Kirill Karabits

Biography

KIRILL KARABITS Conductor
Kirill Karabits is Chief Conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and General Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Deutsches National Theater Weimar.
His relationship with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra has been celebrated worldwide and together they have made many critically acclaimed recordings, most notably a Prokofiev symphony cycle. They opened their 2015-16 season with hugely successful concert performances of Salome and together they have made numerous appearances at the BBC Proms and returned in summer 2017 for a performance of Walton Belshazzar’s Feast.
In September 2016, Karabits assumed the position of General Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Deutsches Nationaltheater and Staatskapelle Weimar and his first season included productions of Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg and his own transcription of St John Passion. The 2017-18 season will see productions of Le nozze di Figaro and Tannhaeuser, plus an extensive tour of the United States with the Staatskapelle Weimar.
Karabits has worked with many of the leading ensembles of Europe, Asia and North America, including the Cleveland, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Chicago Symphony orchestras, Philharmonia Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Filarmonica del Teatro La Fenice and the BBC Symphony Orchestra – including a concertante version of Bluebeard’s Castle at the Barbican Centre. The 2016-17 season saw his acclaimed debut with the Munich Philharmonic and in spring 2016, he conducted the Russian National Orchestra on their tour of the US and returned to the RNO in August 2016 to conduct two concerts at the Edinburgh International Festival both with Mikhail Pletnev as a soloist. The 2017-18 season will include his debut with the Dresden Philharmonic at the Kulturpalast and further concerts in Moscow with the Russian National Orchestra.
A prolific opera conductor, the 2016-17 season saw his debuts at the Deutsche Oper (Boris Godunov) and Oper Stuttgart (Death in Venice). He has also conducted at Glyndebourne Festival Opera (La bohème and Eugene Onegin), Staatsoper Hamburg (Madama Butterfly), English National Opera (Don Giovanni), Bolshoi Theatre and he conducted a performance of Der fliegende Holländer at the Wagner Geneva Festival in celebration of the composer’s anniversary.
Working with the next generation of bright musicians is of great importance to Karabits and as Artistic Director of I, CULTURE Orchestra he conducted them on their European tour in August 2015 with Lisa Batiashvili as soloist. In 2012 and 2014 he conducted the televised finals of the BBC Young Musician of the Year Award (working with the Royal Northern Sinfonia and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra).
He was named Conductor of the Year at the 2013 Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards.