Carlo Benedetto Cimento

Principal Conductor

SLT / Christian Krautzberger

The Italian conductor Carlo Benedetto Cimento has been Principal Conductor at the Salzburg State Theatre since the 2023/24 season. In previous seasons, he achieved great success with new productions of "Il barbiere di Siviglia," "Il viaggio a Reims," and "Lucio Silla," and most recently with the Austrian premiere of Salieri’s rarity "Il mondo alla rovescia" in spring 2025. In summer 2025, he also appeared as a guest at the Richard Strauss Days in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and the Gustav Mahler Music Weeks in Toblach, and made his debut at the Salzburg Festival with the YSP closing concert.

He made his Italian conducting debut in 2023 at the Teatro Verdi in Trieste with a Verdi Gala concert and a performance of "Orphée aux enfers."

Equally accomplished in the concert repertoire, he has conducted symphonic works at the Vienna Musikverein, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Salzburg Felsenreitschule, and the concert hall of the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. He has appeared with orchestras such as Cappella Aquileia, the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the North German Philharmonic Rostock, the Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria, and the Munich Symphony Orchestra. He was recently appointed "Conductor in Residence" of the KALA Chamber Orchestra.

His great passion is working with singers. He has served as Italian coach for vocal classes at the University of Music Würzburg and is a regular juror at the International Singing Competition Vincerò and the Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition. From 2021 to 2023, he was répétiteur and conductor at the Mainfranken Theater Würzburg, and in 2020 répétiteur at Theater Kiel.

Born in Bologna, Carlo Benedetto Cimento studied organ and conducting at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna and completed a master’s degree in conducting at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich. He also took master classes with renowned conductors such as Christian Thielemann, Daniele Gatti, and Andrés Orozco-Estrada.

He was nominated for the Austrian Music Theater Award for his direction of Haydn’s "L’isola disabitata," conducted from the fortepiano, at the Festival Teatro Barocco, won the Ö1 Talentbörse, and received the 2019 Max Liebhaber Prize of the Heidenheim Opera Festival.

Last updated: September 2025