Parallel to his legal studies he cultivates a passion for music, history and theater. After a few  years of legal consulting in 2013 he decided to devote himself definitively to cultural and  musical promotion and attended the Master in Performing Arts Management (MASP) at  Bocconi University in collaboration with the Accademia della Scala and the Piccolo Teatro  di Milano. The Master follows a work experience at the Opéra National de Paris where he is  involved in the educational project Dix Mois d’Ecole et d’Opéra and in the production of the  show 14+18, which will also take him on tour to the Opéra de Reims and the Opéra National  de Lorraine. 

Starting in 2007, he worked with the Association of Italian Historic Houses (ADSI) – Youth  Group, of which he is President of the Lombardy Region between 2011 and 2013 and member  of the national board between 2011 and 2015. With ADSI, he has organized the “Cortili Aperti”  event in Milan, Brescia and Crema for several years. The event aims to open private historic  buildings normally not accessible to the public, also organizing concerts, art exhibitions and  historic car shows inside them. The event is very successful going to intercept an audience of  tens of thousands of people every year.  

From 2009 he is Founder and Director of the Bottesini Association. In the same year he  produced the Giovanni Bottesini’s opera “Ero e Leandro,” recovered from the autograph  manuscript after more than a century of absence from the theatrical stage. The production  features bass Roberto Scandiuzzi, and a DVD is being made of the opera distributed by the  Dynamic record company. Important musical and operatic events follow “Ero e Leandro.” 

With the Association he founded in 2015 the Portofino International Opera Competition – CLIP, of which he is Artistic Director and General Director. The project was born in 2015 with  the aim of creating a competition that was transparent and gave real job opportunities. For the  first time in Italy, only superintendents or casting directors of major international theaters,  figures capable of signing contracts, were invited to serve on the jury. Since the first edition, 

the president of the jury has been Maestro Dominique Meyer, superintendent of the Teatro alla  Scala, with whom a fruitful collaboration was born. In ten editions there have been nearly  2,500 singers entered and more than 80 di^erent countries involved. In just a few years, the  competition has gained a prominent place among the world’s most esteemed opera  competitions.  

Jury members include: Dominique Meyer (Superintendent – Teatro alla Scala), Peter De  Caluwe (Director – La Monnaie in Brussels), Fortunato Ortombina (Superintendent – La Fenice  in Venice), Sophie De Lint (Director – Dutch National Opera & Ballet), Eva Kleinitz (Director – Opera National du Rhin), Thobias Richter (Director – Grand Théâtre de Genève), Christophe  Gristie (Artistic Director – Capitole de Toulouse), Joan Matabosch (Artistic Director – Teatro  Real de Madrid), Sophie Joyce (Casting Director – Opéra National de Paris), Olga Kapanina  (Casting Director – Bolshoi Theater Moscow), Gianni Tangucci (Maggio Musicale Fiorentino),  Eva Maria Wieser (Casting Manager – Salzburg Festival), Claudio Orazi (Superintendent of the  Carlo Felice Theater in Genoa), Cristiano Sandri (Artistic Director of the Teatro Regio in Turin),  Carolin Wielputz (Director of Artistic Administration of the An der Wien Theater in Vienna),  Jonathan Friend (Artistic Advisor – Metropolitan Opera in New York and Irish National Opera),  Alessandro Di Gloria (Casting Director – Teatro Massimo in Palermo), Valerio Tura ( Casting  Manager – New National Theatre in Tokyo). 

Since 2017 he has been a protagonist together with Maestro Enrico Fagone in the revival of the  historic Bottesini Competition, of which he is the General Director. 

The Bottesini Competition was founded in 1989 on the initiative of Maestro Franco Petracchi.  From the beginning it was considered the most important prize for double bassists from all  over the world. In 2003, the competition was interrupted after 5 editions and was resumed  only in 2017, under the general direction of Francesco Daniel Donati de’ Conti and the artistic  direction of Enrico Fagone (nominated for Grammy Awards in 2023). In 2024, the nineth  edition of the competition took place with 76 competitors from 29 di^erent countries. The  Bottesini Competition is the most watched classical music competition in Italy, having the  videos published in the last four years obtained more than 600 thousand views.  Jury members include Salvatore Accardo, Bruno Giuranna, Fabio Vacchi, Franco Petracchi,  Gary Karr, Thomas Martin and Enrico Fagone. 

In the wake of the success of Luca Guadagnino’s film “Call me by your name,” which was shot  in Crema, in 2018 Donati founded the Crema Film Festival, of which he is Artistic Director.  The festival is dedicated to Cremasque documentary filmmaker Leonardo Bonzi. In addition  to screening films in original language in Piazza Duomo and other locations in Crema, the  festival has hosted industry personalities, events, performances and concerts. Among the  artists involved were director Marco Tullio Giordana, Rai documentary filmmaker Davide De  Michelis, actress Angela Fontana and trumpeter Paolo Fresu. 

With the Bottesini Association, in collaboration with Cremona’s Teatro Ponchielli, in 2023 he  founded the Cavalli Monteverdi Competition, of which he is Artistic Director, along with  Andrea Cigni. The baroque singing competition is named after Francesco Cavalli from  Cremona and Claudio Monteverdi from Cremona, the fathers of opera, and attracts hundreds  of young singers from around the world. The winners, in addition to cash prizes, win a role in  operas by Monteverdi and Cavalli and make their debut at the Monteverdi Festival in  Cremona. Jury members include Laurent Brunner, artistic director of Château de Versailles 

Spectacles, Michael Chance, artistic director The Grange Festival, Peter De Caluwe, artistic  director Theatre la Monnaie in Brussels, Peter Heilker, artistic director Theatre An der Wien. 

Together with M° Enrico Fagone, a conductor nominated in 2023 for a Grammy Award for a  record with the London Symphony Orchestra, he founded in 2024 the Orchestra Bottesini, of  which he is Artistic Director. The orchestra aims to bring together the best young musical  talents to o^er them an educational experience and great professional growth.  

Francesco Daniel Donati was also a Consultant to the Bologna Festival in 2019 and in the  beginning of 2024 was appointed as Head of production of the Orchestra della Svizzera  Italiana working closely with artists such as Martha Argerich, Charles Dutoit, Rey Chen,  Emmanuel Pahud, and many others.