Conductor
Yuri Simonov was born in Saratov, USSR, into a family of opera
singers. He first took up the baton at the age of 12 conducting his
school orchestra and went on to study at the Leningrad Conser-
vatoire with Nikolai Rabinovich and became Evgeny Mravinsky's
assistant at the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra.
In 1968 Yuri Simonov won the Santa Cecilia Conductor's Compe-
tition in Rome and made his Bolshoi Opera debut in 1969 with Aida.
The company then appointed him Chief Conductor - the youngest
and longest serving in the Bolshoi's history. Highlights of this
period were the re-introduction of Wagner to the repertoire after
a forty-year absence and memorable tours which he led to Paris,
Tokyo, Vienna, New York, Milan and Washington.
In 1982 he made his British debuts at the Royal Opera House at
Covent Garden, conducting Jewgenij Onegin, and in three pro-
grammes with the London Symphony Orchestra. Since then Yuri
Simonov has conducted all the leading British orchestras. In 1985
he founded the Maly Symphony Orchestra in Moscow and toured
with them to Poland, Hungary, Germany, Italy and all over the
former Soviet Union. Mo. Simonov made his American concert
debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1989 and his
operatic debut in Los Angeles a year later. During the last two
decades Mo. Simonov has conducted a Wagner opera every year
in Budapest including the complete Ring Cycle.
From 1994 to 2002 Yuri Simonov was Music Director of the Belgian
National Orchestra and since September 2002 their honorary con-
ductor. Since 1998 he has been Chief Conductor of the Moscow
Philharmonic Orchestra.
In recent seasons he toured the USA, UK, France, Germany, Spain,
Croatia, Slovenia, Japan, Hong Kong and Korea with the Moscow
Philharmonic and Spain, Austria and Switzerland with the St. Pe-
tersburg Philharmonic. He also returned to the NHK Symphony,
Royal Philharmonic, Philharmonia and the Czech Philharmonic
Orchestras and made debuts with the Israel Philharmonic,
Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and Budapest Festival
Orchestras.
Representation: Germany