Vassily Sinaisky

Vassily Serafimovich Sinaisky (Russian: Васи́лий Серафи́мович Сина́йский, born in Abez, Komi Republic, April 20, 1947) is a Russian conductor and pianist. He studied conducting with Ilya Musin at the Leningrad Conservatory and began his career as assistant to Kirill Kondrashin at the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1973, he won the Gold Medal at the Karajan Competition in Berlin.

Sinaisky was Chief Conductor of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra from 1976 to 1989. He served as Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra from 1991 to 1996. He has also held the post of Principal Guest Conductor of the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra. He also served as Music Director of the Russian State Orchestra (formerly Evgeny Svetlanov's USSR State Symphony Orchestra), a position he held until 2002, and was principal guest conductor with the Bolshoi Theatre. In Russia, he holds a post as professor of conducting at the St Petersburg Conservatoire.

Sinaisky was Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic from 1996 until January 2012. Sinaisky has made several recordings with the BBC Philharmonic for Chandos, including works by Karol Szymanowski, Rodion Shchedrin, Mily Balakirev, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and Franz Schreker, as well as a series of recordings of Dmitri Shostakovich's film music. Sinaisky now has the title of conductor emeritus with the BBC Philharmonic.