Maxim Emelyanychev has been Principal Conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra since 2019. He is also Chief Conductor of period-instrument orchestra Il Pomo d’Oro, and from the 2025/26 season he becomes Principal Guest Conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Born in Nizhny Novgorod, Emelyanychev made his conducting debut at the age of 12, and later joined the class of eminent conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky at the Moscow Conservatoire.

Emelyanychev was initially appointed as the SCO’s Principal Conductor until 2022, and the relationship was later extended until 2025 and then until 2028. He has conducted the SCO at the Edinburgh International Festival and the BBC Proms, as well as on several European tours and in concerts right across Scotland. He has also made three recordings with the SCO, of symphonies by Schubert and Mendelssohn (Linn Records).

Emelyanychev has also conducted many international ensembles including the Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, Atlanta Symphony and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

In the opera house, Emelyanychev has conducted Mozart’s Don Giovanni in Seville’s Teatro de la Maestranza; Handel’s Rinaldo at Glyndebourne; the same composer’s Agrippina as well as Mozart’s The Magic Flute at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; and Mozart’s Die Entführing aus dem Serail at the Opernhaus Zürich. He has also conducted Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte and Così fan tutte with the SCO at the Edinburgh International Festival. He has collaborated closely with US soprano Joyce DiDonato, including international touring and several recordings, and also with Polish countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński, with whom he has made two recordings.

Emelyanychev is also a noted pianist, harpsichordist and organist. He has given a recital at Paris’s Théâtre des Champs-Elysées with violinist Aylen Pritchin, and has performed Schubert’s Winterreise with Joyce DiDonato at the Berlin Staatsoper, London’s Wigmore Hall, and in Dortmund and Antwerp. He was awarded a 2013 Golden Mask award as harpsichordist in the Perm Opera production of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, conducted by Teodor Currentzis.

Among his other recordings are keyboard sonatas by Mozart, and violin sonatas by Brahms with Aylen Pritchin. He has also launched a project to record Mozart’s complete symphonies with Il Pomo d’Oro. In 2019, he won the Critics’ Circle Young Talent Award and an International Opera Award in the newcomer category. He received the 2025 Herbert von Karajan Award at the Salzburg Easter Festival.

Photo: Andrej Grilc