Fabio Luisi

Grammy Award-winning Italian conductor Fabio Luisi is set to embark on his seventh season as Louise W. & Edmund J. Kahn Music Director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, his tenth as Principal Conductor of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, and his fifth as Principal Conductor of Tokyo’s NHK Orchestra. Also serving as Music Director of Puglia’s Festival della Valle d’Itria and Emeritus Conductor of Turin’s RAI National Symphony Orchestra, Luisi is a maestro of major international standing, who has previously held key positions at orchestras and opera houses including the Dresden Staatskapelle, Vienna Symphony, Zurich Opera, and Metropolitan Opera in New York. Praised for his “vivid, idiomatic conducting” (The Wall Street Journal) and “distinguished and authoritative” leadership (The New York Times), he is “an artist of true distinction, an interpreter in possession of a bold, unique, and clearly discernible voice” (Cleveland Plain Dealer).

Combining new and less familiar music with jewels of the concert and opera repertoire, Luisi’s 2026–27 programming reflects the breadth and scope of his musicianship. Following the success of their complete Wagner Ring cycle on the Delos label, winner of the Special Jury Prize at Italy’s prestigious 2026 Premio Abbiati awards, his upcoming Dallas Symphony highlights include star-studded concert performances of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, accounts of Schubert’s “Unfinished” Symphony and Bach’s St. John Passion, and the world premiere of a new triple concerto by Iranian composer Golfam Khayam. As well as giving the same work’s European premiere, he and the Danish National Symphony undertake Verdi’s Requiem and Mahler’s Fourth and Fifth Symphonies, while his NHK Symphony season features Puccini’s Tosca in concert, Schumann’s Fourth Symphony, and performances of Mahler’s “Resurrection” that represent the centerpiece of the orchestra’s centennial celebrations. In high demand as a guest conductor, after leading the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood, Luisi returns to Leipzig’s Gewandhaus Orchestra, Rome’s Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and the San Francisco Symphony, where he leads a program of Mahler and Schoenberg. He concludes the season with a production of Bellini’s I puritani at La Scala.

The conductor’s previous appointments include General Music Director of the Zurich Opera and Philharmonia Zurich (2012–21); Principal Conductor of New York’s Metropolitan Opera (2011–17); Chief Conductor of the Vienna Symphony, which awarded him the Golden Bruckner Medal and Golden Bruckner Ring (2005–13); General Music Director of Dresden’s Staatskapelle and Sächsische Staatsoper (2007–10); Artistic Director of the Leipzig Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (1999–2007); Music Director of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (1997–2002); Chief Conductor of Vienna’s Tonkünstler-Orchester (1995–2000); and Artistic Director of the Graz Symphony (1990–96). He maintains an active schedule of guest engagements with leading orchestras worldwide, including the Bavarian Radio Symphony, Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, China NCPA Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, La Scala Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Philadelphia Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Saito Kinen Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, and Vienna Philharmonic. Similarly distinguished in the opera world, he has conducted a wealth of new productions and hundreds of performances at the Vienna State Opera, Bavarian State Opera, and Berlin State Opera, as well as leading productions at the Salzburg Festival, Bregenz Festival, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Dutch National Opera, and La Scala.

Luisi has amassed a sizeable and distinguished discography in orchestral and operatic repertoire alike. Recorded with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra for Deutsche Grammophon, his complete Nielsen symphonic cycle was recognized with both Limelight and Abbiati Awards for Best Orchestral Recording of 2023. His account of the composer’s Fourth and Fifth Symphonies was named 2023 Recording of the Year by Gramophone, which featured all three volumes in its list of the top 20 Nielsen recordings of all time. Luisi and the Danish National Symphony subsequently released a complementary recording of Nielsen’s three concertos for violin, flute, and clarinet respectively. They have since won critical acclaim with two more DG titles: a Scriabin collection and a recording of Verklärte Nacht that launched their multi-year project to record Schoenberg’s complete orchestral works for the label.

The conductor previously received a Grammy Award for his leadership of the last two operas of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, when Deutsche Grammophon’s DVD release of the full cycle, recorded live at the Metropolitan Opera, was named Best Opera Recording of 2012. His operatic output also includes rare Verdi operas Jérusalem, Alzira, and Aroldo; Salieri’s La locandiera; and Bellini’s I puritani and I Capuleti e i Montecchi, recorded with Anna Netrebko and Elina Garanča for Deutsche Grammophon. The Philharmonia Zurich launched its Philharmonia Records label with Luisi’s interpretations of Berlioz, Wagner, and Verdi, followed by Rachmaninov concertos and the original version of Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony. For Sony Classical, he has made award-winning recordings of Bruckner and Richard Strauss with the Staatskapelle Dresden. As well as symphonies by Schumann, Brahms, Liszt, Respighi, and Honegger, he has recorded the complete symphonies and Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln by Austria’s Franz Schmidt.

A native of Genoa, Fabio Luisi graduated from the city’s Conservatorio Niccolò Paganini, before relocating to Graz, Austria, to study conducting with Milan Horvat at the University for Music and Performing Arts. In 2002, he was recognized by the Republic of Austria with the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art. Named both Cavaliere della Repubblica Italiana and Commendatore della Stella d’Italia for his role in promoting Italian culture abroad, in 2014 he was awarded Genoa’s Grifo d’Oro, Genoa’s highest honor, for his contributions to the city’s cultural heritage. Most recently, in 2023 he was awarded the Ridderkorset, or Knight’s Cross, by the Queen of Denmark. Off the podium, Luisi is an accomplished composer whose Saint Bonaventure Mass received its world premiere at New York’s St. Bonaventure University, which awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2017. He is also an avid reader, a longtime admirer of the films of David Lynch, and, as reported by The New York Times and CBS Sunday Morning, a passionate maker of perfumes, which he produces for his own company: flparfums.com.