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The composer and conductor Massimiliano Matesic, born in Florence in 1969, has been living in Switzerland since 2002. Holding dual Italian–Swiss citizenship, he embodies in a special way

the cultural connection between the two countries.

After studying at the Florence Conservatory (composition with Gaetano Giani Luporini, Salvatore Sciarrino and Michele Ignelzi; conducting with Alessandro Pinzauti), he moved to Freiburg im Breisgau as a scholarship holder of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).

In 1996 he became assistant to Peter Gülke and conductor of the chamber orchestra at the Freiburg University of Music. In 2000/2001 he was a fellow of the American Academy of Conducting, where he received important impulses from David Zinman and Jorma Panula. Since 1996 he has been teaching orchestral conducting at the Freiburg University of Music. From 2010 to 2013 he was a guest professor at the

Showa University of Music in Kawasaki.

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Massimiliano Matesic has composed chamber music, orchestral works and stage works. In October 2016 his family opera “Katze Ivanka”

(a commission from the Hamburg State Opera) was premiered with great success in Hamburg. This was followed by new productions at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden (2017) and at the

Bulgarian National Theatre in Sofia (2019).

Katze Ivanka as well as his orchestral version of Schubert’s “Winterreise” have been published by Sikorski / Boosey & Hawkes.

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Radio and television recordings of his works have been produced by Swiss Radio and Television (SRF 2 and RSI: “The Anatomy of Melancholy” 2018; RSI: “Duo for Violin and Violoncello” 2004).

The Duo for Violin and Violoncello has been released on CD

by the Guild label.

Internationally renowned artists such as Daniel Hope, Matthias Goerne, Gilles Apap, Rachel Harnisch, Maurice Steger, Benjamin Engeli, Oliver Schnyder, Claudia Barainski, Oliver Triendl, Benjamin Nyffenegger, Andreas Janke, the Swiss Chamber Soloists and Thomas Grossenbacher

count among the interpreters of his music.

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A particular focus of his work as conductor, composer and arranger has been the collaboration with the legendary rock musician John Lord (whose Concerto for Rock Band and Orchestra from 1969 he premiered in Switzerland in 2009), as well as with the Sicilian singer-songwriter

Pippo Pollina (CD and film “Zwischen Inseln”, 2009).

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Massimiliano Matesic has appeared as a guest conductor in concerts and radio recordings with numerous orchestras, including the Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, the Bern Symphony Orchestra, the Basel Symphony Orchestra, the Kurpfälzisches Kammerorchester Mannheim, the Southwest German Philharmonic Konstanz,

the Southwest German Chamber Orchestra Pforzheim,

and the Württemberg Philharmonic Reutlingen.

Massimiliano Matesic is married to the Ticinese violinist Daria Zappa. Together with her and their son Iskander, he lives in Kaiserstuhl in the canton of Aargau.

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Since 2008, they have jointly directed the music festival “Festival der Stille” there.