Music & Artistic Director

Internationally acclaimed conductor Nir Kabaretti’s artistic reach continues to expand around the world, thrilling audiences with his dynamic conducting style and vast knowledge of all facets of musical performing arts. In 2018, Kabaretti was appointed Music Director of the Israel Sinfonietta Be’er Sheva while continuing his tenure with the Southwest Florida Symphony.

Upon his graduation from the prestigious University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, Kabaretti began working as coach and chorus master at the Vienna State Opera and the Salzburg Festival. He subsequently advanced to positions as assistant to the Music Director at the Teatro Real in Madrid and personal assistant to Maestro Zubin Mehta at Teatro del Maggio Musicale in Florence, Italy. He collaborated with some of the world’s most distinguished conductors of the time, including Claudio Abbado, Lorin Maazel, Seiji Ozawa, Valery Gergiev, and Riccardo Muti.

He received the America-Israel Cultural Foundation Grant for Young Conductors and won the Forum Junger Künstler Conducting Competition in 1993. In 1994 he was among the finalists in the International Competition for Conductors in Douai, France.

Maestro Kabaretti keeps a busy international conducting schedule. Notable appearances include the Israel, Tokyo, Zagreb, Belgrade, Bogota and Rochester Philharmonic Orchestras, Orchestra del Teatro dell’ Opera di Roma, Orchestra Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini, Orchestre Philharmonie Royale de Liège, the Philadelphia, Mantova, Lausanne, and Vienna Chamber Orchestras, the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestras, Orquesta Filarmonica de Buenos, Orquestre National du Theatre du Capitole de Toulouse, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano “La Verdi, Bochumer Symphoniker, the Jerusalem Symphony, and the Real Orquesta Sinfònica de Sevilla.

Kabaretti’s operatic and ballet experience includes productions at Teatro alla Scala di Milano, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Teatro Real, The Israeli Opera, Opéra de Lausanne, Avenches Opera Festival, The New National Theatre in Tokyo, The Bregenz Festival and Expo 2000 in Hannover and Teatro San Carlo di Napoli.  In 2019 Kabaretti debuted at the Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago Italy, with Madame Butterfly.

Nir Kabaretti has worked with some of the world’s most sought-after musicians. Some of his most well-known collaborators include Lang Lang, Placido Domingo, Joyce Di Donato, Angel Joy Blue, Vadim Repin, Gilles Apap, Hélène Grimaud, and André Watts.