NIMA KESHAVARZI
Conductor
BIO
Born in Isfahan (Iran) and trained between Italy and Europe, Nima Keshavarzi has established himself as one of the most versatile and dynamic conductors of his generation. His work spans with natural ease both the symphonic and the operatic repertoire, with a particular focus on 20th-century music and contemporary creation, highlighting Italian and Persian composers.
In 2025 he makes his debut at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and with the Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto (OPV), further consolidating his growing presence on the Italian orchestral scene.
Since 2021 he has maintained a close collaboration with the Camerata Strumentale di Prato, while in Iran he serves as Principal Guest Conductor of both the Iran National Orchestra and the Tehran Symphony Orchestra.
He is co-founder and Music Director of La Filharmonie – Orchestra Filarmonica di Firenze, which he has led since its debut in 2016, contributing to its rise as one of the most prominent new orchestral ensembles at the national level. With La Filharmonie he has conducted, among others, a cycle dedicated to the symphonies of Mozart and Mendelssohn and an Italian tour with cellist Enrico Bronzi as soloist. Notable recent appearances with the Florentine ensemble include the Cantiere Internazionale d’Arte di Montepulciano and the Festival International de Musique Symphonique d’Eljem (Tunisia).
A committed advocate of new music, he has conducted and recorded works by contemporary composers such as Anders Hillborg, Arvo Pärt, Nicola Campogrande, Reza Vali, Andrea Portera, Ari Benjamin Meyers, David John Roche, Francesco Darmanin, Steven Heelein, Paolo Cognetti, and Paolo Marzocchi.
He also serves as Music Director and member of the Artistic Board of the “Dante 700” International Composition Competition, broadcast internationally by RAI, and is co-founder of the festival Fil_Armonia, dedicated to 20th- and 21st-century music.
Since 2015 he has worked as Assistant Conductor to Maestro Roberto Abbado, taking part in productions at some of the most important opera houses in Italy and Europe, including Teatro dell’Opera di Roma (I masnadieri, Andrea Chénier, Benvenuto Cellini), Palau de les Arts in Valencia (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Tancredi), Teatro Comunale di Bologna (Macbeth), Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro (Le Siège de Corinthe), and the Verdi Festival in Parma (Il trovatore, Luisa Miller, Macbeth, Ernani).
He studied violin and composition at the University of Tehran, the L. Cherubini Conservatory in Florence, and the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole. He specialised in orchestral conducting with Alessandro Pinzauti in Florence and at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels with Bart Bouckaert, Lukas Vis, and Arturo Tamayo; he also attended the Accademia Chigiana in Siena with Gianluigi Gelmetti and the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne with Michael Luig.
He further refined his conducting skills under Zubin Mehta, Michel Tabachnik, and Donato Renzetti.
He is fluent in English, Italian, German, French, and Persian.
