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The German conductor, Matthias Manasi, began to study piano at age 5 with his father, who was a choir director, composer and organist and decided to become an orchestra conductor at age 10. He started to perform in public at the age of 10 in piano solo recitals, he then studied piano successively with Etta Tanay and with Wolfgang Bloser in Stuttgart. He studied conducting with Thomas Ungar and piano with Andrzej Ratusinski at the University of Music Stuttgart and also piano with Carmen Piazzini at the University of Music Karlsruhe. His other conducting teachers and mentors have included Karl Österreicher, Kurt Masur, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Ferdinand Leitner, Helmuth Rilling, Jorma Panula, Georg Tintner, Kurt Redel and Sylvain Cambreling. From the age of 19 while still a student, he worked regularly for projects as a repetitor and assistant conductor at the Staatstheater Stuttgart. He graduated in 1995 with honours in Piano from the Musikhochschule Karlsruhe and in 1996 with honours in Conducting from the Musikhochschule Stuttgart.
Matthias Manasi made his conducting debut at the age of 19 with Igor Stravinsky's L'histoire du soldat in the Wilhelma-Theater in Stuttgart. During his studies, he worked as an assistant to Manfred Honeck (Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra) and Heinz Holliger (SWR-Symphonieorchester). He was also assistant of Miguel Gómez Martínez (Münchner Rundfunkorchester). During his time as a student, he conducted the Südwestdeutsches Kammerorchester Pforzheim, the Györ Philharmonic Orchestra, the Nürnberger Symphoniker and the Philharmonie Baden-Baden as guest conductor. After his studies, he worked as “Kapellmeister” (conductor) at the Opera Kiel, the Oldenburgisches Staatstheater and the Opera Wrocławska. Engagements as a guest conductor brought him to the Staatstheater Kassel, the Staatstheater Braunschweig, the Oper Leipzig, the Theater Bremen, the Opera Constanta, the Stadttheater Klagenfurt, the Polish National Opera in Warsaw (Teatr Wielki Opera Narodowa), the Opera Poznań, the State Opera Rousse, among others.
From 2010 to 2013, Matthias Manasi was the Music Director of the International Punta Classic Festival in Montevideo; and from 2000 to 2013 he was the Chief Conductor (since 2010 also the Artistic Director) of the Orchestra Camerata Italiana in Naples. From 2013 to 2015, he was conductor at the Opera Wrocław (in Wrocław, Poland) and in the 2016-2017 season, he was conductor at the Poznań Opera (Grand Theatre, Poznan, Poland). He was Music Director of the Nickel City Opera in Buffalo, New York from 2017 to 2021.
Matthias Manasi conducted Un ballo in maschera and W.A. Mozart's Don Giovanni in the 1994-1995 season and La Bohème and W.A. Mozart's Die Zauberflöte in the 1995-1996 season at the Silesian Theater in Opava (Silesian State Opera). His conducting activities include productions and performances at the NC Opera Buffalo (W.A. Mozart's Der Schauspieldirektor, La traviata, Rigoletto, Aida), at the Theater Bremen (Der fliegende Holländer), at the Oper Halle (Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny), at the Opera Poznań (Boris Godunow, W.A. Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, Rodion Shchedrin's Anna Karenina, Halka, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Eugen Onegin, Figaro Gets a Divorce, Die Fledermaus, Macbeth, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg), at the Oper Leipzig (Das Liebesverbot), at the Opera Wroclawska (La traviata, Giovanna d'Arco, Macbeth, Falstaff, Rigoletto, Nabucco, Lucia di Lammermoor, L'elisir d'amore, Die Frau ohne Schatten, Der Rosenkavalier, Chopin, La Bohème, Madama Butterfy, Parsifal, Angels in America, Georges Bizet's Carmen, G. Bizet's Les pêcheurs de perles, Paradise lost, Camille Saint-Saëns's Samson et Dalilah, Straszny dwór, Tosca, Così fan tutte, Cavalleria rusticana, I Pagliacci, Król Roger, Hagith), at the State Opera Rousse (Carmen), at the Staatstheater Braunschweig (Tristan und Isolde, Falstaff, Le Nozze di Figaro, Die Zauberflöte, Luisa Miller, Turandot), at the Staatstheater Stuttgart (Salome), at the Staatstheater Kassel (Don Carlos), at the Stadttheater Klagenfurt (Alban Berg's Lulu), at the Oldenburgisches Staatstheater (Siegfried, Götterdämmerung, Pelléas et Mélisande, Der Wildschütz, Glückliche Reise), at the Opera Constanta (Il trovatore, Rigoletto, La traviata), at the Kiel Opera (Die tote Stadt, Turandot, Die Frau ohne Schatten, A. Berg's Wozzeck, Engelbert Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel, Idomeneo, Der Rattenfänger, Les pêcheurs de perles, Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor, Benjamin Britten's Eine Nacht in Venedig, Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Cristoforo Colombo, La Cenerentola), at the Eduard-von-Winterstein-Theater (The Little Shop of Horrors, Der Zigeunerbaron, La forza del destino, Fra Diavolo, Jesus Christ Superstar, Die Csárdásfürstin, Der Günstling), at the Passau Opera (Le Villi, Der Kaiser von Atlantis, Der Diktator, Wiener Frauen), at the Eutiner Festspiele (La traviata, Die verkaufte Braut, Eine Nacht in Venedig), at the Opernfestival Schloss Rheinsberg (Juditha triumphans, A Bad Man's Life), at the Belcanto Opera Festival Rossini Wildbad (L'occasione fa il ladro).
