Vassily Sinaisky

Biography

Vassily Sinaisky’s international career was launched in 1973 when he won the Gold Medal at the prestigious Karajan Competition in Berlin. His early work as Assistant to the legendary Kondrashin at Moscow Philharmonic, and his study with Ilya Musin at the Leningrad Conservatoire provided him with an incomparable grounding.

Sinaisky was Music Director and Principal Conductor of Moscow Philharmonic from 1991-1996. He has also held the posts of Chief Conductor of the Latvian Symphony and Principal Guest Conductor of the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra. He was appointed Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Russian State Orchestra (formerly Svetlanov’s USSR State Symphony Orchestra) a position which he held until 2002. Sinaisky is Principal Conductor of the Malmo Symphony Orchestra in Sweden and Chief Guest Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic.

Sinaisky’s position with the BBC Philharmonic sees him conduct at the BBC Proms every summer as well as at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester throughout the season. At the Bolshoi he conducts several major new productions, existing productions and symphonic concerts in the coming years, beginning with a performance of Mahler Symphony No.2 at the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory in December 2009.

Recent guest conducting engagements for Sinaisky include returns to the London Philharmonic, Berlin Radio Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony and St Petersburg Philharmonic, as well as debuts with the Russian National Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, St Louis Symphony and Royal Philharmonic. Next season he returns to the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, St Louis Symphony, St Petersburg Philharmonic and Russian National Orchestra.

Sinaisky has a distinguished pedigree as an operatic conductor. Most recently he conducted Boris Godunov at San Francisco Opera with Samuel Ramey in the title role. Other recent projects included performances of Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta with Welsh National Opera, including one at the BBC Proms, and productions of Carmen and Der Rosenkavalier for English National Opera. Sinaisky’s conducting of a new production of Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk at the Komische Oper Berlin also received unanimous critical acclaim in the international press.

Sinaisky made several recordings with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra for Chandos including works by Szymanowski, Shchedrin, Balakirev and Schreker, as well as a series of Shostakovich’s film music.

In 2010-13 he was Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Bolshoi Theatre.