Riccardo Minasi

Riccardo Minasi established himself early as a central presence in Italy’s historically informed performance movement through his creation of both Il Pomo d’Oro and Musica Antiqua Roma, while simultaneously directing ensembles that employ modern instruments and maintaining an active role as a teacher.

Born in Rome in 1978, he began with modern violin instruction from Paolo Centurioni and Alfredo Fiorentini before turning to period instruments under Enrico Parizzi and Luigi Mangiocavallo. Recognition first arrived through his violin playing, which took him to a wide range of ensembles across Europe and North America; among the European ensembles were Le Concert des Nations under Jordi Savall, Accademia Bizantina, and Al Ayre Español. Invitations from conductor Kent Nagano opened doors to North American collaborations.

His first recording appeared in 2008 on Arts Music, presenting Biber’s Rosenkranz sonatas. Subsequent partnerships have encompassed Ensemble 415, Joyce DiDonato on the album Stella di Napoli, and pianists Katia and Marielle Labèque.

Following the 2007 founding of Musica Antiqua Roma, Minasi increasingly focused on conducting; that ensemble concentrated on seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Roman repertoire, yet his interests soon expanded. He has both studied and published on music ranging from the Renaissance to the present, a breadth that led to his appointment in 2009 as historical consultant to Kent Nagano’s Montreal Symphony. He prepared a critical edition of Bellini’s Norma and participated in several productions that presented the opera in fresh guises. In 2012 he co-established Il Pomo d’Oro, serving as its director until 2015, when he assumed leadership of the Mozarteum Orchestra in Salzburg; he has also held an artist-in-residence position with Ensemble Resonanz at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie Hall, an affiliation that extended into the mid-2020s.

His discography is extensive in both capacities. For Naïve he has recorded demanding Baroque violin works such as those of Veracini, and he has led several operas for Erato. In 2020 he directed Ensemble Resonanz in Mozart’s Symphonies Nos. 39, 40, and 41 for Harmonia Mundi; the following year the same forces recorded Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58, together with the so-called Piano Concerto No. 6 in D major, Op. 61a, an arrangement of the composer’s violin concerto. Further releases followed in 2023 with Mozart’s Symphony No. 36 in C major, K. 425 (“Linz”), and Symphony No. 38 in D major, K. 504. At that point his catalog exceeded thirty recordings.