1961年イタリアのトスカーナ地方、ヴィアレッジョ生まれ。ルッカのボッケリーニ音楽院で作曲、ピアノ、トランペット、声楽を専攻。その後、指揮法をピエロ・ベッルージに学び、最優秀の成績で同音楽院を卒業。1989～90年までミラノ・スカラ座の指揮スタッフとなり、ムーティやマゼールの副指揮者を務めるなど研鑽を積む。シュトゥットゥガルト歌劇場で「イル・トロヴァトーレ」でセンセーションナルな成功を収め、一躍世界の注目を浴びる。

2004年サントリーホール、ホール・オペラR"プッチーニ・シリーズ"に登場し『トスカ』、05年『ラ・ボエーム』、06年には『トゥーランドット』を指揮した。05年には、愛・地球博で、『蝶々夫人』を指揮。06年にメトロポリタン歌劇場『トスカ』、07年はイギリスのロイヤル・オペラ・ハウス、ウィーン国立歌劇場、12月にはベルリン・フィルの定期演奏会にドヴォルザーク『レクイエム』でデビュー、同オーケストラの来年１２月の定期演奏会出演も決定。コンサート分野では、今年は、ロンドン・フィルハーモニア管弦楽団、アトランタ交響楽団、サンフランシスコ交響楽団を指揮。レコードはドイツ・グラモフォンから、ネトレプコ＆ヴィラゾンのデュエット集が06年にリリースされ、オペラ全曲の録音の予定もある。09/10年シーズンから5年間、サンフランシスコ・オペラの音楽監督に就任する。今年はサントリーホール、ホール・オペラRにおいてモーツァルトの「ドン・ジョヴァンニ」を指揮したばかりである。イタリア系の指揮者の中で、今、その活躍が世界でもっとも注目されている指揮者である。

Italian conductor Nicola Luisotti, music director designate of San Francisco Opera and has been a principal guest conductor of the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra since April 2009, made his international debut in 2002 leading a new production of Il Trovatore at the Stuttgart State Theater. His career trajectory since then can only be described as meteoric, with engagements in the world's major opera houses and concert halls.

Mr. Luisotti made his San Francisco Opera debut in 2005 conducting La Forza del Destino and, following the announcement of his appointment as music director in 2007, he returned to the Company in November 2008 for critically acclaimed performances of La Bohème. In his inaugural season as music director beginning in fall 2009, Luisotti conducts Il Trovatore, Salome, Otello, and La Fanciulla del West.

He has garnered enthusiastic praise from both audiences and critics for his work at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden (Turandot, Madama Butterfly, Il Trovatore); the Metropolitan Opera (La Bohème, Tosca); Paris Opera (La Traviata, Tosca); the Vienna State Opera (Simon Boccanegra); Genoa's Teatro Carlo Felice (Un Ballo in Maschera, La Fanciulla del West, La Traviata, Simon Boccanegra, Il Viaggio a Reims); Venice's La Fenice (Madama Butterfly); Munich's Bavarian State Opera (Macbeth, Tosca); Frankfurt Opera (Il Trittico); Madrid's Teatro Real (Il Trovatore, La Damnation de Faust); Los Angeles Opera (Carmen, Pagliacci); Toronto's Canadian Opera Company (Un Ballo in Maschera); Seattle Opera (Macbeth); and in Tokyo's Suntory Hall (Turandot, Tosca, La Bohème, and Don Giovanni). Upcoming opera engagements include Salome at Bologna's Teatro Comunale, Così fan tutte in Tokyo's Suntory Hall, and Aida at the Royal Opera. In future seasons, he returns to the podium at Milan's Teatro alla Scala and the Metropolitan Opera, among others.

Equally at home on the concert stage, Maestro Luisotti has established growing relationships with the orchestras of Tokyo (Tokyo Symphony, NHK Symphony), London (Philharmonia Orchestra), Genoa, Budapest, Munich (Bavarian Radio Orchestra), Rome (Santa Cecilia Orchestra), Zagreb, Sofia, and Hamburg. In conjunction with the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, Luisotti led special concerts in Beijing featuring artists Renée Fleming, Sumi Jo, and Ramón Vargas. He made his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic conducting Dvorák's Requiem in December 2007 and will return to lead the orchestra in future seasons. Luisotti recently made successful debuts with the orchestras of San Francisco, London, and Atlanta, and his upcoming orchestral engagements include concerts with orchestras of Milan, Turin, and Frankfurt.

The conductor's expanding discography includes a complete recording of Stiffellio (Dynamic) with the orchestra of Trieste's Teatro Verdi and the critically acclaimed Duets (Deutsche Grammophon), featuring Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón. He is also on the podium of a DVD recording of the Met's recent La Bohème, starring Angela Gheorghiu and Ramón Vargas (EMI).

Born in the Tuscan village of Viareggio and raised nearby, Luisotti began studying music as a child, with lessons on the church organ; by age eleven he was the director of the church choir. He later trained as a pianist, with secondary degrees in composition, trumpet, and voice. Following completion of his formal study, Luisotti's first professional years were spent working in Milan, where he was a rehearsal pianist for La Scala, and in Florence, where he served as a member of the chorus of the Maggio Musicale Festival. His earliest full-time position was as chorus master for La Fenice in Venice.