NIMA KESHAVARZI
Conductor
BIO
Born in Isfahan/Iran, he studied violin and composition at the Tehran University, the Florence Conservatory and the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole. He specialized in conducting under the guidance of Alessandro Pinzauti in Florence and at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels with Bart Bouckaert, Lukas Vis and Arturo Tamayo; then he took part in conducting courses at the prestigious Accademia Chigiana with Gianluigi Gelmetti and at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne with Michael Luig.
He has been assistant to Roberto Abbado and took tuitions from Zubin Mehta, Michel Tabachnik and Donato Renzetti.
Co-founder and music director of La Filharmonie – Florence Philharmonic Orchestra, he has conducted the orchestra since its debut in 2016 obtaining an enthusiastic success of the public and critics. La Filharmonie under his guidance has been recognized and supported by the Italian Ministry of Culture as one of the leading new ensembles nationwide. His recent engagements with La Filharmonie include Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, a Beethoven and Mendelssohn Symphony Cycle and a Stravinsky project.
He devotes himself passionately to opera as well as the symphonic repertoire. He has collaborated as assistant conductor with some of the major Italian and European Opera Houses such as Teatro dell’Opera di Roma (I masnadieri, Andrea Chénier, Benvenuto Cellini), Palau de les Arts in Valencia (A Midsummer night’s dream, Tancredi), Teatro Comunale in Bologna (Macbeth), Rossini Opera Festival (Le Siége de Corinthe) and Festival Verdi in Parma (Il Trovatore, Luisa Miller, Macbeth, Ernani).
Since 2016, assistant to Maestro Roberto Abbado, he has collaborated with the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana and the mezzo-soprano Elina Garança for a record production with the Deutsche Grammophon and with Dynamic/Naxos at the Festival Verdi in Parma for a recording of Verdi’s Macbeth and Messa da Requiem.
He has conducted, among others, the Tehran Symphony Orchestra, Iran National Orchestra, the Camerata Strumentale Città di Prato, Orchestra Arché at Teatro Verdi in Pisa, the Symphonia Assai Orchestra of Brussels, the Symphony Orchestra of the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, Ensemble Luigi Dallapiccola.
In 2018 he started his partnership with Balletto di Toscana putting on stage new productions of Ravel’s Ma mère l’Oye and Stravinski’s Pulcinella with the prestigious ballet company.
He is particularly keen on new music and conducted and recorded works of contemporary composers such as Anders Hillborg, Andrea Portera, Carlo Prosperi, Ari Benjamin Meyers, David John Roche, Ian C. Scott, Steven Heelein, Paolo Cognetti and Paolo Marzocchi.
He is member of the board and music director of the Dante 700 – International Composition Competition that will be held in 2021 in Italy and broadcasted internationally through the RAI (Italian Radio-Television).
Mr. Keshavarzi speaks English, Italian, French and Persian.
