Biography

 Yuri Simonov was born in Saratov, USSR, studied at the Leningrad Conservatoire with Rabinovich and assisted Mravinsky at the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra. His debut was in 1953 with the Saratov Music School Orchestra (Mozart’s Symphony No. 40) and in 1963 at the Leningrad Conservatory conducting Dargomizhsky's The Mermaid. Following success in the Santa Cecilia Conductors' Competition in Rome in 1968, he was invited to make his debut at the Bolshoi Opera (Aida) in 1969, and was almost immediately appointed Chief Conductor: the youngest in history and, with his appointment ending only in 1985, also the longest serving.

Highlights of his period with the Bolshoi Opera were the re-introduction of Wagner to the repertoire after a forty year absence and several memorable tours which he led to Paris, Japan, Vienna, New York, Milan and Washington. During this time, he conducted the Leningrad and Moscow Philharmonics, USSR State and Moscow Radio Orchestras and Philharmonic Orchestras of Kiev, Minsk and Riga on a regular basis, including foreign tours.

In 1982 he made his debut with a Western operatic company, conducting Eugene Onegin at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and also made his British concert debut conducting three concerts with the London Symphony Orchestra. Since then, he has given numerous further concerts with the LSO in London and on tour, and has conducted a Tchaikovsky cycle with them at the Barbican Hall. In October 1986, he opened the season at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, conducting La traviata. There followed debuts with the Philharmonia with whom he also toured to Belgium, Hong Kong and Australia, the Royal Philharmonic (in London and Paris), and London Philharmonic. Further debuts followed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Los Angeles Opera (Don Carlo with Domingo), San Francisco Opera (Khovanshchina), Florence Opera (with Salome) Genoa (Così fan tutte) and made concert tours of Greece, Spain, Mexico, France and England and conducted further Wagner performances (Tannhäuser, Tristan und Isolde and Parsifal) in Budapest.

In the 1991/2 season he toured Europe with both the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie and, for the first time in their history, the Buenos Aires Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1992/3 he made his debut with the Orchestra of the Teatro Comunale in Bologna, Stuttgart Philharmonic, the NHK Symphony in Japan, Hamburg State Opera (Don Carlo), Dallas Opera (Eugene Onegin), Belgian National Orchestra, and the Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper, Berlin. He returned to Budapest to conduct Der Fliegende Holländer for the first time and made his debut at the Opera Bastille with Pique Dame. He also conducted the Verdi Requiem in a special memorial performance at Vaison la Romaine in France.

In 1993/4, he conducted La Forza del Destino for the first time, in Marseille, recorded with the Royal Philharmonic and returned to seven western European countries for concerts before making his debut with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. He also conducted the Royal Liverpool, City of Birmingham Symphony and English Northern Philharmonia orchestras.

In January 1994, he became Musical Director of the Belgian National Orchestra, Brussels, the former orchestra of the great Belgian conductor André Cluytens. At the end of August 1994 he conducted the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the Tanglewood Festival. The season 1994/5's reappearances included a month in Japan with the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Die Walküre in Budapest and concerts with the Hungarian State Orchestra, recordings with the Royal Philharmonic for Tring and concerts with the Bournemouth Symphony and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestras.

1995/6 included reappearances with the Philharmonia Orchestra, further Tring recordings with the Royal Philharmonic, the Hungarian State Orchestra, a new production of Siegfried in Budapest and masterclasses with young conductors at Miskolc in Hungary as well as the full complement of concerts with the Belgian National Orchestra.

In 1996/7 he appeared in the UK in concerts with the Philharmonia Orchestra and made his debut at the Royal Albert Hall conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the first of their new concert season there, made his Canadian debut conducting the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and led the first tour of the UK by the Belgian National Orchestra.

At the beginning of the 1997/8 season he conducted five concerts in Amsterdam, Toulouse and Paris with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic and toured his own orchestra to Austria, Switzerland and Germany. He also returned to the Czech Republic after many years appearing at the Prague Autumn Festival with the Brno State Philharmonic, conducted a new production of Götterdämmerung in Budapest and returned to the NHK Tokyo.

In 1998 Yuri Simonov was invited to become Musical Director of the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra; he took up the position at the beginning of the 1998/9 season. Since then he has worked with them extensively, not only in Russia but also on tours to the USA, the UK, Germany, Spain and the Far East. He also toured Japan with the NHK Orchestra in 2002.

Mo. Simonov has also been the Music Director of the "Liszt - Wagner" Orchestra (Budapest) since 2001 and in 2003 began to give annual master classes for young conductors in Budapest.

In addition, Mo Simonov’s fruitful contacts with other orchestras continue. He has visited Israel several times to conduct the Israel Symphony Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic, and has also frequently conducted the St Petersburg Philharmonic. In Budapest he has conducted Der Ring des Nibelungen in its entirety, Pique Dame, and, in 2004, Lohengrin.