In his first opera production as Music Director and Chief Conductor of the NC Opera Buffalo, Matthias Manasi conducted a new production of W.A. Mozart's Der Schauspieldirektor. His interpretation took historically informed performance practice into account and was met with enthusiastic approval by critics. A production of Aida that Manasi was supposed to conduct for the NC Opera Buffalo from August 7 to 29, 2021 at the Artpark Amphitheater in the Artpark in Buffalo had to be cancelled due to the political Corona measures.
As a guest conductor Matthias Manasi has conducted the Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (SWR), Hamburger Symphoniker, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Romanian National Radio Orchestra, Montevideo Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma, Orquestra Sinfônica do Teatro Nacional Claudio Santoro, Kazakh State Philharmonic Orchestra, Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra, Niedersächsisches Staatsorchester Hannover, Mecklenburgische Staatskapelle Schwerin, Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen, Wiener Mozart Orchester, Staatsorchester Braunschweig, Nürnberger Symphoniker, Philharmonic Orchestra Brasov, Bach-Collegium Stuttgart, Sofia Festival Orchestra, Polnische Kammerphilharmonie, Philharmonic Orchestra Györ, Philharmonic Orchestra Baden-Baden, Südwestdeutsches Kammerorchester Pforzheim; Stuttgart Radio Vantaa Symphony Orchestra,, Orquestra Sinfonica do Rio Grande do Norte, Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra, Berliner Camerata, Orquestra Filarmonia das Beiras, Lieāja Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra “I Solisti di Milano“, Orchestra Sinfonica della Provincia di Bari, Cukurova State Symphony Orchestra, among others.
Matthias Manasi has also gained international acclaim as a pianperforming as a solo pianist in recitals in Europe and the USA playing sonatas by W.A. Mozart, Haydn and L.v. Beethoven, Études by Frédéric Chopin and Franz Liszt, Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition and pieces by J.S. Bach, Schubert, Johannes Brahms, Gershwin, Béla Bartók, Prokofiev and Schnittke. He has led piano concertos by W.A. Mozart, L.v. Beethoven, Robert Schumann and Gershwin from the keyboard. In 2016 he conducted the opening concert of the 24th Liepaja International Stars Festival with the Liepāja Symphony Orchestra where he also conducted L.v. Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 0 (WoO 4) from the keyboard. In 2019 he conducted Richard Strauss' Le Bourgeois gentilhomme from the keyboard with the Orquestra Sinfônica do Rio Grande do Norte and in 2020 with the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra.
Matthias Manasi has recorded numerous works for radio, television and CDs. On April 7, 2023, his new CD "W.A. Mozart - Symphonies Nos. 34 · 35 · 36” with the Slovak Sinfonietta for the label Hänssler Classic was released. His discography includes recordings with New Classics, works by Tchaikovsky, L.v. Beethoven and Gershwin and with Naxos, Rossini’s opera L’occasione fa il ladro.
Matthias Manasi conducted the worldwide live broadcast concert in memory of King Michael I of Romania, with the Romanian National Radio Orchestra in Sala Radio on 8 December 2017 in Bucharest.
Matthias Manasi conducted numerous world premieres. In April 2022 Arthur Orenburgsky's Concertino for Violin and Orchestra score received a critically acclaimed world premiere performed by Matthias Manasi, the Kazakh State Philharmonic Orchestra and violinist Aida Ayupova in the Kazakh State Philharmonic in Almaty. In the 2013 Matthias Manasi conducted the world premiere of Cosimo Minicozzi's Oratorio La Passione di Padre Pio da Pietrelcina with the Orchestra Camerata Italiana.
Matthias Manasi regularly leads international master-classes for conductors. Most recently, in April 2022, he led a master-class for conductors with the orchestra of the Kurmangazy Kazakh National Conservatory in Almaty. |
