Tugan Sokhiev took up his post as the seventh Music Director of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (DSO Berlin) starting in the 2012|2013 season. Since 2008, the North Ossetian-born conductor has been Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, to which he was appointed after three years as their First Guest Conductor. He also has a regular artistic partnership with the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg and the London Philharmonia Orchestra.

Besides this, Tugan Sokhiev is a globally sought-after guest conductor at leading opera houses and orchestras. After debuting with the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic in 2009 and 2010 respectively he was immediately invited back. In 2013 he debuted with great success with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester. Furthermore, he has performed in the recent past with the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Orchestra of the Fondazione Arturo Toscanini, the Orquesta Nacional de España, the symphony orchestra in Bournemouth, the Philharmonic Orchestras in Montpellier, Moscow, Munich, Oslo, Rotterdam and Strasbourg, the radio orchestras in Frankfurt, Helsinki, Paris, Stockholm, Tokyo, Turino and Vienna and with the Bavarian State Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam and in the concert series at La Scala in Milan.

Tugan Sokhiev gave numerous guest performances that attracted a lot of attention with the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, in France, Germany, Austria, Croatia, Spain, China, Japan, South America and Russia, among other places. In 2005, after a highly acclaimed performance in the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, the Union of French Music Critics selected him as the »musical discovery of the year«. His first two recordings for ›Naïve Classique‹ – including Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony, Mussorgsky’s ›Pictures at an Exhibition‹ and Prokofiev’s ›Peter and the Wolf‹ – received excellent reviews. The recordings of Shostakovich’s ›Festive Overture‹ and Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony were praised by ›Gramophone‹ magazine as its ›Editor’s Choice‹. In 2013, recordings were released of Stravinsky’s ballet scores ›Le Sacre du printemps‹ and ›The Firebird‹.

In 2002 Tugan Sokhiev gave his opera debut in Great Britain with ›La Bohème‹ at the Welsh National Opera; in 2003 he debuted at the Metropolitan Opera in New York with the Mariinsky Theatre’s ›Eugen Onegin‹ production. In addition, he first conducted at the festival in Aix-en-Provence in 2004 (›The Love for Three Oranges‹), followed by successful revivals in Luxembourg and at the Teatro Real in Madrid. In 2006 he conducted an acclaimed performance of ›Boris Godunov‹ at the Houston Grand Opera; at the Mariinsky Theatre he conducted productions of ›The Golden Cockerel‹, ›Iolanta‹, ›The Fiery Angel‹, ›Carmen‹, ›Eugene Onegin‹, ›Aida‹ and ›Madame Butterfly‹, as well as well-regarded performances of ›Pique Dame‹, ›Iolanta‹ and ›Tosca‹ at the Théâtre du Capitole. He recently conducted productions of ›Pique Dame‹ und ›Boris Godunov‹ at the Vienna State Opera.

Tugan Sokhiev was born in 1977 in Vladikavkas, the capital of North Ossetia. After studying conducting with Anatoli Briskin for two years, he began to study with Ilya Musin in St. Petersburg at the advice of and through the intervention of his teacher; Musin founded the school of conducting in Russia.

as of: April 2013