Semyon Bychkov, Chief Conductor & Music Director  

Semyon Bychkov and the Czech Philharmonic marked the 130^th anniversary of the founding of the Czech Philharmonic in 2026 with extensive tours of Asia and Europe, and an anniversary concert at the Rudolfinuum. 2026 also saw the release of Mahler’s Nine Symphonies which have been at the centre of Bychkov’s programming with the Czech Philharmonic since commencing his tenure with the orchestra in 2018. In addition to presenting each symphony in Prague, Bychkov and the Czech Philharmonic have presented Symphony No. 3 in Baden-Baden; Symphony No. 5 in New York, Toronto, Vienna, London and Paris; Symphony No. 6 in Leipzig, Aix-en-Provence, Milan, Vienna, and Graz; and Symphony No. 7 in Luxembourg, Paris, Santander, San Sebastian, and at the Edinburgh Festival. Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 was the last of the symphonies to be committed to disc, following a performance to open 2025’s Prague Spring International Music Festival.   

This season, Bychkov returns to the repertoire of his formative years, and alongside Czech masters will conduct works by Shostakovich, Rachmaninov and Mussorgsky: “What amazes me is how strongly Shostakovich’s existential music resonates in a world which seems, outwardly, very different from the one in which, he was fighting for his life both as a human being and a composer. But maybe we’re all faced with a struggle to be true to ourselves against odds of various kinds, even insidious ideologies which hide their true nature.”    

Bychkov’s inaugural season with the Czech Philharmonic opened with concerts in Prague, London, New York, and Washington; the following year saw the completion of The Tchaikovsky Project – 7 CDs devoted to Tchaikovsky’s symphonic repertoire – and international residencies.  In 2024, The Year of Czech Music, as well as the release of Smetana’s Má vlast – awarded BBC Music Magazine’s Orchestral Recording of the Year 2025 – and Dvořák’s last three symphonies, there were tours to Spain, Austria, Germany, Belgium, and France, culminating in 3 concerts at Carnegie Hall. 

Bychkov instigated the commissioning of 14 new works – including compositions by Julian Anderson, Bryce Dessner, Detlev Glanert, Thierry Escaich, and Thomas Larcher – to premiere with the Czech Philharmonic and conducting performances internationally with the Concertgebouworkest, the Vienna, Berlin, New York and Munich Philharmonic Orchestras, Cleveland Orchestra, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He has built lasting relationships with many extraordinary contemporary composers including Luciano Berio, Henri Dutilleux and Mauricio Kagel.

Born in Leningrad in 1952, Bychkov emigrated to the United States in 1975 and to Europe in the mid-1980’s. He was 17 when he was accepted at the Leningrad Conservatoire to study with the legendary Ilya Musin and, within three years, won the influential Rachmaninoff Conducting Competition. He left the former Soviety Union when he was denied his prize of conducting the Leningrad Philharmonic.    

Returning to St Petersburg as the Philharmonic’s Principal Guest Conductor in 1989, Bychkov had enjoyed success as Music Director of the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra and the Buffalo Philharmonic. His European career took off with a series of high-profile invitations to conduct the New York and Berlin Philharmonic orchestras, and the Concertgebouw. He was named Music Director of the Orchestre de Paris (1989); Chief Conductor of the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne (1997); and Chief Conductor of the Dresden Semperoper (1998). Bychkov’s 13-year collaboration with WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne produced a series of benchmark recordings that included works by Strauss, Mahler, Shostakovich, Rachmaninoff, Verdi, Brahms, York Höller, and Detlev Glanert.

Bychkov conducts in all the major opera houses: in Vienna, he has conducted new productions of Strauss’ Daphne, Wagner’s Lohengrin and Parsifal, and Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina; while in London he made his debut with a new production of Strauss’ Elektra, and subsequently conducted new productions of Mozart’s Così fan tutte, Strauss’ Die Frau ohne Schatten, Wagner’s Tannhäuser and Dvořák’s Rusalka. His recording of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin was chosen by Opera magazine as one of 30 all-time great opera recordings and Wagner’s Lohengrin was BBC Music Magazine’s Record of the Year. Recent productions include Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde at the Bayreuth Festival and Teatro Real, Madrid; as well as a new production of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin at the Paris Opera. Bychkov is Music Director Designate of the Paris Opera from 1st August 2026, assuming the title of Music Director in 2028.

The warmth of Bychkov’s relationships is reflected in honorary titles at the Royal Academy of Music (Otto Klemperer Chair of Conducting) and the BBC Symphony Orchestra (Gunther Wand Conducting Chair) – with whom he appears regularly at the BBC Proms. In Europe, he tours with the Concertgebouw and Munich Philharmonic, as well as being a guest of the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonics, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Orchestre National de France, and the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia; in the US, he works with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Symphony, Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras.

Semyon Bychkov was named Conductor of the Year by the International Opera Awards (2015) and Musical America’s Conductor of the Year (2022). He received an Honorary Doctorate from the Royal Academy of Music (2022). In 2024, the Czech Philharmonic was voted Gramophone’s Orchestra of the Year.

Image: Umberto Nicoletti