Daniele Gatti has been named Music Director of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.

The conductor will begin his tenure in 2026 during the 88th Festival del Maggio and will serve for an initial three years through June 30, 2029.

In a statement, General Director Carlos Fuortes said, “I am particularly pleased to announce this appointment. Daniele Gatti is one of the greatest directors on the international scene and has already profoundly influenced the recent history of our Theater, holding the role of Principal Director until last year with extraordinary artistic results. We have had the opportunity to work together on several occasions in the past and I know his vision, his rigor and his great musical sensitivity well. The choice of Daniele Gatti represents an artistic investment of the highest level. A sign of continuity but also of renewal: welcoming him as the musical director of our Theater means forcefully reaffirming the identity of the Maggio as a center of excellence, a place of musical creation and thought, faithful to its history but always projected towards the future. On behalf of myself, of the Board of Directors of the Foundation and of the entire Theater, I extend the warmest welcome to Daniele Gatti. We welcome him with enthusiasm, ready to build new important pages of our history together.”

Gatti added,”I am happy and I am for several reasons. I am returning to make music on a permanent basis with the extraordinary professionals of the orchestra and with the artists of the Maggio Musicale choir, to work with all the people linked to the Florentine lyric-symphonic foundation, and I do so in the new role of Music Director, after the previous experience as Principal Conductor. I am also returning to collaborate with Carlo Fuortes, a superintendent of high professionalism and loyalty, for whom I have great respect, and with whom we have happily shared many projects in the past. I thank everyone for this new artistic adventure.”

Gatti is the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi in Milan, Chief Conductor of the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, and Artistic Advisor of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra.