Around the Music Festival

The Opéra national de Paris announced that Semyon Bychkov will become its Music Director. His term will span four seasons, beginning August 1, 2028. The position had been vacant since Gustavo Dudamel served as Music Director from 2021 to 2023.

Bychkov, 73, was born in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) during the Soviet era. He is a Russian Jew, raised in a family where his great-grandfather was a conductor at the Odessa Opera House in southern Ukraine and his father was a physician.

He studied under Ilya Musin at the Leningrad Conservatory, graduating at the top of his class. In 1973, he won the Rachmaninoff Conducting Competition and was offered the position of conductor of the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra. However, citing political beliefs, he defected to the United States in 1974.

He subsequently served as Music Director of the Orchestre de Paris (1989–1998) and Chief Conductor of the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra (1997–2010). Since the 2017/2018 season, he has been Chief Conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, with his tenure set to conclude at the end of the 2027/2028 season.

At the Opéra national de Paris, he conducted Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde” during the opera house’s first tour of Japan in 2008, as well as a concert dedicated to Richard Strauss and Shostakovich in 2009, and guest appearances at the Ravel Festival in 2023. This season, he will conduct Tchaikovsky’s “Eugene Onegin”.

PHOTO：James Bort　/　Opéra national de Paris


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