Vito Cristofaro

Vito Cristofaro, born in Catanzaro, Italy, serves as Acting General Music Director at the Oldenburg State Theatre for the 2025/26 season. Since the 2024/25 season, he has been Professor of Orchestral Studies at the Conservatorio di Musica in Salerno.

At the Oldenburg State Theatre, where he served as First Kapellmeister, he has conducted ballets, concerts, and operas such as Rigoletto, Falstaff, Die tote Stadt, Le nozze di Figaro, La Cenerentola, The Merry Widow, Rusalka, Die Walküre, Götterdämmerung, and Der Rosenkavalier. A highlight was the first German performance of Cristina Regina di Svezia (J. Foroni), broadcast live by NDR Kultur and Deutschland Radio Kultur. He has also recently edited Alfonso Rendano’s Piano Concerto, which was premiered and recorded at the Oldenburg State Theatre with pianist Daniela Roma for the Dynamic label.

From 2010 to 2014, he was Kapellmeister at the Tiroler Landestheater in Innsbruck under KS Brigitte Fassbaender, conducting productions such as Idomeneo, La Wally, The Barber of Seville, The Pearl Fishers, La forza del destino, Tiefland, and Don Pasquale.

After studying violin and piano at the Conservatorio di Musica F. Torrefranca in Vibo Valentia with top distinctions, he attended a conducting course with Maestro Piero Bellugi in Florence and studied composition with Maestro Francesco Antonioni in Rome. As a violinist, he performed with orchestras such as the Orchestra del Teatro Regio di Parma, the Orchestra of the Province of Catanzaro, and the Orchestra del Teatro Lirico Sperimentale di Spoleto.

He also participated in piano masterclasses with Annamaria Pennella, Bruno Canino, and Orazio Maione, and won several competitions in piano and chamber music.

In 2004, he continued his conducting studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna under Leopold Hager and Mark Stringer, graduating with highest distinction in 2009. He also studied opera conducting with Professor Konrad Leitner and choral conducting with Professor Erwin Ortner. During his studies, he attended masterclasses with Seiji Ozawa, Daniel Harding, and Sir Simon Rattle.

In 2012, he ranked among the top participants in the 16th International Malko Conducting Competition in Copenhagen, where the jury was chaired by Lorin Maazel.

He has served as Music Director at the Sommertraum Festival in Semmering and at the 3rd and 4th Lech International Music Festival in Lech am Arlberg. As an assistant conductor, he worked at festivals such as Opern Air Gars, the 50th Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, and Oper Klosterneuburg, where he conducted Don Giovanni, La fille du régiment, and Carmen.

Among the orchestras Vito Cristofaro has conducted are the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the orchestra of the Varna State Opera, the Tiroler Ensemble für Neue Musik, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, and the Orchestra del Teatro Cilea di Reggio Calabria. He has appeared at prestigious venues such as Theater Augsburg, Theater Freiburg, Konzert Theater Bern, Komische Oper Berlin, and the Vienna Musikverein.