Evgeny Khokhlov was born in St. Petersburg. He graduated with honors from the N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov St. Petersburg State Conservatory, majoring in Choral Conducting and Opera and Symphony Conducting.
He completed an internship with the Mozarteum University Summer Academy in Salzburg under Prof. Peter Gülke, and later, with the Neeme Järvi Summer Academy in Estonia.
Evgeny Khokhlov has been employed with the Samara Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre since 2011; in 2017, he became Principal Conductor, and in 2019, the Artistic Director. During his tenure at the Theatre, he has premiered over three dozen operas, ballets, and operettas. His repertoire includes over 50 productions. Over the years, he had been the ideologist, organizer, and artistic director of several festivals: the Spring Opera Festival (2017), the Opera Festival for the 160th Anniversary of Giacomo Puccini (2018), The Names (2019), The Slavic House International Opera Festival (2024), and “The Heritage. Opera. Ballet.” Festival (2025).
In 2016, he took the console at the premiere of the La bohème opera at the Teatro Luigi Mancinelli in Orvieto, Italy. In the same year, he made his German debut at the Gerhart-Hauptmann-Theater (Görlitz-Zittau), conducting L’elisir d’amore.
In 2018, he organized the Youth Opera Program at the Theatre; the Program’s goal is to prepare young vocalists from the Samara Region for professional work in the Theatre. In November 2023, he conducted The Master and Margarita opera by S.M. Slonimsky at the Mariinsky Theatre as part of the IX International Cultural Forum in St. Petersburg.
Evgeny Khokhlov became part of the expert council of the Golden Mask Russian National Theatre Award for the season 2023/24, performing the duties of an expert and deputy chairman.
In October 2024, he conducted performances of S.M. Slonimsky’s The Master and Margarita and A.K. Glazunov’s Raymonda on the Historical Stage of the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia as part of the All-Russian Festival of Musical Theatres “See the Music”.
In 2025, for its production of S.M. Slonimsky’s The Master and Margarita under the direction of Evgeny Khokhlov, the Theatre won the Maestro Award of the Golden Mask Russian National Theatre Award, established by the Co-Chairman of the Union of Theatre Workers of the Russian Federation, Valery Gergiev.
In October 2025, the Theatre’s company visited the Kingdom of Thailand on a major tour with Evgeny Khokhlov as director. The company participated in the XXVII International Dance and Music Festival in Bangkok, presenting four productions from its repertoire at the Thailand Cultural Centre: Aida, Floria Tosca, The Three Masks of the King, and The Nutcracker. He has conducted such ensembles as the Academic Symphony Orchestra of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Neue Lausitzer Philharmonie (Germany), Spaziomusica Orchestra (Italy), Ankara Presidential Symphony Orchestra (Turkey), Salzburg Chamber Soloists (Austria), Volga Philharmonic (Samara), National Youth Symphony Orchestra and Youth Chamber Orchestra of Estonia, Beethoven Orchester Bonn (Germany), etc.
