Massimiliano Caldi (Milano 1967), graduated in piano, composition and orchestra conducting has a big international experience in the fields of symphonic music, opera, operetta and ballet as well as an attention on contemporary music and on the revival of the 19th century opera. He stands out for his high professional preparation and for his bright and linear directorial style.

Among the most recent commitments for 2024-25, the return to Poland at the Opera Wrocławska to conduct “The Magic Flute” with the direction of Michał Znaniecki and at the Easter Festival L. v. Beethoven with I Virtuosi del Teatro alla Scala, with whom he was back on stage at Teatro alla Scala in November 2024 and in Belgrade in January 2025. Still in 2024, Massimiliano Caldi conducted a new opera production of the Opera i Filharmonia Podlaska of Białystok “Pagliacci/Cavalleria Rusticana” combined for the first time in stage form in the original edition curated by Bärenreiter and directed by Michał Znaniecki.

Among the most important commitments of the last years, we can mention, In Italy: the concert at Teatro alla Scala in Milan (at the head of “I Virtuosi del Teatro alla Scala”), the debut at Teatro La Fenice in Venice and the one at Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari (leading the respective orchestras) as well as the return to Palermo with the Sicilian Symphony  Orchestra with Castelnuovo Tedesco and the concerts with the Marchigiana Philharmonic Orchestra; in Poland the return to the Opera Wrocławska, to the Baltic Opera of Gdańsk for the debut of “Don Bucefalo” and to the Opera i Filharmonia Podlaska of Białystok with the staging of a new opera production including “Via Crucis” by Paweł Łukaszewski and “Cavalleria Rusticana” by Pietro Mascagni, directed by Michał Znaniecki; abroad he was also in Dubai, in Turkey with the Izmir State Symphony Orchestra, in Skopje with the Philharmonic Orchestra of North Macedonia.

Winner of the first prize at “G. Fitelberg” International Competition (1999), Caldi has been the Principal Conductor of the “A. Malawski” Precarpathian Philharmonic of Rzeszów from 2017 to 2022.

Moreover, he has been President of the Jury of the International Piano Competition Massarosa – IX and X edition (2018 and 2019), teacher of the Florence Conducting Masterclass (2015-2017), Principal Conductor and Artistic Consultant of “St. Moniuszko” Koszalin Philharmonic (2014-2017), Artistic Director of Silesian Chamber Orchestra (Katowice, 2006-2010) and Principal Conductor of “Milano Classica” Chamber Orchestra (1998-2009).

In Italy he has collaborated with Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Teatro Regio di Torino,  Teatro Massimo di Palermo, Teatro Filarmonico di Verona, as well as with the most important orchestras including Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai di Torino, Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto, Orchestra Sinfonica della Città Metropolitana di Bari, Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, Orchestra della Fondazione “Arturo Toscanini” di Parma, Filarmonica Marchigiana, Orchestra Sinfonica Giovanile del Piemonte, Orchestra Sinfonica di Sanremo, Orchestra Regionale di Roma e del Lazio, Orchestra Filarmonica di Torino, Orchestra della “Istituzione Sinfonica Abruzzese”, Orchestra “Filarmonia Veneta” and Orchestra del Friuli Venezia Giulia.

In Poland he regularly performes in the most important Philharmonic, in some opera houses (Teatro Grande in Poznań and Opera Baltica in Gdansk) and in the main Polish festivals. He also performed with the “Sinfonia Varsovia”, with the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the “Sinfonia Iuventus” Orchestra of Warsaw, the Youth Orchestra of the Beethoven Academy of Krakow, the National Symphony Orchestra of the Polish Radio of Katowice, the “K. Szymanowski” Philharmonic Orchestra from Krakow, the “A. Rubinstein” Philharmonic Orchestra from Lodz and the “M. Karlowicz” Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra from Szczecin.

Massimiliano Caldi is the only Italian who won the Gazzetta Italia Prize – 2018 edition for having distinguished himself in the promotion of Italian music in Poland and the Polish one in Italy.

In Europe he has also performed in the halls of Vienna (Musikverein), Linz (Brucknerhaus), Amsterdam, Baden-Baden, Bonn, Frankfurt, Mannheim and Szeged.

In Israel he conducted the Israel Sinfonietta Beer Sheva, in Brazil the Santo Andrè Symphony Orchestra, in Chile the Chilean Symphony Orchestra and from 2016 to 2020 he was regularly invited by the St. Petersburg Philharmonic to the legendary Great Hall.

Since 1991 Caldi has conducted, among other works, Gluck’s “Orphee et Euridice”, La Bohème by Puccini, Salomè by Strauss, Nabucco, Rigoletto, La Traviata and Il Trovatore by Verdi, Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte and Le Nozze di Figaro by Mozart, Cavalleria Rusticana by Mascagni, The Barber of Seville by Rossini, Norma by Bellini, I Due timidi and The night of a neurasthenic by N. Rota.

As part of the less usual or completely forgotten Italian nineteenth-century repertoire, Caldi conducted Ferdinando Ranuzzi’s Il Macco (Bologna, Teatro Guardassoni, 2006), Don Bucefalo (modern première and Polish première) and Antonio Cagnoni’s Re Lear (world première, Festival della Valle d’Itria 2008 and 2009). During the 2011 edition of the Polish Music Festival in Krakow he also conducted the first performance in modern times (in concert form) of Pierre De Medicis by Jozef Poniatowski staged in the second half of the 19th century, among other things, in Paris, Milan and Madrid and, subsequently, never performed in its entirety again.

His attention is also directed to contemporary opera, over the years he has in fact conducted the first performances of Peter Uncino di Tutino, Nevebianca by Betta and La zingara guerriera by Nicolini.

Caldi has recorded for Acte Préalable, the CD Raul Koczalski – Piano concertos (January 2018) and for Sony Classical, the CD Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Gian Francesco Malipiero, Riccardo Malipiero Cello concertos (April 2018).

In January 2021, Maestro Caldi discussed – obtaining full marks – his PhD thesis entitled “Cavalleria Rusticana by Pietro Mascagni: fidelity to the text or performance tradition?” At the Musical University “F. Chopin” in Warsaw, on which he has worked in the previous 3 years, consulting among other things some manuscripts at the “S. Cecilia” Conservatory in Rome and at the Stanford University Music Library in California.

The experience as principal teacher of the Florence Conducting Masterclass, which ended in 2017, started again more recently in 2022 at the “B. Marcello” Conservatory in Venice, in 2023 at Conservatory “N. Sala” in Benevento and in 2024 at Conservatory “N. Rota” in Monopoli.