The outstanding Italian conductor Claudio Abbado studied the piano at the Milan Conservatory with his father Michelangelo Abbado, and went on to study conducting with Hans Swarowsky at the Vienna Academy of Music. He won the 1958 Koussevitsky Competition, establishing him in Italy, and then won the 1963 Mitropoulos Prize, after which he rapidly became known internationally as an orchestral and opera conductor. Abbado first conducted the Berlin Philharmonic in 1966, and an important artistic relationship began which resulted in the orchestra electing him their Principal Conductor and their fifth Artistic Advisor in 1989. Under Abbado, in each season contemporary music takes its place alongside the classical and romantic repertoire, and each season also features a cycle of concerts dedicated to a particular theme: music inspired by the poetry of Holderlin; the legend of Faust; works centred around Greek drama, and so on. ...show more

The outstanding Italian conductor Claudio Abbado studied the piano at the Milan Conservatory with his father Michelangelo Abbado, and went on to study conducting with Hans Swarowsky at the Vienna Academy of Music. He won the 1958 Koussevitsky Competition, establishing him in Italy, and then won the 1963 Mitropoulos Prize, after which he rapidly became known internationally as an orchestral and opera conductor. Abbado first conducted the Berlin Philharmonic in 1966, and an important artistic relationship began which resulted in the orchestra electing him their Principal Conductor and their fifth Artistic Advisor in 1989. Under Abbado, in each season contemporary music takes its place alongside the classical and romantic repertoire, and each season also features a cycle of concerts dedicated to a particular theme: music inspired by the poetry of Holderlin; the legend of Faust; works centred around Greek drama, and so on.

Claudio Abbado made his debut at La Scala in his native Milan in 1960 and served as music director there from 1968 to 1986, conducting not only the traditional Italian repertoire but also presenting a contemporary opera each year, as well as a concert series devoted to the works of Alban Berg and Modest Mussorgsky. While at La Scala, Abbado also founded the Orchestra della Scala, for the performance of orchestral repertoire in concert. In 1965 he appeared for the first time with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in a concert at the Salzburg Festival, and made his Viennese debut two years later in the orchestra's subscription concert series. Claudio Abbado served as Music Director of the Vienna State Opera from 1986 to 1991, where he enriched the repertoire with premiere productions of Mussorgsky's original Boris Godunov and Khovanshchina, Schubert's Fierrabras and Rossini's Il viaggio a Reims.

In 1987 he was named General Music Director of the City of Vienna, and in 1988 he founded the music festival Wien Modern, which has since expanded to include all aspects of contemporary art. This interdisciplinary festival takes place each year under Abbado's direction. As founder and music director of the European Union Youth Orchestra (1978) and the Gustav Mahler Jugend Orchestra (1986), Abbado has also shown deep commitment to the development of young musicians, an interest which extends to his role as Artistic Advisor to the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. In 1992, together with cellist Natalia Gutman, he created Berliner Begegnungen (Encounters in Berlin), an annual gathering during the Berlin Festival in which experienced professional musicians join together to rehearse and perform with talented young instrumentalists in concerts of classical and contemporary chamber music. ...show less