Pavel Smelkov

Pavel Smelkov graduated from the St Petersburg Conservatory in opera and symphony conducting (classes of Ilya Musin and Mikhail Kukushkin) and composition (class of Alexander Mnatsakanian). In 1999 he founded the Baltic Youth Chamber Orchestra and for fifteen years was its artistic director and conductor.

Since 2000 Pavel Smelkov has worked at the Mariinsky Theatre. The conductor has toured with the company to France, Finland, Austria, Germany, Israel and the USA. His repertoire includes operas Idomeneo, Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, Die Zauberflöte, Lucia di Lammermoor, Attila, Macbeth, Rigoletto, Don Carlo, Aida, Otello, Falstaff, Tosca, Turandot, Carmen, Der fliegende Holländer, Die Fledermaus, Die Frau ohne Schatten, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Turn of the Screw, A Life for the Tsar, Ruslan and Lyudmila, Prince Igor, Boris Godunov, Sorochintsy Fair, Khovanshchina, The Demon, The Oprichnik, Eugene Onegin, Mazepa, The Enchantress, The Queen of Spades, Iolanta, The Maid of Pskov, The Snow Maiden, The Tsar’s Bride, The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevronia, Aleko, Francesca da Rimini, The Miserly Knight, The Gambler, The Love to Three Oranges, Betrothal in a Monastery, Semyon Kotko, War and Peace, The Nose, The Gamblers, Dead Souls, The Enchanted Wanderer, The Brothers Karamazov, The Idiot, The Station Master; ballets Ondine, Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, Raymonda, The Firebird, Apollo, Prodigal Son, Carmen Suite.

The Mariinsky performances of The Turn of the Screw and Die Frau ohne Schatten under the baton of Pavel Smelkov were awarded a Golden Mask, Russia’s most prestigious theatre prize, in 2007 and in 2011.

In 2010 Pavel Smelkov made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera (New York) with Dmitry Shostakovich’s The Nose, subsequently returning to conduct Boris Godunov, Eugene Onegin, Bluebeard’s Castle, Iolanta and Prince Igor.

He has appeared as a conductor in the final rounds of the Tchaikovsky Competition in 2011 (with the Svetlanov State Academic Symphony Orchestra), 2015 and 2023 (with the Mariinsky Orchestra).

Has composed two string quartets, a piano concerto, a piano sonata, a flute sonata, romances and other works as well as over two hundred orchestrations of Russian and western classical music that have been performed by the world’s great orchestras and theatres. Commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera for a production in the 2013–2014 season, Pavel Smelkov orchestrated excerpts of Alexander Borodin’s opera Prince Igor that are absent from the traditional version. Cesare Pugni’s ballet Ondine is also performed at the Mariinsky Theatre in Smelkov’s new orchestration.

Since January 2016 Pavel Smelkov has been Principal Conductor of the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre in Vladivostok. Since then under his guidance more than 30 opera and ballet productions were prepared and performed, as well as big thematic cycles: all Rachmaninoff and Beethoven concertos, all Brahms symphonies and concertos, all Beethoven symphonies (2020, marking composer’s 250 years), all Scriabin orchestral works (2022, marking composer’s 150 years). Marking jubilees of poets Alexei Tolstoy, Nikolai Nekrasov and Apollon Maikov several programs with works on their verses were also prepared and performed. In 2021 Pavel Smelkov guided the world premiere of Alexander Smelkov’s opera The Idiot (concert performance), marking Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s 200 years.