Around the Music Festival

The Geneva-based Orchestre de la Suisse Romande has announced the appointment of Russian conductor Tugan Sokhiev as its next Music Director and Artistic Advisor. He will serve a three-season term beginning in the 2026/2027 season, succeeding Jonathan Nott, who has held the position since 2017 and will step down at the end of the 2025/2026 season.

Sokhiev is a 48-year-old conductor born in Vladikavkaz, North Ossetia (formerly part of the Soviet Union). He studied conducting under Ilya Musin and Yuri Temirkanov at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. He has previously served as Music Director of the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse (2008–2022), Chief Conductor of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (2012–2016), and Music Director of the Bolshoi Theatre (2014–2022).

In 2022, amidst Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he resigned simultaneously from his posts as music director of the Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse and the Bolshoi Theatre after the mayor of Toulouse—a sister city to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv—called on him to issue a statement clearly distancing himself from the Putin regime. He is scheduled to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s Concert on New Year’s Day in 2027.

PHOTO：Magali Dougados