Oleg Caetani, one of the greatest conductors of his generation, moves freely between symphonic and opera repertoire. Caetani has conducted all over the world from La Scala to the Mariinsky in Saint Petersburg, from the Royal Opera House in London to the Opera House in San Francisco, from the Musikverein in Vienna to the Lincoln Center in New York, from the Suntory Hall to the Sydney Opera House, from the Accademia of Santa Cecilia in Rome to the Staatskapelle Dresden, from the Munich Philharmonic to the Mozarteum Orchester, from the Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra to the Yomiuri Orchestra, from the Sydney Symphony to the Montreal Symphony Orchestra working with the greatest soloists ourdays from Marta Argerich to Sviatoslav Richter from Danil Trifonov to Vadim Repin from Misha Maiisky to Gautier Capucon from Viktoria Mullova to Emmanuele Pahud etc.

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Caetani considers Nadia Boulanger to be the driving inspiration of his career. She discovered his talent, initiated him to music and gave him the philosophical approach to life, linked to Montaigne, that he still has today.

At the Rome Conservatory of Santa Cecilia he attended Franco Ferrara's conducting class and studied composition with Irma Ravinale. At the age of 17, he made his theatre debut with a production of Monteverdi's Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda and other madrigals that he organized himself.

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After studying all the Shostakovich Symphonies with Kiril Kondrashin at the Moscow Conservatory, he graduated with Ilya Mussin at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. Winner of the RAI Turin competition and Karajan Competition in Berlin, he started his career at the Berlin State Opera “Unter den Linden” as repetiteur and assistant of Otmar Suitner.

Caetani’s deep experience, now of almost forthy years, in the opera repertoire  by Verdi, Puccini, Mussorgsky and Wagner (including several Ring productions) has influenced his approach to the great opera and symphonic works of the twentieth century.

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Oleg has been chief designate at the ENO in 2005, chief designate 2002-2005 of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Music Conductor and Artistic Director of the same orchestra during 2005-2009. Before that Caetani has been Principal Conductor of the Staatskapelle Weimar, First Kapellmeister of the Frankfurt Opera and GMD in Wiesbaden and in Chemnitz.

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Since 1999 Caetani  has a particularly close relationship with  LaVerdi Orchestra and with them has also toured in South America (2003), Spain (2009) and has been for 3 concerts in Salzburg (Schumann Symphonic Cycle) in Feb.2016.  In April 2008, he conducted the Verdi Orchestra in a concert presented by the Italian President to Pope Benedetto XVI in the Vatican which was recorded live for Eurovision TV.

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Shostakovich’s music has a central role in his repertoire. Caetani has translated the libretto of “The Nose“ from Russian  into German for his production in Frankfurt in 1991; he conducted the Italian premiere of the operetta “Moscow Cheriomushki” in 2007 and has conducted many different countries first performances of Shostakovich’s operas, concertos, ballets and suites as well as recording Italian's first complete cycle of Shostakovich symphonies with the LaVerdi Orchestra in Milan. The CDs have won several prizes 10/10 from Classical Today in USA, ffff Télérama in France and Record Geijutsu in Japan.
His recordings of Tansman’s  Symphonies, released by Chandos, have won three Diapason d’Or  in 2006 and 2008; his Gounod's Symphonies for CPO    (including the 3rd Symphony discovered by Caetani) has also  won a Diapason D'or in January 2015.

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In 2001 he made his debut at La Scala, Milan with Turandot, returning there in 2005 to conduct Otello.  He opened the 2001 season of the Theatre of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino with Don Pasquale.

Recent engagements have included Khovanchina, Vaughan Williams's  Sir John In Love, Madama Butterfly, Boheme and Tosca, all at the English National Opera, The Flying Dutchman at the Rome Opera House, L’enfant et les sortilèges at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, La Voix Humaine coupled with The Bluebeard Castle, Don Carlos in Köln, Madama Butterfly in Berlin and Oslo,  his debut at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden  with Tosca, Lady Macbeth di Mzensk at Oslo Opera, Tosca  at  the Sao Paolo Opera House, Tosca and Turandot at the Mariinsky Opera House, The Prisoner by Dallapiccola with the Mariinsky Orchestra during the Stars White Nights Festival, Lady Macbeth of Mzensk in Helsinki,  Les Pecheurs des Perles and Così fan tutte  in Trieste and Otello in Weimar.

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He regularly conducts orchestras such as Staatskapelle Dresden, Munich Philharmonic, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Gewandhausorchester, Wiener Symphoniker (with whom he has recorded “Poliuto” by Donizetti for Emi-Cbs), Bamberger Symphoniker, Orchestre National de Radio France, Mozarteum Orchester, Konzerthaus Orchester Berlin,  the RAI National Symphonic Orchestra, l’Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino,  Orchestra of the Teatro Verdi di Trieste, Orchestre Philharmonique de Montecarlo,  Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra, Spanish National Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Symphony, Yomiuri Orchestra,  Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, Taipei Symphony Orchestra, Berner Symphonieorchester, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Qatar Symphony Orchestra,  Montreal Symphony Orchestra for a Festival Tchaikovsky/Caetani/ 2016 etc.

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Forthcoming engagements are among different ones, Norma at the White Nights Festival 2018 Saint Petersburg , Woolf Works by Max Richter at Teatro alla Scala, and  many concerts with London Philharmonic Orchestra, Luzern Symphony Orchestra, Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra,  Sydney Symphony, Metropolitan Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, LaVerdi Orchestra Milan (with which in 2019 Caetani will celebrate 20 years of uninterrupted artistic relationship), Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice  etc.