Italian conductor and harpsichordist Ottavio Dantone is a specialist in Baroque music. He attended the Conservatorio "Giuseppe Verdi" in Milan, where he studied organ and harpsichord. He won the award in basso continuo at the International Harpsichord Competition in Paris in 1985, and won honors at the International Harpsichord Competition in Bruges in 1986. Dantone's association with the Accademia Bizantina in Ravenna began in 1989, and since 1996 he has been the ensemble's music director. He began conducting opera in 1999 with a revival of Giuseppe Sarti's Giulio Sabino at the Teatro Alighieri in Ravenna. He conducted George Frederick Handel's Rinaldo at La Scala in 2005, and performed it again at the Glyndebourne Festival in 2011. He teaches harpsichord in Lugano and Turin, and has given master classes in harpsichord, chamber music, basso continuo, and improvisation across Europe. Dantone has recorded for Decca, Alpha, Naïve, Onyx Classics, and Harmonia Mundi, as well as other labels. ~ Blair Sanderson, Rovi