Tugan Sokhiev

Tugan Sokhiev, born in 1977 in Vladikavkaz (then Ordzhonikidze) in North Ossetia, is one of the leading Russian conductors of his generation. He trained at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory as one of the last pupils of the legendary conducting teacher Ilya Musin. His career has been built in both the opera house and the concert hall: he was music director of the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse from 2008, principal conductor of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin from 2012 to 2016, and, from 2014, music director of the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. In March 2022 he resigned both the Bolshoi and Toulouse posts, citing the pressure placed on him to take a public position on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and in 2025 he became principal conductor of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. He has led the Vienna Philharmonic on several international tours, conducted the orchestra’s open-air Summer Night Concert at Schönbrunn in 2025 and has been chosen to conduct the New Year’s Concert of 2027.