Dan Ettinger

Dan Ettinger was born in 1971 in Holon

Dan Ettinger was born in 1971 in Holon. His family came to Israel from Romania, and his father and grandmother survived the Holocaust. He started piano lessons as a child.

He graduated from the Thelma Yellin High School for the Arts in Givatayim. He then studied for one year at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music in Tel Aviv with Tamar Rahum. He never studied conducting formally and trained mainly by working with Daniel Barenboim.

He first sang baritone roles at the Israeli Opera and later became its choir director. From 1999 to 2003 he was its house conductor. From 2003 he worked with Barenboim at the Berlin State Opera.

He led the Israel Symphony Orchestra Rishon LeZion from 2005 to 2014 and again from 2018, the year he also became music director of the Israeli Opera. He was music director of the Mannheim National Theatre from 2009 to 2016 and became chief conductor of the Stuttgart Philharmonic in 2015. He has conducted opera at the Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden and the Vienna State Opera.

In 2021 he was named music director of the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, and he began the post in 2023.