Conductor Vassily Sinaisky has held major posts in both his native Russia and the West over his long career. He is the principal conductor of the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra. Sinaisky was born in Komi, then in the Soviet Union, on April 20, 1947. He studied conducting at the Leningrad Conservatory; his most important teacher there was Ilya Musin. As an assistant at the Moscow Philharmonic under Kiril Kondrashin, Sinaisky entered the 1973 Herbert von Karajan Competition in Berlin and captured the Gold Medal. He held a string of important posts thereafter, including with the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra (chief conductor), the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra (principal guest conductor), the Russian State Orchestra (music director), and the Bolshoi Theater (principal guest conductor). Some of his earliest recordings were made with the Latvian National Symphony during his 12-year tenure there (1975 to 1987). They include a series of orchestral works and symphonies by composer Janis Ivanovs and a disc offering Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto and other works for violin and orchestra, with soloist Valdis Zarins, all available now on Campion Cameo. Another early recording distributed in the West appeared on Russian Disc in 1992, featuring works by Brahms and Fauré. Sinaisky served as the music director of the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra from 1991 to 1996. In that latter year, he accepted the appointment of chief guest conductor of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, a group with which he made many recordings for the Chandos label, mostly in Russian repertory that includes symphonies of Balakirev and orchestral works of Lyadov, Lyapunov, Arensky, and Glinka. Sinaisky has established a reputation for his incisive interpretations in both the orchestral and operatic realms. His choice of repertory has been broad over the years, taking in many standards, but not surprisingly, also tending to favor the Russians, particularly Shostakovich. He has received high praise for his Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, presented at the Komische Oper Berlin (November 2004), and for his series of recordings of Shostakovich's film music. Sinaisky has also led and recorded acclaimed readings of works by lesser-known Russians like Kabalevsky and Shchedrin and by neglected composers of non-Russian heritage, especially Schreker and Szymanowski. Sinaisky has been active throughout his career in the operatic realm, achieving many critical successes: besides his Lady Macbeth, he scored notable triumphs with Carmen (2001), Der Rosenkavalier (2003), and Iolanta (2005), all at the English National Opera. In 2007, Sinaisky assumed duties as the principal conductor of the Malmö Symphony Orchestra, and in 2010 was named the chief conductor and music director of the Bolshoi Theater, Moscow, just before the Theater's reopening after a major refurbishment effort. After leaving that position in 2013, Sinaisky guest conducted several orchestras. In 2020, he became the principal conductor of the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra in Ostrava, Czech Republic. In 2023, Sinaisky returned to the recording studio, leading the Brussels Philharmonic as it backed pianist Boris Giltburg on a Naxos recording of music by Rachmaninov. By that time, his recording catalog comprised more than 50 items. ~ Robert Cummings & James Manheim, Rovi