As an internationally renowned symphonic and operatic conductor, Matthias Manasi is currently serving as Music Director of the Nickel City Opera in Buffalo (New York, USA. From 2010 to 2013 he held the position of Chief Conductor of the Orchestra Camerata Italiana in Naples. After a succesful tenure from 2010 to 2012 as Music Director of the International Punta Classic Festival in Montevideo he started from 2013 to 2016 working as First Kapellmeister at the State Opera Breslau, where he was responsible for opera productions such as Eugen Onegin, Frau ohne Schatten, Der Rosenkavalier, Paradise lost, Straszny Dwor, Angels in America, Samson et Dalila, Parsifal and Carmen among others.
He worked in 2012 as a Guest Conductor for Wagner’s Der Fliegende Hollander at the Polish National Opera in Warsaw. Manasi worked from 2007 to 2010 as Kapellmeister (Principal Conductor) of the Erzgebirgische Philharmonie Aue, from 2000 he worked as Kapellmeister at the Opera Constanta.
Matthias Manasi has electri fied audiences as a guest conductor all over the world. He has collaborated with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma, the Münchner Rundfunkorchester, the Orchestra of the State Opera in Hannover, the Choir of the Bavarian Radio, the Nürnberger Symphoniker, the Staatsorchester Braunschweig, the Wiener Mozart Orchester, the Orchestra Sinfonica Metropolitana di Bari, the Sofia Festival Orchestra, the Philharmonic Orchestra Olomouc, the Polnische Kammerphilharmonie, the Philharmonic Orchestra Györ, the Philharmonic Orchestra Baden-Baden, the Kazakh State Symphony Orchestra, Cukurova State Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonic Orchestra Brasov, the Bach-Collegium Stuttgart, the Südwestdeutsches Kammerorchester Pforzheim among others.
His opera activity includes productions and performances at the Opera Halle, the Staatstheater Braunschweig, Staatstheater Kassel, Oldenburgisches Staatstheater, International Punta Classic Festival, Opera Constanta, Opera Wroclawska, Kiel Opera House, Eutin Festival, Opera Klagenfurt, Kammeroper and the Belcanto Opera Festival–Bad Wildbad.
Highlights of the last season include his engagement at the Oper Leipzig (Das Liebesverbot), at the Oper Bremen (The Flying Dutchman), at the State Opera Poznan (Macbeth, Eugen Onegin, Boris Godunow among others) and concerts with the Kazakh State Symphony Orchestra, the Liepaja Symphony Orchestra where he also appeared as a conductor while soloing on piano. This season, Manasi made his US opera debut at the Nickel City Opera (The Impresario) and started his engagement at the State Opera Poznan (Macbeth, Eugen Onegin, Figaro gets a divorce, Boris Godunow). On the symphonic podium, he conducted concerts with the Romanian Radio National Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica di Sanremo, Orquestra Sinfonica do Teatro Nacional Claudio Santoro and will make his debut with the Symphony Orchestra Rio Grande do Norte and with the Batumi Music Festival Orchestra.
His opera activity includes productions at the Opera Halle, Staatstheater Braunschweig, Staatstheater Kassel, Oldenburgisches Staatstheater, International Punta Classic Festival, Opera Constanta, Kiel Opera House, Eutin Festival, Opera Klagenfurt, Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg and the Belcanto Opera Festival–Bad Wildbad. Manasi made his opera debut in 1995 with a production of Un Ballo in Maschera at the Silesian State Opera, returning in 1996 for La Bohème, Don Giovanni and Die Zauberflöte.
Matthias Manasi has also gained international acclaim as a pianist performing in recital and chamber music in Europe, USA and South America. He frequently conducts the orchestra from the piano. Matthias Manasi studied piano (Prof. Andrejz Ratusinski, Prof. Carmen Piazzini), conducting (Prof. Thomas Ungar, Prof. Karl Osterreicher), composition and chamber music at the University of Music Stuttgart and at the University of Music Karlsruhe. He graduated in 1995 with Honours in Piano from the Musikhochschule Karlsruhe and in 1996 with Honours in Conducting from the Musikhochschule Stuttgart. He participated in numerous master classes with renowned conductors,
most notably Gianluigi Gelmetti, Jorma Panula and Kurt Masur. After his studies, he worked as an assistant to Manfred Honeck, Miguel Gomez Martinez (Münchner Rundfunkorchester) and Hilary Griffith.