Mariano Chiacchiarini

Mariano Chiacchiarini was born in Buenos Aires in 1982 to an Italian family and feels equally connected to both European and South American culture. His education includes a Master's degree in orchestral and choral conducting with gold medal distinction from the Universidad Católica Argentina in Buenos Aires and a Master's degree in conducting, which he received with distinction in 2010 from Prof. M. Luig at the Cologne University of Music and Dance.

The conductor is considered one of the most outstanding artistic personalities of his generation. At the age of 25, he won first prize at the Teatro Colón J. Martini Conducting Competition in Argentina and began a remarkable international career that led to important encounters with many greats of the contemporary music world. Chiacchiarini has received the ECHO Music Prize, the German Record Critics' Award, the KONEX Prize in Music, recognition as an ‘Outstanding Cultural Personality’ in his hometown, and the Premio Nacional Clásica Prize. He has also been appointed to Barbara Hannigan's Momentum Project and as a member of the advisory board of the German Music Council. In 2025, he received the Music Critics' Association Award for ‘Conductor of the Year’ in the Buenos Aires Parliament.

Since the beginning of his career, he has gained important experience with a large number of first-class and renowned orchestras. These include: the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, the orchestras of the Lucerne Festival, the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Filarmonica della Scala, the Belarus National Radio Orchestra, the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, the WDR Symphony Orchestra, the Duisburg Philharmonic, the Stuttgart Philharmonic, the German Radio Philharmonic, the MusikFabrik and the Ensemble Modern, as well as orchestras from Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Austria, Spain, Hungary, North America, South America and Asia.

He is regularly invited to major festivals such as the Lucerne Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Young Euro Classic, the Accademia Chigiana, Acht Brücken in Cologne, the Donaueschingen Music Days, the Young Classical Series Athens, the Bartók Festival and New Talents Cologne; as well as concert halls such as the Elbphilharmonie, Konzerthaus Vienna and Berlin, the Great Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, Teatro dei Rozzi di Siena, l'Opéra Bastille, Philharmonie Cologne, Parnassos Athens, Israel Philharmonic Hall, KKL Lucerne and Tonhalle Zurich.

He has held numerous permanent positions, including 12 years as music director of the University of Trier and permanent conductor of the Ensemble Garage. From 2011 to 2016, he was musical director of Orchester'91 in Hamburg, and since 2014 he has also been one of the principal guest conductors of the Argentine National Symphony Orchestra and has been engaged by the Lucerne Festival Academy since 2013. In addition, Mariano has been conductor of the Cologne Citizens' Orchestra, a project of the Gürzenich Orchestra, since 2022.
Further evidence of his expertise in contemporary music can be seen in numerous world premieres, such as in 2011 as conductor of the world premiere of Stockhausen's opera ‘Sonntag aus Licht’ for the Cologne Opera, as well as numerous CD and radio recordings, e.g. for WDR, SR, SWR, RBB, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Deutschlandfunk, Radio France, Radiotelevisione Svizzera, National Radio Belarus and Radio Nacional Argentina.

Mariano Chiacchiarini