Born in Jakarta of Chinese descent, the Indonesian–American Wilson Hermanto’s musical training began with the piano and the violin. He graduated from the Peabody Conservatory of Music majoring in violin and pursued conducting studies from the Manhattan School of Music with the late Swedish maestro Sixten Ehrling. Sir Colin Davis became a close musical mentor who took personal interest in shaping Wilson Hermanto’s conducting skills. He was also one of the last pupils in the famous conducting class of Carlo Maria Giulini at the Scuola Musica di Fiesole in Italy, a conducting Fellow at the prestigious Tanglewood Music Centre, and a Fellow at the invitation of Pierre Boulez to work at the Lucerne Festival Academy. 

He conducted a production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg as well as symphony concerts with the Mariinsky Orchestra at the invitation of their legendary Artistic and General Director, Valery Gergiev. As a former Boulez protégé, Wilson Hermanto conducted Boulez’s 90th anniversary celebration in Geneva with the new music group Ensemble Contrechamps.

Following his sensational debut with the Cameristi della Scala, in December 2017 he began his association with the orchestra as its Principal Guest Conductor. He performed with the Cameristi della Scala at the George Enescu Festival and took the orchestra to France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Turkey, in addition to performing with them at Teatro alla Scala di Milano. Wilson Hermanto performs regularly in France where he has worked with various important French orchestras such as Orchestre National de Lyon, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, Orchestre National d’Île de France, Orchestre National de Bretagne, and others. Around the globe Mr Hermanto has worked with the Cleveland Orchestra, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken, Prague Symphony, London Philharmonic, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, NDR Radio Philharmonie in Hanover, Ulster Orchestra, Florida Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre de Chambre de Genève, and many others. 

Recent appearances as guest conductor brought Mr. Hermanto in front of the Sinfonia Varsovia, Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonisches Orchester Heidelberg, George Enescu Philharmonic, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Chile, Orchestra of Accademia del Teatro alla Scala as well as the re-invitations conducting the Mariinsky Orchestra, Orchestre National de Metz, Szczecin Philharmonic Orchestra and Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá. Mr. Hermanto made his debut with the Baltic Opera in Poland conducting Leonard Bernstein’s Candide and worked with the Argovia Philharmonic and the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra. Since 2022, Wilson Hermanto and Daniel Müller-Schott have been the Co-Artistic Directors of the Vevey Spring Classic music festival in Switzerland. 

With a large repertoire encompassing music from the Baroque period until the music of our time, Wilson Hermanto has performed and worked with many renowned contemporary composers such as Zygmunt Krauze, Bruno Mantovani, Jörg Widmann, Agata Zubel, Thuridur Jónsdóttir, Helmut Lachenmann, Giovanni Sollima, Magdalena Długosz, H.K Gruber, Matteo Franceschini, Enno Poppe, and Lowell Liebermann.