“He makes music in a wonderful way.”
— MDR Klassik
Biography
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Claudio Novati has established himself as one of the most promising conductors of his generation, earning recognition for his clarity, refinement and expressive effectiveness, as well as for his meticulous musical preparation.
Born in Como, Italy, the conductor has been First Coordinated Kapellmeister of the Staatskapelle Halle since 2026. His previous engagements include positions at the opera houses of Linz, Detmold, Heidelberg and Hof, as well as an appointment as a lecturer at the Hochschule für Musik “Franz Liszt” Weimar. He has also worked as assistant conductor and continuo player with distinguished artists including Ton Koopman, Helmuth Rilling, Christina Pluhar, Konrad Junghänel and Gotthold Schwarz.
He is a prizewinner of several international conducting competitions, including the German Conducting Award 2023, the Concorso Forcolin 2023 and the MDR Conducting Competition 2019. In recognition of his academic achievements, he was awarded the DAAD Prize by the German Academic Exchange Service in 2019 From 2019 to 2023, he was supported by the Dirigentenforum of the German Music Council, and in 2021 he was selected for the prestigious “Maestros von Morgen” artist programme, placing him among the outstanding emerging conductors of his generation. From 2013 to 2019, he was a scholarship holder of the Cusanuswerk musicians’ support programme, and in 2025 he received a scholarship from the Richard Wagner Scholarship Foundation to attend the Bayreuth Festival.
Novati enjoys a steadily growing reputation for his stylistic versatility, both in the symphonic and operatic repertoire. He has performed with renowned orchestras including the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, the Bruckner Orchestra Linz, the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, the Staatskapelle Halle, the Orchestra of the National Theatre Mannheim, the Robert Schumann Philharmonic Orchestra Chemnitz, the Wuppertal Symphony Orchestra, the Heidelberg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, the Jena Philharmonic, the Hof Symphony Orchestra, the Elbland Philharmonie Saxony, the Südwestfalen Philharmonic, the Würzburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Southwest German Philharmonic Orchestra Constance, the Detmold Symphony Orchestra, the Württemberg Philharmonic Orchestra Reutlingen, the Bad Reichenhall Philharmonic, Camerata Musicale Prato, the Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra and the Hradec Králové Philharmonic.
A versatile musician with a broad artistic and academic background, Novati studied conducting, graduating with distinction, as well as organ, church music, choral conducting and composition at the Hochschule für Musik Weimar and at the state conservatory in his hometown of Como. His principal teachers included Prof. Nicolás Pasquet, Prof. Ekhart Wycik, Prof. Michael Kapsner and Prof. Enrico Viccardi.
His repertoire spans all stylistic periods, with particular emphasis on the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and Italian opera of the 18th and 19th centuries.
“The conductor shaped and led the orchestra in an outstanding way with his clear, confident, expressive and elegant gesture”
– Baden online