Rani Calderon

After a period of intensive conducting activity in Israel and in Europe as well as numerous piano recitals in Israel, he was invited in 2002 to the Teatro Municipal of Santiago de Chile for Gluck's "Orphée et Eurydice", produced for the first time in the history of the country. His sounding success with both the orchestra and chorus as well as with the public won him a second invitation in 2003 for a double-bill of Leoncavallo's "Pagliacci" and Puccini's "Gianni Schicchi" with the Italian baritone Leo Nucci.

In 2005 he conducted Rossini's "Il Viaggio A Reims" with a first-rate cast of sixteen soloists at the Theâtre de La Monnaie in Brussels. This won him an overnight success, acclaimed by the public and acknowledged by the critics, opening his way to a brilliant international career.

Rani Calderon studied piano with the late Prof. Pnina Salzman, a pupil of Alfred Cortot, both to become a major influence on Calderon's development as an artist. During his high school days, he organized his friends to form an orchestral ensemble combined with vocal soloists, and conducted arrangements which he had made of "Carmen", "West Side Story" and a selections of songs by Kurt Weill. During that period he was given his first conducting lessons by the late Prof. Shalom Ronli-Riklis, who also prepared Calderon for a first-time-in-Israel conducting matriculation.

Later on Calderon studied conducting at the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem with Prof. Mendi Rodan , concentrating on the symphonic repertoire. During the same period he continued studying the piano with Prof. Salzman at the Rubin Academy of Music in Tel-Aviv, playing a wide repertoire with a special emphasis on Chopin and Beethoven. He also studied harmony, counterpoint and composition with Prof. Yitzhak Sadai.

During the IVAI opera workshop held in Tel-Aviv by Joan Dornemann from the Metropolitan Opera, where he was working as an accompanist, Calderon made acquaintance with the Florentine conductor, Maestro Bruno Rigacci who had been Tullio Serafin's assistant in his youth. This encounter proved to be vital for Calderon's development as an opera conductor. By observing Rigacci's way of working with singers, Calderon was able to learn the preparation methods of the old Italian maestri as well as acquire an intimate knowledge of the Italian operatic style from the bel canto to Puccini.

It was Rigacci who invited Calderon to another summer workshop in Orvieto, Italy where full opera productions with orchestra were mounted. Calderon was to compete with five older Italian conductors and eventually win the first night of Puccini's "Suor Angelica" at the Teatro Mancinelli in 1996, at the age of 23. He returned to Orvieto in the next two years, each time winning the first night with "Madama Butterfly" (1997) and "Il Tabarro" (1998).

Continuing his search for teachers of the various operatic styles, Calderon studied the French repertoire with Mme. Janine Reiss in Paris, also attending her master classes at the studio of the Opera de Paris. His knowledge of the German style was deepened by Mr. Richard Trimborn and Ms. Rita Loving in Munich, and Mr. Tom Christoff in Dresden.

Calderon later conducted a. o. "Macbeth" (The Bukarest Radio Orchestra), "Elisir d'Amore" (Bühnen Graz), "Don Giovanni" (Volksoper, Vienna), "Zauberflöte" ,"Rigoletto", "Il Trittico" & "Turandot" (NIO, Tel-Aviv), "La Gioconda" & "La vie Parisienne" (ORW, Liège), "Rigoletto" (Opera de Massy), "La Sonnambula" (Vlaamse Opera), "Le Nozze di Figaro" (Mahon, Menorca), "Thais" (St. Etienne), "Andrea Chenier" (Monte Carlo), "Faust" (Bilbao), "Euryanthe" (Theatre du Capitole, Toulouse), "Aida" (Avignon) & "Simon Boccanegra" (Opera du Rhin, Strasbourg).

Following his La Monnaie success, he was invited by the Queen Elizabeth Competition to conduct a special concert for the Belgian national day (2007) in the presence of the royal family, transmitted on TV throughout Europe.

At the Festival della Valle d'Itria in Italy he conducted Meyerbeer's "Semiramide" in a world premiere in modern times of the un-cut version, issued on "Dynamic"'.

In 2010 Calderon was appointed principal conductor of the Orquesta Filarmonica de Santiago - the orchestra of the Teatro Municipal. Being a regular guest from 2002, he conducted at the Municipal a wide repertoire including Gluck's "Orphee", "Don Giovanni", a double-bill of "Pagliacci" & "Gianni Schicchi" with the italian baritone Leo Nucci, "Un Ballo in Maschera", "Tristan und Isolde", "L'italiana in Algeri", "Elektra" and "Macbeth".

As a symphonic conductor he appeared with the Orchestra del Teatro La Fenice (Venice), Orchestre National de Belgique (Brussels), Orchestre National d'Ile de France (Paris),  Orchestre National de Montpellier, the OSPA (Oviedo), Orchestre Colonne (Paris), I Pomeriggi Musicali (Milano), the Sofia Philharmonic, the Rishon le-Zion Symphony Orchestra, the Ra-anana Symphonette and the Ashdod Chamber Orchestra in Israel.

As a solo pianist he appeared in numerous recitals in Israel, where he played and explained a wide repertoire including Beethoven's 32 Sonatas, 7 Chopin recitals (including all the Études and Préludes), as well as works by Schubert, Schumann and Brahms. He gave solo recitals in Liege and during the Schumann festival in St. Etienne. He also frequently leads concertos from the piano.

Future engagements include: "Ariadne auf Naxos" & "Aida" (Santiago de Chile), "Yevgeni Onegin" (Avignon) and "Oberon" (Theatre de la Capitole, Toulouse).

Rani Calderon speaks fluently Hebrew, English, Italian, French, German, Russian and Spanish and is currently studying ancient Greek. He won the America-Israel scholarship for conductors as well as the scholarship of the Dean of Faculty of Arts at the Tel Aviv University.