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The French conductor, Félix Benati, studied for 5 years and graduated from the Conservatoire National de Paris in Alain Altinoglu’s conducting class, semi-finalist at the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition 2023 and the International Fernec Fricsay Conducting Competition 2023. He took part in the first Conducting Workshop of the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester with Michael Sanderling in November 2022, attended the 16th Donatella Flick Competition in May 2021, and was quarter-finalist of the 2nd International Opera Conducting Competition of the Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège in August 2022.
Félix Benati is deeply invested in the symphonic repertoire of the 20th & 21st century and in Opera. He is assistant conductor at the Orchestre National de Lille (France) and the Orchestre Français des Jeunes since 2023; he worked with Alexandre Bloch and the French soprano Véronique Gens on Francis Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine. In March 2023, he assisted Mikko Franck with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and the soprano Asmik Grigorian through some of Richard Strauss lyrical repertoire, and Benjamin Levy with the Orchestre National de Cannes. In 2023, he will also work with the Orchestre des Amateurs de la Philharmonie de Paris. He will be guest conductor at Ensemble Multilatérale and Orchestre Elektra for the 2023-2024 season.
In France, Félix Benati worked with Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, Ensemble InterContemporain, Orchestre de Picardie and Orchestre Régional de Normandie, and with great conductors like Mikko Franck, Arie van Beek, Pascal Rophé and Bertrand de Billy. His love for voice has also led him to opera and choir: he assisted Lucie Leguay in Johann Strauss’ Die Fledermaus in March 2022 at the Philharmonie de Paris, where he will return in May 2023 to assist Chloé Dufresne in Sergei Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances and Camille Pépin’s Aux Confins de l’Orage.
His love for voice has also led him to choir and vocal companies : he co-founded vocal ensemble Les Temps Dérobés in 2017, a young professional vocal ensemble crossing the a cappella repertoires of today and yesterdays, which he conducted for 5 years (until the end of 2022); he also worked as musical director, pianist, répétiteur and singer with the Ensemble Poursuite from 2019 to 2022. He was guest conductor with Les Métaboles, Aedes, Grete Pedersen, Sequenza 9.3 and assistant conductor of Mikrokosmos Choir from 2017 to 2021.
Félix Benati is also invested in transmission. In 2017, he was guest conductor at the Calcutta Chamber Orchestra and also worked with Kolkata Youth Orchestra in order to support young children’s orchestral practice. He taught symphonic orchestra and harmony band at the Conservatoire de Nanterre in 2020 and choir at the Jacques Ibert Conservatoire in Paris. He created and conducted many educative projetcs with the various ensembles he worked with. He is a member of the Amis d’Olivier Greif Association. |
