Born in Moscow in 1945, Michail Jurowski is the son of the composer Wladimir Jurowski and grandson of the conductor David Block. His sons Vladimir and Dmitri are also internationally renowned conductors. Michail Jurowski grew up in the circle of internationally acclaimed artists of the former Soviet Union such as Ojstrach, Rostropovitch, Kogan, Gilels, and Chatchaturjan. Dmitri Shostakovich was a close family friend and he and Michail not only spoke often but would also play four-hand piano pieces together. Such experiences had a huge influence on the young musician and it is therefore no coincidence that today Michail Jurowski is one of the leading interpreters of Shostakovich’s music. In 2012 Michail Jurowski was awarded the third International Shostakovich Prize by the Shostakovich Gohrisch Foundation.

Michail Jurowski was educated at the Moscow Conservatoire, where he studied conducting under Leo
Ginsburg and music science under Alexei Kandinsky. During his studies he assisted Gennady
Rozhdestvensky at the National Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra of Moscow. While still a
resident in Russia, he conducted the Music Theatre of Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko in
Moscow and during his last years in the Soviet Union frequently conducted performances at the Bolshoi Theatre.

From 1978 Michail Jurowski was regular guest conductor at the Komische Oper Berlin and in 1989 he left the USSR with his family after accepting a permanent post with the Dresden Semperoper. Other titled positions have included: General Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Northwest German
Philharmonic Orchestra; Chief Conductor of Leipzig Opera; Chief Conductor of WDR Rundfunkorchester in Cologne; Principal Conductor of Deutsche Oper Berlin; Principal Guest Conductor of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra; and Principal Guest Conductor of the Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava, and Tonkünstler Orchestra of Lower Austria. He is currently Principal Guest Conductor of the Sinfonia Iuventus (Warsaw, Poland).

As a guest conductor Michail Jurowski has led the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Dresden Philharmonic,
Staatskapelle Dresden, Oslo Philharmonic, Bergen Philharmonic, Königlichen Kapelle Copenhagen,
Orquestra Sinfónica do Porta Casa da Música and São Paulo Symphony.

Recent highlights have included appearances with the London, Warsaw and St Petersburg philharmonic orchestras and Moscow State symphonic orchestra (‘Svetlanov’ Orchestra). He has also conducted the Dresden Staatskapelle at the International Shostakovich Festival in Gohrisch, Orchestre National de Bordeaux, Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, Lübeck Philharmonic, Belgrade Philharmonic, Dresden Philharmonic’s New Year’s concerts, the Norwegian Opera Orchestra and Monte Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra. The recent Opera and Ballet seasons saw Prokofiev‘s Fiery Angel at both the Bolshoi and Staatsoper Münich, Pique Dame, Eugene Onegin for Malmö Opera, a revival of the lauded Romeo and Juliet with Zürich Opera, and La Scala Milan with Cinderella and Swan Lake (new productions).

The upcoming 17/18 season includes regular performances with Sinfonia Iuventus, including a complete recording and performance of the world premiere of Anton Rubinstein’s opera, Moses, a project which has been awarded prestigious UNESCO patronage. Guest appearances this season include debuts with the Daegu Symphony Orchestra, South Korea, and the newly-formed Würth Philharmoniker, as well as returns to the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the MDR Leipzig’s annual Christmas Day concert, Orchestra Sinfónica Siciliana, Norrköppings Symphony Orchestra, Belgrade Philharmonic, St Petersburg Philharmonia, and Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.

Besides televised concerts and radio recordings in Stuttgart, Cologne, Dresden, Oslo, Norrköping,
Hannover and Berlin, Maestro Jurowski has recorded with Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and has conducted various CD recordings, including film music. His discography includes Shostakovich’s opera The Gamblers,
Shostakovich’s entire vocal symphonic pieces, and Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera Christmas Eve, as well as
orchestral pieces by Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Reznicek, Meyerbeer, Lehár, Kálmán, Nicolai, Rangström, Pettersen-Berger, Grieg, Svensen, Kantcheli and many others.

In 1992 and 1996 Jurowski won the German Record Critics’ Prize and in 2001 he received a Grammy
nomination for 3 CD productions of Orchestral Music by Rimsky-Korsakov with the RSB Orchestra. Hewas most recently awarded the German Record Critics’ Prize again, for his CD of music by Shostakovich,Pӓrt and Weinberg, recorded live with the Staatskapelle Dresden at the International ShostakovichFestival in Gohrisch, and described by the jury as “a symphonic voyage of discovery”.