Tugan Sokhiev was born in the Republic of North Ossetia when it was part of the Soviet Union; he studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory with Yuri Temirkanov and Ilya Musin. At home in opera and the symphonic repertoire alike, he has been able to combine both genres during his career. He has been chief conductor of three major musical institutions: the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow until 2022, and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin from 2012 to 2016. After these stations on the banks of the Neva, the Garonne and the Spree, he now returns to the Alzette for two concerts.
Tugan Sokhiev works with the Luxembourg Philharmonic for the first time in Mai 2024, returning only a few months later to continue the collaboration. As part of the season opening, he leads Robert Schumann’s unique Piano Concerto with Jean-Frédéric Neuburger as the soloist, followed by Gustav Mahler’s First Symphony. His ability to
make innumerable colours radiate from within the orchestra will surely work wonders in this epic musical poem with all its contrasts, adding up to a masterful musical portrayal of the exalted feelings of a young composer.
In the spring of 2025, Sokhiev will return to Luxembourg for a unique, high-carat project uniting brass players from the Vienna Philharmonic and the Berlin Philharmonic under his baton. Having moved away from the Russian repertoire for the September concert – a repertoire he has conducted and recorded extensively, producing elegant interpretations widely acclaimed by reviewers – here he returns to his «first love», offering Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition as well as works by Alexander Borodin, Dmitri Shostakovich and Sergey Prokofiev.
Charlotte Brouard-Tartarin