Michail Jurowski

Born in Moscow in 1945, Michail Jurowski is the son of the composer Vladimir Jurowski and grandson of the conductor David Block. His sons Vladimir and Dmitri are also internationally renowned conductors. Michail Jurowski grew up in the circle of internationally acclaimed artists of the former Soviet Union such as Ojstrach, Rostropovitch, Kogan, Gilels, and Chatchaturjan. Dmitri Shostakovich was a close family friend, and he and Michail not only spoke often but would also play four-hand piano pieces together. Such experiences had a huge influence on the young musician and it is therefore no coincidence that today Michail Jurowski is one of the leading interpreters of Shostakovich’s music. In 2012 Michail Jurowski was awarded the third International Shostakovich Prize by the Shostakovich Gohrisch Foundation.

Michail Jurowski was educated at the Moscow Conservatoire, where he studied conducting under Leo Ginsburg and music science under Alexei Kandinsky. During his studies he assisted Gennadi Rozhdestvensky at the National Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra of Moscow. While still a resident in Russia he conducted the Music Theatre of Stanislavski and Nemirovitch-Dantchenko in Moscow, and during his last years in the Soviet Union frequently conducted performances at the Bolshoi Theatre.

From 1978 Michail Jurowski was regular guest conductor at the Komische Oper Berlin. In 1989 he left the USSR with his family and was offered a permanent post with the Dresden Semperoper. Other titled positions have included: General Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Northwest German Philharmonic Orchestra; Chief Conductor of Leipzig Opera; Chief Conductor of WDR Radio Symphony Orchestra in Cologne. He is currently the Principal Guest Conductor of the Tonkünstler Orchestra of Lower Austria, a position he has held since 2003.

As a guest conductor Michail Jurowski has led the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Dresden Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic, Stuttgart Philharmonic and Stavanger Symphony orchestras among others. In addition he works with the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra at least twice a year. Recent Opera and Ballet highlights have included Götterdämmerung in Dortmund, Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty at the Norske Opera in Oslo, Eugene Onegin at the Teatro Lirico in Cagliarias, as well as a new production of Respighi’s Marie Victoir, the revival of Un Ballo in Maschera at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, a hugely successful new production of Prokofiev’s The love of three oranges at the Grand Theatre in Geneva with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, critically acclaimed Glazunov’s Raymonda at La Scala, with the sets and costumes being replicated from M. Petipa’s original 1898 production in St. Petersburg, and a revival of Prokofiev’s Fiery Angel at the Bolshoi Theatre, which marked his return to the Russian rostrum in 2012. His opera repertoire includes Mozart, Verdi, Puccini, Weber, Wagner, Smetana, R. Strauss and Britten, as well as Russian composers Glinka, Dargomyzhsky, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, Prokofiev and Shostakovich.

Michail Jurowski’s return to the Russian stage in the 11/12 season has been hailed as a huge success. He generated a lot of press interest, first with Prokofiev’s Fiery Angel production at the Bolshoi, then conducting at two televised events organized by the Russian Ministry of Culture (as part of the Slavic Cultural Forum and at The Kremlin), on tour with the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia, and closing the season of the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra in Moscow. In Germany he conducted the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Dresden Philharmonic and Lübeck Symphony Orchestra. Elsewhere he has had notable appearances with Nice Philharmonic, Orchestra della Radiotelevisione della Svizzera Italiana, Orquestra Sinfónica Do Porto Casa Da Música and Bergen Philharmonic. He also returned to Norrköping, Stavanger, and Tonkünstler symphony orchestras for his regular guest conducting weeks.

The 12/13 season includes many more high profile engagements, including the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia in two programmes at the closing of the Santander International Music Festival, and conducting the Bergen Philharmonic at the finals of Grieg International Piano Competition. He then appears at Staatskapelle Dresden, conducting at the International Shostakovich Festival Gohrisch. He makes a debut at Opéra de Paris, conducting Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina, and returns to the Zurich Opera House for a new ballet production of Romeo and Juliet.

Guest conducting engagements include performances with the Orquestra Sinfónica do Porta Casa da Música, the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra and the Noord Netherlands Orchestra, as well taking part in the Leeds International Concert Series. Other future engagements include multiple dates with the Tonkünstler, Stavanger and Norrköping Symphony Orchestras, and debuts with the Säo Paolo Symphony Orchestra and London, Saint Petersburg, and Warsaw Philharmonic orchestras.

Besides televised concerts and radio recordings in Stuttgart, Cologne, Dresden, Oslo, Norrköping, Hannover and Berlin, Jurowski has conducted various CD recordings including film music, Shostakovich’s opera The Gamblers, Shostakovich’s entire vocal symphonic pieces, Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera Christmas Eve, as well as orchestral pieces by Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Reznicek, Meyerbeer, Lehár, Kálmán, Nicolai, Rangström, Pettersen-Berger, Grieg, Svensen, Kantcheli and many others.

In 1992 and 1996 Jurowski won the German Record Critics’ Prize and in 2001 he received a Grammy nomination for 3 CD productions of Orchestral Music by Rimsky-Korsakov with the RSB Orchestra.

To Maestro Jurowski’s official website