Winner of the International Jorma Panula Conducting Competition 2024 (2^nd Prize & Orchestra Prize) and finalist at the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition 2025, Félix Benati is a French conductor, deeply invested in the symphonic repertoire of the 20th & 21st century and in Opera. He has made remarked debuts with Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France in April 2025, in a last-minute jump-in to replace Mikko Franck in Debussy’s La Mer. He also made recent debuts at Théâtre du Châtelet with Orchestre de Chambre de Paris (in Offenbach’s Vie Parisienne), Orchestre de l’Opéra de Rouen-Normandie, Orchestre National de Lille, Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, Orchestre National de Cannes and Jyväskylä Sinfonia (Finland) among others. Next season Félix Benati will debute at Opéra National du Capitole de Toulouse, Opéra National de Bordeaux, Orchestre National de Bretagne, Opéra National de Montpellier and Orchestre Colonne, and notably will be re-invited at Philharmonique de Radio-France and Opéra de Rouen. Always searching for combinations between vocal & instrumental music, Félix likes to conceive his concert programs in that way, from Berio’s Folk Songs to Strauss’ Salome. He is regular guest conductor in Romania with Filarmonica de Stat Sibiu and Filarmonica de Stat Dinu Lipatti.

Félix Benati assisted Mikko Franck with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France, Michael Schonwandt and Kristiina Poska with the Orchestre Français des Jeunes from 2023 to 2025, and Alexandre Bloch with Orchestre National de Lille from 2023 to 2024, on such various lyrical repertoire as Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine, Johann Strauss’ Fledermaus, Puccini’s La Bohème or Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle. He graduated from the Conservatoire National de Paris in Alain Altinoglu’s conducting class in 2023, and thus worked with Ensemble InterContemporain, Luzerner Symphonieorchester, Orchestre de Picardie, mentored by Michael Sanderling, Arie van Beek, Pascal Rophé, Bertrand de Billy…

His love for voice has also led him to choir and vocal companies: he co-founded vocal Les Temps Dérobés in 2017, a young professional vocal ensemble crossing the a cappella repertoires of today and yesterdays, which he conducted for 5 years ; he also worked as musical director, pianist, répétiteur and singer with the Ensemble Poursuite from 2019 to 2022. He was guest conductor with Les Métaboles, Aedes, Sequenza 9.3 and assistant conductor of Mikrokosmos Choir from 2017 to 2021. Felix is also invested in transmission, and created/conducted may educative projects with the various ensembles he worked with. In 2017, he was guest conductor of the Kolkata Youth Orchestra. He is a member of the Amis d’Olivier Greif Association.