Valentin Uryupin, Maxim Emelianychev,
Alexey Zhilin

Valentin Uryupin is an exceptional talent: not only is he a celebrated conductor, but as a clarinettist he has performed worldwide and won more than twenty international competitions. Given his numerous conducting engagements in opera houses and concert halls alike, his solo career has begun to take more of a back seat. Nevertheless, Valentin Uryupin occasionally appears in play-conduct concerts in the dual role of clarinettist and conductor.

Valentin Uryupin graduated from the Moscow Conservatory as a clarinet player (2009) and conductor (2012). His teachers included conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky and clarinettist Evgeny Petrov. Uryupin has also worked as an assistant conductor to Valery Gergiev and Vladimir Jurowski. He is the 2017 winner of the 8th International Conductor’s Competition Sir Georg Solti. His conductor’s repertoire includes over thirty operas and ballets as well as a broad spectrum of orchestral music, including many contemporary works by composers such as John Adams, Gija Kantscheli, Henri Dutilleux, Jörg Widmann, and Kusma Bodrow.

Valentin Uryupin has been principal conductor and artistic director of the Rostov-on-Don Symphony Orchestra from 2015 to 2021, and regularly gives concerts at the Novosibirsk State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre, the Evgeny Svetlanov Russian State Academic Symphony Orchestra, and the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra. Guest appearances have taken him to the Teatro Real in Madrid, Athens Opera, SWR Symphony Orchestra, RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra Dublin, ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien, the George Enescu Philharmonic in Bucharest, Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra, Tapiola Sinfonietta, and the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi. He collaborates with the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, Japan Century Orchestra Osaka, New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen, and the Orchestra of the Teatro Communale di Bologna, among others.

Valentin Uryupin’s recent seasons include concerts featuring numerous major Russian orchestras, including the Svetlanov State Symphony Orchestra of Russia, Russian National Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra Moscow Virtuosi, and the Rostov Symphony Orchestra. He also had return engagements with the Tyrolean Festival Erl, Bolzano Haydn Orchestra, and Orchestra Della Toscana. In collaboration with the Deutsche Radiophilharmonie Saarbrucken and Eichhorn Friedemann he began work on the CD-recording of Schnittke’s complete violin works. In addition, he debuted with the Romanian Radio National Orchestra, Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Orchestra of the Staatstheater Darmstadt.

Valentin Uryupin has been Chief Conductor and Artistic Manager of the Novaya Opera Theatre in Moscow from 2021 to 2022, where he conducted new productions of Korngold's The Dead City and Massenet's Cendrillon. His schedule includes debuts with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, the MAV Symphony Orchestra Budapest, Philharmonie Zuidnederland, his return to the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bregenz Festival, for Umberto Giordano's Siberia and his return to Oper Frankfurt for a new production. 

An outstanding representative of the younger generation of Russian conductors, Maxim Emelyanychev was born in 1988 to a family of musicians. He received his fundamental education in Nizhny Novgorod (conducting and piano) then with Gennady Rozhdestvensky in Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory. 

Maxim is a prize-winner of numerous international competitions (harpsichord, conducting from the piano) and, in 2013, was awarded the highest Russian theatre prize Golden Mask as fortepianist in stage production of Nozze di Figaro of Perm opera theatre, conducted by Theodor Currentzis. (CD by Sony Classical). Since his conducting debut at the age of 12, he is invited by numerous Russian and international renowned orchestras, both baroque and symphonic. He is Principal Conductor of Il Pomo d’Oro ensemble. He collaborates with such renowned artists as Riccardo Minasi, Max Emanuel Cencic, Xavier Sabata, Julia Lezhneva, Sophie Karthäuser, Franco Fagioli, Dmitry Sinkovsky, Marie-Nicole Lemieux, Alexei Lubimov, Theodor Currentzis, Patrizia Ciofi, Stephen Hough, Richard Goode, Katia and Marielle Labèque or Joyce DiDonato.

The 2021/22 sees him at the head of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Hessischer Rundfunk Frankfurt Orchestra, the Deutsche Symphony Orchestra Berlin, the Bergen Philharmonic, the New Japan Philharmonic, the Helsinki Radio Symphony, the Toronto Symphony and the Rotterdam Philharmonic. They include returns to the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Antwerpen Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse and to the Royal Opera House in Mozart The Magic Flute. 

In August 2021 Maxim took the Scottish Chamber Orchestra to the BBC Proms and to the Edinburgh International Festival. He also toured the USA and Europe at the head of Il Pomo d’Oro together with Joyce DiDonato. Maxim’s 2020/21 engagements include the Geneva Grand Theatre in Mozart’s Clemenza di Tito and the Toulouse Théâtre du Capitole in Mozart’s Nozze di Figaro. Debuts with the Orchestre de Paris, the Toronto Symphony and Atlanta Symphony orchestras, the Gulbenkian Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Belgian National Orchestra and the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra. 

In 2019/20, alongside taking up his position with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra as their Principal Conductor, he conducts the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in two of the major international opera institutions: The Glyndebourne Festival (Handel Rinaldo) and the Royal Opera House (Handel Agrippina). He returns to the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse in three different programmes for the third season in a row. He also returns to the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana and to the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. Other engagements include the Berliner Konzerhausorchester, the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, the St Petersburg Philharmonic and the Seattle Symphony. The following season sees him, among other engagements, in the opera of the Geneva Grand Theatre in Mozart Clemenza di Tito, the Toulouse Théâtre du Capitole in Mozart Magic Flute and his debuts with the Münchner Philharmoniker conducting Beethoven 9th Symphony. 

Highlights of his 2018/19 season included three performances with the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse and his fourth appearance with the Real Orquesta Sinfonica de Sevilla. He also makes his debut with the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano, and conducts the Orchestre National de Lyon, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano LaVerdi, Orchestre National de Belgique, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Bordeaux, St Petersburg Symphony and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. 

Maxim Emelyanychev’s CD dedicated to Mozart Sonatas on piano-forte (Aparté label) win several prestigious awards, including a Choc of Classica 2018 and the ICMA 2019. In October 2018 is released on Aparté his CD of Beethoven Symphony no.3 and Brahms Haydn Variations with the Nizhny Novgorod Soloists. In April 2019 he received the most distinguished international Opera Award, category New Comer.