In 2003/4 he made his debuts with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and the Warsaw National Phiharmonic, and toured Japan with the Moscow Philharmonic. In 2004/5 he made his debuts with the Beethovenhalle Orchestra (Bonn) and Budapest Festival Orchestra and led the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra on tours to the US, Japan and the Czech Republic. During 2005/6 he toured Spain, the UK and Korea and conducted a new production of Die Nurnbergen Meistersinger in the Hungarian Opera House, Budapest.

Most recently, he led the Moscow Philharmonic on tours to Japan and Germany, and conducted a five-performance-cycle of Queen of Spades with Budapest Opera.
He also conducted the opening three concerts with the MPO at 35th Hong Kong Festival and led the 9th International Master Course for conductors in Budapest.
Future engagements include two tours of Russia and two of Japan with the MPO, his debut with the Het Brabant Orkest (Eindhoven) and a new production of Tchaikovsky’s Onegin at Budapest State Opera.

He has recorded with the Bolshoi company for Melodia, for Collins Classics with the London Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic and the Philharmonia, the Royal Philharmonic for Tring and with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra for EMI.

Mo. Simonov has received many awards for his outstanding contribution to music including: Honored Artist of the Russian Federation (1971), People's Artist of the Russian Federation (1976), Lenin's Komsomol Prize (1977), People's Artist of the USSR (1981), Professor of the Moscow Conservatoire (1985), Order for Merits in Culture for the Polish Republic (1988), Russian Order of Honour, (2001), Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary: Officer’s Cross (2001), Order of the Star: Commander (Romania, 2003).

The Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra

   “The Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra is a unique orchestra. It ranks equal with the Chicago, Cleveland,  Amsterdam, Berlin, that is the best of orchestras” – American critic wrote.

The Orchestra just turned fifty six; it was founded in 1951 by Samuel Samosud and had been led by  such outstanding conductors as Nathan Rakhlin (1957-1960), KiriIl Kondrashin (1960-1976), Dmitry Kitayenko (1976-1990), Vassily Sinaisky (1991-1996) and Mark Ermler (1996-1998).  In 1998, Yuri Simonov – the People’s Artist of the USSR, professor - became its Music Director and Chief Conductor.

Extraordinary success came to the Orchestra during the First Tchaikovsky Competition in 1958. The Orchestra under baton of Kirill Kondrasin accompanied to Van Cliburn and after his triumphant victory recorded for a long-play. This recording made the Orchestra and K. Kondrashin world famous. The Orchestra and Mr. Cliburn met several times for concerts, and in 1974 Mr. Cliburn - to mark his 60 jubilee - invited the Orchestra to big American tour.

Since 1973 the orchestra has the status of an "academic orchestra". This title reflected the great artistic achievements and real appreciation of big soloists and audience alike. The Orchestra performed with all the best Soviet conductors as well as some outstanding guest conductors such as Lorin Maazel, Charles Munch, Igor Markevitch, Kurt Sanderling, Igor Stravinsky, Zubin Mehta, Krzysztof Penderecki, to name just few.   “The Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra is a unique orchestra. It ranks equal with the Chicago, Cleveland, Amsterdam, Berlin, that is the best of orchestras” –an American critic wrote. This opinion surely would be supported by great guest soloists as Isaac Stern, Yehudi Menuhin, Artur Rubinstein, Glenn Gould, Maurizio Pollini and many others, who praised highly the orchestra’s inspired performance, their fine sense of ensemble, and artistic unity.

On tours in Russia and abroad, the orchestra performed with many great Russian musicians as David Oistrakh, Sviatoslav Richter, Emil Gilels, Mstislav Rostropovich and Galina Vishnevskaya. They passed on their love and respect for the Orchestra to next generation of musicians such as Victor Tretyakov, Yuri Bashmet, Nikolay Petrov, Vladimir Krainev, Natalia Gutman, Mikhail Petukhov, Nikolai Lugansky, Denis Matsuev and many others.

The geography of the orchestra tours covers more than fifty countries. It performed in the best concert halls of the world, and gave nearly 5500 concerts. Since 1998 Maestro Simonov led the Orchestra on regular basis to Great Britain and the United States, Germany and France as well as many other European countries. The Orchestra annually tours Japan and regularly participates in the most prestigious music festivals around the globe. The recent one was the 35^th Hong Kong Festival in February 2007. The Orchestra opened it with three different programs. Always on the road, the orchestra brings to its audience variety of genres and styles offering a fascinating combination of technical perfection, expressiveness and artistic presentation.

        "The Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra which recently marked its 50th anniversary is building upon Russia’s famous symphonic traditions. They play with clockwork precision, their sound alive and richly textured, with singing strings and bright winds" (from review on 2001 US tour).