Daniele Rustioni, recently awarded as “Best Conductor of the Year” at the International Opera Awards 2022, is one of the most compelling conductors of both opera and symphonic works of his generation. He has been the Music Director of Opéra National de Lyon since September 2017 and is at the helm of the Ulster Orchestra in the UK as Music Director since 2022 after serving three seasons as Chief Conductor with the orchestra. In September 2021 he started the tenure as Principal Guest Conductor of the Bavarian State Opera. Rustioni is also Conductor Emeritus of the Orchestra della Toscana, where he served as Music Director between 2014 and 2020. 

Rustioni is in-demand worldwide as a versatile conductor of symphonic music. In January 2022 he made his debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra, having already conducted all major Italian symphony orchestras, including the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia Orchestra and the Filarmonica della Scala, and international orchestras such as the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Hallé Orchestra, and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra. Conducting the MET Orchestra, in February 2023 he will make his first appearance at Carnegie Hall. 

Despite the pandemic, Rustioni has been able to develop a significant activity with the Ulster Orchestra, including an EU tour in May 2022 and an acclaimed presence at the PROMS in August 2022. Future plans during his tenure include recording on Chandos label and more touring activities. 

As Music Director of the Opera National de Lyon, Rustioni conducts two new productions each season in addition of symphonic programs and is a regular guest at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris as well as of the Aix-en-Provence Summer Festival, where he has presented operas on stage as well as in concert version. The 2022–2023 season opened with Tannhäuser, the first episode of a three-year survey on German repertoire. 

Rustioni has been engaged by all the major international opera houses including La Scala, the Opernhaus Zürich, the Opéra Bastille in Paris, and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, as well as with the MET, where he made his debut in April 2017. 

Rustioni has made regular appearances in Japan since his debut conducting Madama Butterfly at the Nikkikai Opera in 2014, including performances with the Kyushu Symphony Orchestra and the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. In May 2018, he returned to Japan for concerts with the Osaka Philharmonic and the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. 

Rustioni’s extensive and varied discography includes Bellini’s Adelson e Salvini for Opera Rara with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Wolf-Ferrari’s Violin Concerto on Deutsche Grammophon with Francesca Dego and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. For Sony Classical, he has recorded works by Federico Ghedini, Goffredo Petrassi, and Alfredo Casella with the Orchestra della Toscana. The highly successful production of The Golden Cockerel with the Opera National de Lyon staged by Barrie Kosky has been recently released on DVD on Naxos label. 

Celebrated as both a recitalist and concerto performer of notable distinction, Francesca Dego is one of the most sought-after violinists on the international scene. 

Her 2022–2023 season includes debuts with the Orchestre de Champs Elysées with Maestro Herreweghe (Mendelssohn), the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León (Busoni), the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland (Mozart 5), North Carolina (Prokofiev 2), the Sofia Philharmonic, and the Foroese Symphony Orchestra. She also returns to the Indianapolis (Mozart 5) and Washington National symphony orchestras, the Ulster Orchestra, and the Orchestra della Toscana with conductor Daniele Rustioni. She will perform in a special project at Dubai Opera House and make her much-anticipated debut in recital at the Wigmore Hall with pianist Alessio Bax. Dego will also perform at the prestigious Ascona Festival alongside Francesco Piemontesi and Daniel Muller-Schott in an all-Brahms chamber program. 

Highlights of recent reasons include concerts across Japan with NHK Symphony conducted by Maestro Luisi, Bernstein’s Serenade at La Fenice, the Orchestre Chambre de Lausanne, the BBC Symphony, the Ulster Orchestra, the Hallé Orchestra, and the La Verdi, Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic, and Royal Scottish National orchestras, the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, the NHK Symphony, the Tokyo Metropolitan and Tokyo Symphony Orchestras, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice, the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, the Teatro Carlo Felice Genova at St. Petersburg’s renowned “Stars of the White Nights” festival, the Teatro Regio di Torino, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and all the major Italian orchestras, the Orquestra de Sevilla, and de la Comunitat Valenciana at Palau de les Arts, the Auckland Philharmonia, the Oviedo Philharmonic, the Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, the Santa Barbara Symphony, the Het Gelders Orkest, and the Orkest van het Oosten. Dego has also given recitals at the Louvre in Paris, Lincoln Center in New York, and Washington DC. 

She regularly collaborates with esteemed conductors such as Sir Roger Norrington, Fabio Luisi, Lionel Bringuier, Dalia Stasevska, Christopher Hogwood, Yoel Levi, Donato Renzetti, Jonathon Heyward, Wayne Marshall, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Diego Matheuz, Shlomo Mintz, Gemma New, Jader Bignamini, Alpesh Chauhan, and Xian Zhang, to name a few. 

Dego is signed exclusively to CHANDOS Records and her recent release of Mozart Violin Concertos 3 & 4 conducted by Sir Roger Norrington with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra was received to unanimous critical acclaim including BBC Music Magazine 5* “Record of the month,” with the next volume due to launch at the beginning of the 2022–2023 season. Other releases include concertos by Paganini and Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari alongside the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Daniele Rustioni, the recital disc Il Cannone, as well as a complete survey of the violin sonatas by Beethoven and of Paganini’s Caprices for Deutsche Grammophon. 

A keen chamber musician, Dego enjoys performing with artists such as Laura van der Heijden, Salvatore Accardo, Alessandro Carbonare, Mahan Esfahani, Bruno Giuranna, Narek Hakhnazaryan, Piers Lane, Jan Lisiecki, Mischa Maisky, Antonio Meneses, Martin Owen, Alessandro Taverna, Roman Simovic, Kathryn Stott, and Francesca Leonardi. 

Dego also has a passion for contemporary music and counts herself a dedicatee of the works of Michael Nyman, Carlo Boccadoro, Cristian Carrara, Nicola Campogrande, and Marco Taralli, among others. She is a frequent contributor to specialist music magazines, penning a monthly column for Suonare News among others, and has written articles and opinion pieces for the BBC and Classical Music magazines, The Strad, Musical Opinion, and Strings Magazine. Dego has also recently published her first book, Tra le Note. Classica: 24 chiavi di lettura, with Mondadori in which she explores how classical music can be listened to and better understood today. 

Dego is based in London and plays on a rare Francesco Ruggeri violin (Cremona 1697).