Valeri Gergiev

Valery Abisalovich Gergiev, PAR (Russian: Валерий Абисалович Гергиев; Russian pronunciation: [vɐˈlʲerʲɪj ɐbʲɪˈsaləvʲɪtɕ ˈɡʲɛrɡʲɪɪf]; Ossetian: Гергиты Абисалы фырт Валери, Gergity Abisaly Fyrt Valeri; born 2 May 1953) is a Russian conductor and opera company director. He is general director and artistic director of the Mariinsky Theatre, chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic and artistic director of the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg.

Gergiev, born in Moscow, is the son of Tamara Timofeevna Lagkueva and Abisal Zaurbekovich Gergiev. He and his siblings were raised in Vladikavkaz in their native North Ossetia in the Caucasus. He had his first piano lessons in secondary school before going on to study at the Leningrad Conservatory from 1972 to 1977. His principal conducting teacher was Ilya Musin (Илья Мусин), one of the greatest conductor-makers in Russian musical history. His sister, Larissa Gergieva, is a pianist and director of the Mariinsky's singers' academy.

In 1978, he became assistant conductor at the Kirov Opera, now the Mariinsky Opera, under Yuri Temirkanov, where he made his debut conducting Sergei Prokofiev's War and Peace. He was chief conductor of the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra from 1981 to 1985 – the year he made his debut in the United Kingdom, along with pianist Evgeny Kissin and violinists Maxim Vengerov and Vadim Repin at the Lichfield Festival.

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