Josep Planells Schiaffino is a composer and conductor born in Valencia in 1988. His conducting work has brought him into collaboration with leading orchestras and ensembles including the Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España, Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla, Basel Sinfonietta, Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonikoa, Orquestra Simfònica de Les Illes Balears, Orquestra de València, Real Filharmonía de Galicia, Ensemble Modern, Remix Ensemble and Klangforum Wien. His operatic engagements include Oresteia at Theater Basel, Die Zauberflöte at the Teatre Principal de Palma and Der fliegende Holländer with Fundació Òpera Catalunya. He has also worked as assistant conductor to Jonathan Nott, Franck Ollu, Pierre Bleuse and Josep Pons in projects at institutions including the Staatsoper Berlin, Salzburger Festspiele, Opéra Comique in Paris and, regularly since 2022, the Gran Teatre del Liceu.

His music has been performed by the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken, Orquesta Nacional de España, Orquesta Sinfónica RTVE, Joven Orquesta Nacional de España, Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra and Ensemble Modern, among others, and by pianist Juan Pérez Floristán. It has also featured at festivals including the Lucerne Festival and Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik. Among the distinctions he has received are the XLII Reina Sofía Award from the Ferrer-Salat Music Foundation for Metalepsis, the Roche Young Commission from the Lucerne Festival, the DAAD Prize, the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Hochschulwettbewerb and the INJUVE Competition. He has received commissions from institutions including the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Orquesta Nacional de España, CNDM and Beethoven-Haus Bonn, and was composer-in-residence of the Jove Orquestra de la Generalitat Valenciana from 2022 to 2024. His current projects include La invención de Morel, a chamber opera based on Adolfo Bioy Casares’s novel, commissioned through a Beca Leonardo from the BBVA Foundation.

Planells Schiaffino studied composition with Arnulf Herrmann and Hanspeter Kyburz at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” Berlin, where he completed his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees, and later completed a PhD in Composition at the University of Cambridge under the supervision of Richard Causton. His work has been supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes, La Caixa/DAAD and the State of Berlin’s Elsa-Neumann Scholarship. He studied conducting with Fred Buttkewitz in Berlin and was subsequently mentored by Peter Eötvös, participating in several of his masterclasses and receiving a scholarship from the Peter Eötvös Contemporary Music Foundation. In 2015, he was awarded First Prize for Interpretation at the Hanns Eisler Competition, and in 2019 was selected for the Lucerne Festival Conducting Fellowship, working with Matthias Pintscher and Heinz Holliger. He also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Clarinet from the Conservatori Superior de Música “Joaquín Rodrigo” in Valencia, where he studied with José Cerveró. During the 2021–22 academic year, Planells Schiaffino was Guest Professor of Composition at ESMUC, and since 2023 has taught and conducted projects at the Conservatori del Liceu.