Fabián Panisello

Contact

Elke Moltrecht
em@karstenwitt.com
+49 30 214 594-227

Dorothea Delbrück
dde@karstenwitt.com
+49 30 214 594 -225

General Management

Biography

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 2023, and in 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.

As Composer-in-Residence at the Grafenegg Festival, Fabián Panisello led the ‘Ink Still Wet’ composer-conductor workshop in 2025 and conducted the Tonkünstler Orchestra of Lower Austria for the world premiere of Mariposas, followed in 2026 by the orchestral work Crossing Lines, which was also commissioned by the festival. In 2026, he is Composer-in-Residence at the Hangzhou Contemporary Music Festival. In April 2026, his composition Change for Noh voice (Ryoko Aoki), baritone, electronics and chamber ensemble was premiered in Cuenca by the PluralEnsemble under his baton. The Austrian premiere will take place in June 2027 in Salzburg with the OENM ensemble, conducted by Johannes Kalitzke, followed by the German premiere at the Kontakte Festival for Electroacoustic Music and Sound Art at the Berlin Academy of Arts.

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/Wise Music.

2026/2027 season

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

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 2023, and in 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.

As Composer-in-Residence at the Grafenegg Festival, Fabián Panisello led the ‘Ink Still Wet’ composer-conductor workshop in 2025 and conducted the Tonkünstler Orchestra of Lower Austria for the world premiere of Mariposas, followed in 2026 by the orchestral work Crossing Lines, which was also commissioned by the festival. In 2026, he is Composer-in-Residence at the Hangzhou Contemporary Music Festival. In April 2026, his composition Change for Noh voice (Ryoko Aoki), baritone, electronics and chamber ensemble was premiered in Cuenca by the PluralEnsemble under his baton. The Austrian premiere will take place in June 2027 in Salzburg with the OENM ensemble, conducted by Johannes Kalitzke, followed by the German premiere at the Kontakte Festival for Electroacoustic Music and Sound Art at the Berlin Academy of Arts.

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/Wise Music.

2026/2027 season

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

Works

A list of all works by Fabián Panisello can be found on the Wise Music/Edition Peters website.

Repertoire

Conducted Orchestras and Ensembles

Repertoire as conductor

References

"...and in the Basque National Orchestra, which, under the baton of Fabián Panisello, sounded precise, clear and intense, lending the appropriate colour to every gesture in Hosokawa's work. It was an unforgettable interpretation... Colourful (trumpet colour, harp colour...) are precisely the small pieces in which Webern interrupts Bach's Ricercata a 6. Panisello has carefully reconstructed the mosaic, which is not so easy."

beckmesser, Álvaro Guibert, 21/6/2025

Conductor: "Panisello's musical direction demonstrated a superb knowledge not only of the score but of the gears De Pablo uses to summon worlds and atmospheres, bringing out the brilliance of an orchestra that once again spread across the stalls"

La Razón, Mario Muñoz Carrasco, 18/02/2022

"Conductor: Fabián Panisello's musical direction was key to the success. There is much to co-ordinate in this score where the rhythmics are complex and the instruments are constantly exposed. Panisello's gesture is one of absolute cleanliness. He makes no movement that is not useful and creates an atmosphere of security and order that makes possible the expressive deployment of voices and instruments."

El Español, Alberto Guibert, 17/02/2022