Music director at the Opéra National de Lorraine in Nancy, Rani Calderon was born in Israel, where he studied Piano with Pnina Salzman, Music Theory with Yitzhak Sadai and Orchestral Conducting with Shalom Ronli-Riklis, Noam Sheriff and Mendi Rodan at the Rubin Academies of Music both in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. He also studied with Bruno Rigacci in Florence, Janine Reiss in Paris, Richard Trimborn in Munich, Rita Loving in Munich and Tom Christoff in Dresden.

Rani Calderon made his debut in Puccini's Suor Angelica at the Teatro Mancinelli in Orvieto, winning at the age of 23 the first prize at the "Spazio Musica" opera workshop. He was then invited back to Orvieto to conduct Il Tabarro and Madama Butterfly.

In 2005, he was asked to suddenly replace famous Italian conductor Carlo Rizzi for Rossini's Il Viaggio a Reims at the Théâtre de La Monnaie in Brussels. That engagement gave him immediate visibility and he was subsequently invited to conduct a gala concert in occasion of the Belgium’s National Day at the presence of the royal family. Rani Calderon was appointed Principal Conductor at Teatro Municipal in Santiago de Chile (2009-2012), where he conducted Tannhäuser, Elektra, L'Italiana in Algeri, Macbeth, Ariadne auf Naxos, Aida, Orphée et Eurydice, I Pagliacci, Gianni Schicchi, Don Giovanni, Un Ballo in Maschera and Lucrezia Borgia. As music director at the Opéra National de Lorraine, M° Calderon conducted: Turandot, Nabucco, Aleko and Francesca da Rimini, Orfeo ed Euridice, Les pecheures des perles, Le coq d'or, Ariadne auf Naxos, Don Giovanni, Mozart's Requiem and a series of symphonic concerts.

In the past seasons M° Calderon conducted, among others: Verdi's Macbeth with the Bucharest Radio Orchestra in Bucharest; L'Elisir d'Amore at Bühnen Graz; Don Giovanni at the Volksoper in Vienna; Die Zauberflöte, Rigoletto, Turandot and a new production of Il Trittico at the New Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv; La Gioconda and La Vie Parisienne at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Liège; Rigoletto at the Opéra de Paris-sud; Le Nozze di Figaro in Menorca (Spain); La Sonnambula at the Vlaamse Opera in Antwerp; and the world modern première of Meyerbeer's Semiramide at the Festival della Valle d'Itria in Martina Franca (Italy), recorded by Dynamic.

As symphonic conductor, he enjoys a vast and versatile repertoire ranging from early classical works to the 20th Century. Rani Calderon had appeared with the Sofia Philharmonic, the Rishon Le-Zion Symphony, the Ra-anana Symphonette, the Ashdod Chamber Orchestra, the Orquesta Sinfonica Principado de Asturias, the Orchestre Colonne and the Orchestre National de Montpellier. He also performed as solo pianist in numerous recitals in Israel, playing Beethoven's 32 Sonatas, the complete sets of Chopin’s Etudes and Preludes, and pieces by Schubert, Schumann and Brahms, to name just a few. He frequently leads concerts from the piano.

M° Calderon recently conducted: Andrea Chénier at the Opéra de Monte Carlo; Gounod's Faust in Bilbao and Dresden; Euryanthe and Oberon at the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse; Aida and Eugene Onegin at the Théâtre Municipal d'Avignon; Simon Boccanegra in Strasbourg and Mulhouse; Der Fliegende Hollaender in Warsaw; Il Trittico at the Theater an der Wien; Semiramide in Copenaghen; a series of concerts in Sofia, Bari, Milan (Teatro dal Verme) and Santiago de Chile; Rigoletto and La Bohème in Dresden; the Aids-Gala in Berlin and Bonn; Ariadne auf Naxos, Don Giovanni, Un Ballo in Maschera in Toulon; Mahler's Symphony n.2 in Santiago de Chile; Carmen in Kiel and Il Tabarro and Weill’s The Royal Palace at the Opera in Montpellier; and a series of symphonic concerts in Kiel, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Bloomington, Vienna and Saint-Etienne.

Amongst his other future plans it is worth mentioning Un Ballo in maschera in Nancy and Luxembourg. At the Opéra National de Lorraine M° Calderon will also conduct Madama Butterfly and Aida.