News > Students, Faculty + Alumni
Back to News Browse
Students, Faculty + Alumni

Jonathan Brandani ’14MM appointed Resident Artist Coach at Minnesota Opera

brandani_jonathanJonathan Brandani ’14MM has been recently appointed Resident Artist Coach at Minnesota Opera for the 2014–2015 season. The Minnesota Opera’s Resident Artist Program offers a full season of employment for talented artists beginning their professional careers. brandani_jonathan

From late August through April, Resident Artists gain valuable experience in assignments ranging from coaching solos, covering rehearsals and performances and assisting guest conductors. The mainstage productions of the 2014–2015 season include La Fanciulla del West, L’Elisir d’amore, Carmen, Hansel und Gretel, and The Manchurian Candidate.

Resident Artists also perform concerts on stage at Ordway Center for Performing Arts, Schubert Club’s Courtroom Concerts, donor functions, adult education classes, and regional outreach.

Jonathan Brandani (b. Lucca, Italy 1983) is currently a conducting fellow at the Yale School of Music, where he studies with Shinik Hahm. Jonathan studied orchestral conducting with Mark Stringer at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna (Austria), where he obtained his Magister Artium Diploma with full grades and honours in June 2012. At the same University he also studied opera conducting and répétiteur with Konrad Leitner and choral conducting with Erwin Ortner. While studying in Vienna, he also received advice from Daniel Harding and Zubin Mehta.

Jonathan has conducted the Wiener Kammerorchester, Russian National Orchestra, Webern Symphonie Orchester, Maribor International Orchestra, Haydn Sinfonietta, and Royal Camerata Bucharest. From 2008 to 2010 he worked as répétiteur at the Festival Oper Klosterneuburg (Austria). He recently conducted several operas at the Opera House at Schönbrunn Castle (Vienna, 2011–2012), Sommertraum Festival am Semmering (Austria, 2012), and Lucca Opera Festival (Italy, 2013).

A passionate interpreter and scholar of early music, Jonathan has played continuo with several renowned European early music ensembles,  such as Concerto Köln, I Barocchisti, Coro della Radiotelevisione Svizzera Italiana, and ArteMusica, and has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, VIRGIN Classics, and ORF. Jonathan has also studied piano (graduating with full marks and cum laude from the Instituto Musicale P. Mascagni in Livorno, Italy) as well as harpsichord,organ, composition, and musicology.