Nir Kabaretti

Nir Kabaretti (born 5 February 1968) is an Israeli orchestra conductor. Kabaretti is Music Director of the Santa Barbara Symphony in California since 2006, the Southwest Florida Symphony Orchestra since 2015, and continues to collaborate with some of the world’s most renowned orchestras, opera houses and soloists such as Itzhak Perlman and Lang Lang . Upon graduation from the prestigious University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, Kabaretti was appointed chorus master of the Vienna State Opera and the Salzburg Festival. He served as assistant to the music director of Teatro Real in Madrid, and as Zubin Mehta ’s personal assistant and conductor at Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. In 2004, Kabaretti made his Teatro alla Scala di Milano debut in Tchaikowsky’s The Nutcracker, and in 2007 he returned to La Scala for Mendelssohn’s Ballet Midsummer Night’s Dream . He was also appointed Principal Conductor of the Raanana Symphonette Orchestra in Israel in 2002 and as its Music Director until 2008. Kabaretti’s operatic experience includes productions at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino ( Die Entführung aus dem Serail , Macbeth , Il Trovatore , Gianni Schicchi , The Journey to Rheims ), Teatro Real in Madrid ( Cenerentola, Die Walküre ), The Israeli Opera ( Fidelio, Manon Lescaut ), Lausanne Opera ( Nino Rota 's Il Cappello di Paglia di Firenze , Die Fledermaus ) and The New National Theatre in Tokyo ( The Barber of Seville ). He also conducted TheDiary of Anne Frank, a visiting production of the Vienna State Opera, at both the Bregenz Festival and at Expo 2000 in Hannover . In 2005 Kabaretti lead Teatro San Carlo di Napoli on its first tour to Japan conducting Il Trovatore both in Kyoto and Tokyo. He became finalist of the 1994 Competition for Conductors (Douai, France) and was awarded the America Israel Cultural Foundation Grant for Young Conductors between 1989-92.¹