Winner of the International Jorma Panula Conducting Competition 2024, Félix Benati is a French conductor, deeply invested in Opera and the symphonic repertoire of the 20th & 21st centuries. He made a remarkable debut with Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France in April 2025, in a last-minute replacement for Mikko Franck in Debussy’s La Mer. He also made recent debuts with Orchestre National de Lille, Orchestre de l’Opéra de Rouen-Normandie, Orchestre Pasdeloup and Filarmonica de Stat Sibiu (Romania), and will appear for the first time next season at Théâtre du Châtelet, with Vaasa City Orchestra, Jyväskylä Sinfonia (Finland) and Filarmonica de Stat Dinu Lipatti (Romania). Felix likes to conceive his concert programs within a constant search to combine vocal & instrumental music, from Berio’s Folk Songs to Strauss’ Salome, Felix has thus worked on such various repertoire as Francis Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine, Hector Berlioz’ Symphonie Fantastique, Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème or Bela Bartok’s Bluebeard’s Castle alongside Michael Schonwandt, Alexandre Bloch and Kristiina Poska from 2023 to 2025, when he was assistant conductor at the Orchestre National de Lille and the Orchestre Français des Jeunes. During the same period he worked alongside international soloists such as Elisabeth Leonskaja, Asmik Grigorian, Alexandre Tharaud, Véronique Gens, Pene Pati etc. Felix is a regular guest conductor at Orchestre Elektra and Ensemble Multilatérale.

Felix Benati graduated from the Conservatoire National de Paris in Alain Altinoglu’s conducting class in 2023. He assisted Mikko Franck with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France through Richard Strauss lyrical repertoire and Lucie Leguay in Johann Strauss’ Die Fledermaus. He worked with Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, Ensemble InterContemporain, Orchestre de Picardie, Orchestre Régional de Normandie and great conductors like Mikko Franck, Arie van Beek, Pascal Rophé and Bertrand de Billy.

His love for voice has also led him to choir and vocal companies: he co-founded Les Temps Dérobés in 2017, a young professional vocal ensemble crossing the a cappella repertoires of all epoches, 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 the Mikrokosmos Choir from 2017 to 2021. Felix is also invested in transmission, and created/conducted many 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.