Bassem Akiki is a Lebanese-Polish conductor and composer whose inviduality and creative flair have taken him to theatres, festivals and orchestras around the world. Recent collaborators include Dutch National Opera, La Monnaie, Philharmonie de Paris, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Polish National Opera and Sinfonia Varsovia.
Informed by his own work as a composer, Akiki is a specialist in contemporary repertoire, and has conducted the world premieres of many new works. Recent successes include Alexander Raskatov’s acclaimed Animal Farm at Dutch National Opera, which won the OPER! Award for world premiere of the year in 2023. He regularly works at La Monnaie/De Munt, where he has conducted premieres of Björk’s Medúlla, Orfeo and Majnun (also at Festival d’Aix-en-Provence), Mark Grey’s Frankenstein, and most recently Philippe Boesman’s final opera On purge bébé. Other world premieres include Nicholas Lens’ and J. M. Coetzee’s Slow Man at Malta Festival Poznań, Zad Moultaka’s Hémon and Simon Steen-Anderson’s Don Giovanni’s Inferno at Opéra National du Rhin.
Akiki recently made his debuts with Warsaw Philharmonic and Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, and is currently writing his first opera for La Monnaie/De Munt. Forthcoming debuts and returns include Rotterdam Philharmonic, Opéra de Lyon, Dutch National Opera, Opéra National du Rhin, Royal Danish Opera, Finnish National Opera and Théâtre du Châtelet.
He made his professional conducting debut aged 24 with Verdi’s La traviata at Opera Wrocławska, where he was resident conductor until 2013. Since then, he has built an extensive repertoire of titles from Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Puccini’s Turandot to Prokofiev’s The Fiery Angel, Adès’ Powder Her Face and Dusapin’s To Be Sung. He previously held the positions of Artistic Director of Opera Śląska, Bytom, and Artistic Director of the NFM New Year Festival in Wrocław until 2020.
Aside from conducting, Akiki is a scholar in the music of East and West and their mutual influence, giving lectures on the subject, and his interest in astronomy and prime numbers has influenced his recent compositions. He has led masterclasses in institutions such as Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel of Waterloo, Opera Academy of La Monnaie, and Swarthmore College, Philadelphia, where he also performed Barbara Wysocka and Michał Zadara’s Chopin Without Piano.
