New Music Director at the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music

Harpsichordist and Conductor Ottavio Dantone will lead the festival between 2024 and 2028

Italian harpsichordist and conductor Ottavio Dantone will lead the Innsbruck Early Music Festival between 2024 and 2028 as the new Music Director. His appointment follows a restructuring of the festival's leadership: he will work alongside an executive commercial director and an artistic director to bring the festival to the public.

Dantone was the first Italian instrumentalist to be awarded first prize in the two most important harpsichord competitions in the world — the Paris International Competition (1985) and the Bruges International Competition (1986).

Since 1996, he has been musical director of Ravenna's Accademia Bizantina Orchestra. With them, he has appeared in some of the world’s most prestigious concert halls, including the Berlin and Vienna Konzerthaus, The Barbican Centre in London, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris.

As a conductor, Dantone has appeared with orchestras including the Staatskapelle Berlin, the Orchestre national de France, the Philharmonic Orchestra of La Scala in Milan, and the Orchestra of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome.

"We are excited about the challenges and discoveries ahead, which are so emblematic of the Innsbruck Festival," Dantone said alongside Artistic Director designate Mag. Eva-Maria Sens. "Together we want to develop ideas to give our audiences and artists access to the truest emotions in music, as well as to develop perspectives on the origins of early music and its relationship to our times."

"Ottavio Dantone is an artist of international renown and has already thrilled Innsbruck Festival audiences several times with his ensemble Accademia Bizantina," said Dr. Beate Palfrader, the Provincial Councillor for Culture. "We are convinced that with his musical expertise and charisma he will give important new impulses to the Early Music Festival."

"The Innsbruck Festival of Early Music is of enormous importance for the cultural life of the city," said Georg Willi, the mayor of Innsbruck. "At the same time, the Festival Weeks have evolved with the world since their inception. Today we look forward to the future with excitement and look forward to numerous, further top-class events in the years to come."