Dmitrij Kitajenko

Dmitri Kitaenko is one of the great conductors of our time. Equally esteemed in eastern and western Europe, he regularly conducts prestigious orchestras like the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra London and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.

His complete recording of Shostakovich's symphonies with the Cologne Gürzenich Orchestra (2005) received, among others, the Echo Klassik Prize, one of the most sought after awards in the classical field. His recording of Prokofiev's symphonies is considered by various critics as the benchmark recording. Since 2010 he has turned his attentions to a Tchaikovsky cycle with OehmsClassics. In autumn 2011 Symphony Nr. 5 in E minor will be released, following the already available “Manfred” Symphony and the “Pathétique”, which met with an extremely positive response.

For the 2012|13 concert season Dmitri Kitaenko has been appointed principal guest conductor of the Berlin Konzerthaus Orchestra. Moreover, since 2009 he has been honorary conductor of the Cologne Gürzenich Orchestra; this title was previously held only by Günter Wand.

Dmitri Kitaenko was born in Leningrad, where he studied at the renowned Glinka School of Music and the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory. He went on to study with Leo Ginzburg in Moscow and in the legendary conducting class of Hans Swarowsky and Karl Österreicher in Vienna. He obtained distinctions in each case. In 1969 he won the first International Herbert von Karajan Conducting Competition in Berlin and was appointed principal conductor of the influential Stanislavsky Theatre in Moscow at the age of only twenty-nine. In the early 1970s he very successfully conducted a great number of operas in Moscow and in cities such as Vienna, Munich and Brussels in Western Europe.

He became principal conductor of the Moscow Philharmonic in 1976, making it one of the leading orchestras in the world during the fourteen years of his direction and appearing with it in the most important musical centres of Europe, the USA and Japan.

Dmitri Kitaenko came to the West in 1990, successively becoming principal conductor of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra (hr-Sinfonieorchester) and the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as principal guest conductor of the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra. He made guest appearances with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the Munich Philharmonic, the Orchestra di Santa Cecilia in Rome, the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala and many American orchestras, performing with the best soloists in the world and with outstanding up-and-coming artists.

Dmitri Kitaenko has made numerous remarkable recordings with orchestras including the Moscow Philharmonic, the Frankfurt RSO, the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Cologne Gürzenich Orchestra, among them complete recordings of the symphonies of Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Prokofiev and Shostakovich. He has also recorded works by Chopin, Gade, Grieg, Richard Strauss and Siegfried Wagner as well as contemporary music.