Fabio Luisi

Grammy Award-winning Italian conductor Fabio Luisi is in his sixth season as Louise W. & Edmund J. Kahn Music Director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, his ninth as principal conductor of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, and his fourth as principal conductor of Tokyo's NHK Symphony Orchestra. He also serves as music director of Puglia's Festival della Valle d'Itria and emeritus conductor of Turin's RAI National Symphony Orchestra.

Luisi's 2025-26 Dallas Symphony Orchestra highlights include premieres of works by Angélica Negrón and Sophia Jani, concert performances of Puccini's Madama Butterfly, and Mahler's Fourth Symphony on tour in California. His NHK Symphony Orchestra season features a new commission from Dai Fujikura and symphonies by Nielsen, Mahler, Bruckner, and Schmidt. To mark the Danish National Symphony's centennial, he and the orchestra perform symphonies by Mahler, Beethoven, and Brahms, alongside two serial works by Schoenberg, and record extensive Schoenberg and Scriabin releases for Deutsche Grammophon. As a guest conductor, Luisi returns to Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Vienna Symphony, and leads productions of Verdi's Simon Boccanegra and Hindemith's Cardillac at Dutch National Opera and Zurich Opera, respectively.

Luisi's previous appointments include general music director of the Zurich Opera and Philharmonia Zurich, principal conductor of the Metropolitan Opera, chief conductor of the Vienna Symphony, and general music director of the Staatskapelle Dresden and Sächsische Staatsoper. He appears regularly with many of the leading orchestras and opera houses of Europe, North America, and Asia.

Luisi's complete Nielsen cycle with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra earned Limelight and Abbiati awards for best orchestral recording of 2023, and his Nielsen Fourth and Fifth were named Gramophone's 2023 recording of the year. He previously received a Grammy Award for his leadership of the last two operas of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen; Deutsche Grammophon's DVD release of the full cycle, recorded live at the Metropolitan Opera, was named best opera recording of 2012. His catalog also includes operas by Salieri, Verdi, and Bellini and a broad range of orchestral and symphonic repertoire.

A native of Genoa, Luisi studied at the city's Conservatorio Niccolò Paganini and the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz, Austria. His honors include the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art, Italy's Commendatore della Stella d'Italia, Denmark's Knight's Cross, and an honorary doctorate from St. Bonaventure University. Off the podium, he is an accomplished composer and a maker of perfumes.