Fabián Panisello

The Argentinian-Spanish composer and conductor Fabián Panisello moves at the height of the times with his lively, vivid and finely differentiated tonal language. The long-time director of the Reina Sofía Conservatory in Madrid began his training as a composer in his hometown of Buenos Aires with Francisco Kröpfl. In 1993, as a student of Boguslaw Schaeffer, he graduated with distinction from the Mozarteum in Salzburg. He received further inspiration from Elliott Carter, Franco Donatoni, Brian Ferneyhough, and Luis de Pablo, and in conducting from Péter Eötvös and Jorma Panula.

Fabián Panisello's compositions continue to be performed by renowned interpreters. The Arditti Quartet premiered his Three Movements at the Takefu Festival in 2006. Pierre Boulez conducted the SWR Symphony Orchestra in 2008 with the orchestral work Aksaks. Under the direction of Péter Eötvös, the Orquesta Nacional de España premiered Mandala in 2009. In the field of vocal music, his Gothic Songs, which premiered in 2012 at the Alte Oper Frankfurt with baritone Leigh Melrose, was followed by two monodramas: L'Officina della resurrezione was launched in Katowice in 2014 with baritone Holger Falk; The Raven was premiered by mezzo-soprano Annette Schönmüller with the PluralEnsemble in Madrid in 2022. The Amaryllis Quartet and oboist Ramón Ortega Quero premiered Seven Japanese Sketches in October 2023, and in January 2024 Radovan Vlatković premiered a new horn concerto with the Spanish Radio Television Orchestra conducted by Erik Nielsen. 

The premiere of his chamber opera Le Malentendu, based on the stage play of the same name by Albert Camus, was enthusiastically received in 2016. The world premiere of his opera Les Rois mages, commissioned by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation and the Foundation of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, was also a great success. After its premiere in January 2019 at the Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid with the PluralEnsemble conducted by the composer, the work was presented in Nice, Tel Aviv, Vienna, and Klagenfurt. His third opera, Die Judith von Shimoda, with a libretto based on a text by Bertolt Brecht, was premiered to great acclaim at the Bregenz Festival in August 2023 and then performed in Vienna. The opera was nominated for the Austrian Music Theatre Prize as the best world premiere. 

Fabián Panisello is currently working on Change, a semi-staged piece for baritone, Noh singer (Ryoko Aoki), baritone, ensemble and electronics, commissioned by the Kontakte Festival for Electroacoustic Music & Sound at Akademie der Künste Berlin as a collaboration with the Ensemble OENM Salzburg to be premiered in Berlin in June 2025 and again to be performed as Austrian premiere in Salzburg in October 2025.

Fabián Panisello is the founder and artistic director of the PluralEnsemble, one of Europe's most outstanding new music ensembles. Both with his ensemble and as a composer, he is a regular guest at major festivals for contemporary music such as Wien Modern, Présences, Ars Musica, Ultraschall, Aspekte, and Klangspuren Schwaz. As a conductor, Panisello has also led the Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, and the Israel Contemporary Players, among others. In February 2022, he conducted Luis de Pablo's last opera El Abrecartas at the Teatro Real Madrid with extraordinary success. Other guest conducting engagements include Orquesta Sinfónica National in Buenos Aires, Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife, Joven Orquesta National de España (JONDE), Concerto Budapest Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, Savaria Symphony Orchestra and ensembles such as Paramibao in Quebec, Turning Point in Vancouver, United Berlin, UMZE in Budapest, and Riot in London.

His work has been recognized and championed by Pierre Boulez, Luciano Berio, and Karlheinz Stockhausen, among others. He has received various awards including the Salzburg Preis der Erben Mozarts and the Premio Iberoamericano de Composición Rodolfo Halffter. Fabián Panisello is a member of the Argentine Academy of Arts. He appears regularly as a guest lecturer at institutions such as the Eötvös Foundation in Budapest, the China Conservatory of Music in Beijing, the Domaines Forgés in Canada, the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, and the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Recordings of his music have appeared on labels such as NEOS, Col Legno, Cypres, Verso, IBS Classical, and Columna Música. His compositions are published by Edition Peters.

2024/2025 season

This biography is to be reproduced without any changes, omissions or additions, unless expressly authorised