The Awards - considered as the Opera Academy Awards - have been announced yesterday evening during the ceremony at the Teatro Real, Madrid.

Daniele Rustioni, former «Best Newcomer» at the International Opera Awards 2013, has received yesterday the prestigious award as Best Conductor of the Year, from a selected jury of international experts chaired by John Allison, editor of Opera magazine. The International Opera Awards, founded in 2012, recognize the engagement of the present Music Director of the Opéra National de Lyon for the promotion of the opera repertoire, which has gained over the years remarkable proportions: with over 70 titles already performed, Daniele Rustioni is surely one of the more active conductors of the industry.

During 2022 Daniele Rustioni has conducted new productions of Rigoletto at the Metropolitan Opera as well as at the Opéra National de Lyon, a new production of Les Troyens at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, has made his debut at the Salzburg Festival with a concert version of Lucia di Lammermoor, to embark later in his first Wagner experience with the new production of Tannhäuser that has opened the season 2022/23 of the Opéra National de Lyon and to present – with the same Lyon ensemble – a concert version of Hérodiade by Massenet at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées in Paris. He has also conducted revivals of Otello at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Le nozze di Figaro at the Metropolitan Opera and La fanciulla del west at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich.

Aside this very intense operatic activity, Daniele Rustioni has been also able to develop his symphonic path, both as Music Director of the Ulster Orchestra – with whom he has made a successful debut at the London PROMS in August 2022 – as well as a guest conductor of great international orchestra such as – among others – the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Bayerische Staatsorchester and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra.

Daniele Rustioni also serves as Artistic Director of the Orchestra della Toscana, where he has held the position of Music Director until 2020.