. Strauss, and Gershwin from the keyboard.
In April 2023 Matthias Manasi’s new CD with Mozart’s Symphonies Nos. 34-35-36 with the Slovak Sinfonietta for the label Hanssler Classic was released.
Matthias Manasi studied conducting with Thomas Ungar and piano with Andrzej Ratusinski at the State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart. He also studied piano with Carmen Piazzini at the State University of Music Karlsruhe. At the age of 19 during his studies he worked as an assistant conductor and repetitor at the Staatsoper Stuttgart and as an assistant to Heinz Holliger, to Manfred Honeck and to Miguel Gomez Martinez. While still a student he started to work as a conductor at the Opernhaus Kiel. His mentors and teachers include Ferdinand Leitner, Karl Österreicher, Jorma Panula, Georg Tintner, Kurt Masur, Sylvain Cambreling, Helmuth Rilling and Gianluigi Gelmetti.