Maxim Emelyanychev
Chef d’orchestre
Conductor? Pianist? “Music is the main thing!”, says Maxim Emelyanychev, who is equally successful on the podium and at the piano. “The most important thing is to love what you’re doing and to be fully committed to it.” Today, the musician who grew up with the image of a child prodigy (nickname: Mozart) is considered one of the most important young Russian artists of his generation.
Maxim Emelyanychev, who was born into a musical family in 1988, began training in his home town of Nizhny Novgorod. He then transferred to the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, where he studied piano and harpsichord under Maria Uspenskaya, and conducting under Gennady Rozhdestvensky. After his conducting debut at the age of 12, Maxim Emelyanychev received invitations from numerous symphony and Baroque orchestras throughout Russia. He has a close working relationship with Teodor Currentzis, in whose opera performances at the Perm Opera and Ballet Theater he played the continuo parts in many of Mozart’s operas. In 2016, Maxim Emelyanychev became chief conductor of the brilliant Italian Baroque ensemble Il pomo d’oro, with whom he has toured the world with Joyce DiDonato to great acclaim, and made award-winning recordings. He is a regular guest with leading symphony orchestras and has conducted performances at Zurich Opera House and the Royal Opera House in London. In autumn 2019, Emelyanychev was appointed successor to Robin Ticciati as principal conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, which promptly extended his contract immediately after he took up the post.
