Ottavio Dantone

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Ottavio Dantone graduated in organ and harpsichord from the “G. Verdi” Conservatory in Milan and began his professional career when he was very young. He started by studying early music, constantly broadening his knowledge in this area and soon receiving recognition from both his public and critics.  

In 1985, he was awarded the Basso Continuo prize at the International Paris Festival and in 1986 he received an award at the International Bruges Festival (two of the most renowned harpsichord festivals in the world), being the first Italian to achieve this recognition at an international level for the harpsichord.  

Since 1996, he has been Musical Director of the Accademia Bizantina in Ravenna, with which he had already been working since 1989.

 In the last years, besides his usual concert activity as harpsichord and forte-piano soloist and leader of ensembles, he has also intensified his activity as orchestra conductor, widening his repertoire to opera and to the Classical and Romantic periods.  

He is invited regularly to the world’s major concert venues (the Teatro all Scala in Milan, the Teatro Real in  Madrid, the “Accademia di S. Cecilia” in Rome, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Musikverein and Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Ravenna Festival, the “Settembre Musica” and the Lingotto Auditorium in Turin, the Champs Elisees in Paris, the “Accademia Chigiana” in Siena, Bologna Festival, the International Music Festival in Istanbul, Ferrara Musica, etc.) as well as the most important international early music festivals.  

In 1999, during the opera season of the Alighieri Theatre in Ravenna, he made his debut as opera conductor, leading the “Accademia Bizantina” in the first performance in modern times of “Julius Sabino” by Giuseppe Sarti (opera in three acts of 1781); Dantone carried out the revision himself, receiving a positive response from both audience and press.  

In the autumn of the same year, Dantone was chosen by Riccardo Muti to direct the repeat performances of the opera, “Nina, ossia la pazza per amore”, by G. Paisiello (produced by the Teatro alla Scala, “Piccolo Teatro” of Milan and Ravenna Festival). Since then he has started a remarkable activity as opera conductor, often not only devoting himself to a well-known repertoire, but also to works which have hardly ever been performed or are even undergoing their first modern performance.  

Being a great expert in the performing practices of the Baroque Period, he frequently holds specialisation courses for harpsichord, chamber music, basso continuo and improvisation.

 His activity includes many television and radio recorded performances in Italy and abroad. His recordings as soloist and conductor have been acknowledged with several important prizes and have received great appreciation from international critics. He has been recording for Decca since 2003.

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