Professor

Nabil Shehata moves through music with the natural ease of someone who has known it from an early age.

Born in 1980 in Kuwait and raised in Germany, his musical journey began at the piano before he discovered the double bass as a child, an instrument that would shape his artistic outlook to this day: listening, supporting, connecting.

This perspective from within the orchestra would later become central to his work as a conductor.

After studying in Würzburg and Berlin, his career quickly led him to the world’s major stages. As principal double bassist of the Staatskapelle Berlin and later of the Berlin Philharmonic, he experienced orchestral life at the highest level. At the same time, his interest increasingly turned toward the larger musical picture.

Form, dramaturgy, and merging many individual voices into a shared language. Encounters with conductors such as Daniel Barenboim proved formative and opened the path to the podium.

Since his conducting debut in 2007, Nabil Shehata has developed an international career, working with orchestras across Europe, Asia, and the US. His interpretations are marked by chamber-musical clarity, trust in the musicians, and a desire to make music tangible rather than explain it. Whether in the symphonic repertoire or in opera, his conducting seeks dialogue over display.

As Chief Conductor of the Philharmonie Südwestfalen, he shaped a distinctive artistic profile over several seasons. He now continues this work as Artistic Director of the Orchestra of the Barenboim-Said Akademie, where musical excellence and cultural exchange are inseparable.

Alongside his conducting, teaching, work with young musicians, and his own festival initiatives form an integral part of his artistic life, all rooted in curiosity, closeness, and shared musical thinking. For Nabil Shehata, music is an open space—a place of encounter, concentration, and collective responsibility. His artistic path unites virtuosity with integrity, and a quiet, persuasive authority with a deep joy in making music together.