Valery Gergiev

Valery Gergiev’s inspired leadership as artistic and general director of the Mariinsky Theatre since 1988 has taken Mariinsky ensembles to 45 countries and has brought universal acclaim to this legendary institution, now in its 228th season.

At home in St. Petersburg, Maestro Gergiev’s leadership has resulted in the new and superb Mariinsky Concert Hall, which opened in November 2006, and the Mariinsky record label, which was launched in 2009. The new Mariinsky Theatre is scheduled to open in 2012; immediately afterward, the original and classic Mariinsky Theatre (currently celebrating its 150th anniversary) will be renovated to bring its staging facilities up to 21st-century standards.

Presently principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra and the World Orchestra for Peace, Maestro Gergiev is also founder and artistic director of the Stars of the White Nights and New Horizons festivals in St. Petersburg, the Moscow Easter Festival, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Gergiev Festival, the Gergiev Festival Mikkeli, and the Red Sea Jazz Festival in Eilat, Israel.

Maestro Gergiev is the recipient of a Grammy Award, the Dmitri Shostakovich Award, Golden Mask Award, People’s Artist of Russia Award, the World Economic Forum’s Crystal Award, Sweden’s Polar Music Prize, the Netherlands’s Knight of the Order of the Dutch Lion, Japan’s Order of the Rising Sun, Valencia’s Silver Medal, the Herbert von Karajan Music Prize, and France’s Ordre national de la Légion d’honneur.

In addition to recording for the Mariinsky and LSO Live labels, Maestro Gergiev has recorded extensively for Decca (Universal Classics), and appears on the Philips and Deutsche Grammophon labels.