Valery Abisalovich Gergiev (Russian: Валерий Абисалович Гергиев, IPA: [vɐˈlʲerʲɪj ɐbʲɪˈsaləvʲɪdʑ ˈɡʲerɡʲɪjɪf]; Ossetian: Гергиты Абисалы фырт Валери, romanized: Gergity Abisaly fyrt Valeri; born 2 May 1953) is a Russian conductor and opera company director. He is currently the general director and artistic director of the Mariinsky Theatre and the Bolshoi Theatre. He is also the artistic director of the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg. Previously, he was the chief conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and the Munich Philharmonic.

Early life

Gergiev was born in Moscow. His parents are Tamara Timofeevna (Tatarkanovna) Lagkueva and Abisal Zaurbekovich Gergiev, both from Ossetia. He and his siblings grew up in Vladikavkaz, North Ossetia, in the Caucasus region. He took his first piano lessons in high school before studying at the Leningrad Conservatory from 1972 to 1977.

His main conducting teacher was Ilya Musin. His sister, Larissa, is a pianist and works as a director of the Mariinsky's singers' academy.

Career

In 1978, Gergiev became an assistant conductor at the Kirov Opera, which is now called the Mariinsky Opera, under Yuri Temirkanov. He gave his first performance conducting Sergei Prokofiev's War and Peace. From 1981 to 1985, he was the chief conductor of the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1988, he became the chief conductor and artistic director of the Mariinsky. In 1996, he was named overall director of the company by the Russian government.

After the 2004 Beslan school massacre, Gergiev appeared on television to ask people to stay calm and avoid revenge. He also conducted concerts to honor the victims of the tragedy.

During the 2008 South Ossetia war, Gergiev, who has Ossetian heritage, said the Georgian government was responsible for killing ethnic Ossetians, which led to the conflict with Russia. He traveled to Tskhinvali and conducted a concert near the ruined South Ossetian Parliament building to honor war victims.

In June 2011, Gergiev joined the International Tchaikovsky Competition and made changes to the organization. On May 5, 2016, he performed at the Roman Theatre of Palmyra during a concert called Praying for Palmyra – Music revives ancient ruins, which honored people who died during the March 2016 Palmyra offensive.

In December 2023, Gergiev was named artistic director of the Bolshoi Theatre, starting immediately, with a contract lasting five years. He is the first person to lead both the Mariinsky Theatre and the Bolshoi Theatre at the same time.

In 1985, Gergiev gave his first performance in the United Kingdom, joining pianist Evgeny Kissin and violinists Maxim Vengerov and Vadim Repin at the Lichfield Festival. In 1988, he guest-conducted the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) for the first time. In 1991, he led the Bavarian State Opera in Munich with Modest Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov, and also performed War and Peace with the San Francisco Opera in the United States. From 1995 to 2008, he was the principal conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2004, he returned to the LSO to conduct all seven symphonies by Sergei Prokofiev. This work led to his appointment as the LSO's fifteenth principal conductor in 2005, with a contract beginning in January 2007 and lasting three years. In April 2007, Gergiev was one of eight conductors from British orchestras who supported a plan to promote classical music in the UK, including offering free concert tickets to British schoolchildren. He stopped serving as the LSO's principal conductor in 2015.

In 2015, Gergiev became the chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic. In March 2022, he was removed from his position after he refused to criticize the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Political involvement

According to Alex Ross in The New Yorker, Valery Gergiev has been an important supporter of the Russian government led by Vladimir Putin. In 2012, Gergiev appeared in a television ad for Putin’s third presidential campaign. He said, “One needs to be able to hold oneself presidentially, so that people respect the country. I don’t know if it’s fear? Respect? Reckoning.”

In December 2012, Gergiev supported the Russian government in its response to the actions of a group called Pussy Riot, a Russian band. He suggested their actions were motivated by financial reasons rather than political or artistic ones.

In 2013, an activist group called Queer Nation interrupted performances by orchestras led by Gergiev in New York City. The group cited Gergiev’s support for Putin, whose government had passed a law banning the distribution of materials that promote non-traditional relationships to children. In London, activist Peter Tatchell organized protests against Gergiev. Gergiev responded by saying he never supported anti-gay laws and had always worked to protect equal rights for all people. In The Guardian, Mark Brown noted that Gergiev had told a Dutch newspaper that the Russian law targeting “paedophilia” was not about homosexuality.

In December 2013, the city of Munich published a letter from Gergiev stating he supported its anti-discrimination laws. He added that he had always followed these principles in his career and that other claims about him were hurtful.

In March 2014, Gergiev signed an open letter supporting Russia’s annexation of Crimea, which was posted on the Russian culture ministry’s website. The letter stated that the signers supported the Russian president’s position in Crimea. However, in 2015, Gergiev claimed he did not sign the letter but only had a phone conversation about it with a government official. The New York Times reported that some Russian artists may have been pressured by the government to support the annexation. Gergiev faced protests in New York City during performances, and Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture later banned him from performing in Ukraine.

On February 24, 2022, Russian forces began a war against Ukraine, as ordered by Putin. The Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra said it would remove Gergiev from its festival if he did not stop supporting Putin. Milan’s La Scala asked Gergiev to declare support for peace in Ukraine or he would not be allowed to finish conducting a performance. Carnegie Hall canceled two of Gergiev’s performances in May, and the Vienna Philharmonic removed him from a U.S. tour.

On February 28, 2022, the Verbier Festival accepted Gergiev’s resignation as its music director. On March 1, Munich’s mayor ended Gergiev’s contract with the Munich Philharmonic because he refused to condemn the war in Ukraine. On October 13, 2022, Gergiev was removed from his position as a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music for not condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In July 2025, Italy’s Royal Palace of Caserta canceled a planned concert by Gergiev. The event was criticized by Ukraine, Italian politicians, and activists, including Yulia Navalnaya.

Personal life

In 1999, Gergiev married Natalya Dzebisova, a musician of Ossetian heritage who was 27 years younger than him. Together, they have three children: two boys and one girl. Occasionally, Gergiev has been described as a friend of Putin. Some sources claimed they were godfathers to each other's children, but Gergiev denied this in a letter to The Daily Telegraph. He also has a daughter named Natasha from a previous relationship with language teacher Lena Ostovich.

In April 2022, Alexei Navalny, a critic of the Russian government, released a video through his Anti-Corruption Foundation that showed Gergiev owning many properties in Italy, including the Palazzo Barbarigo in Venice, as well as in the United States and Russia. A large portion of his wealth is believed to come from the inheritance of Yoko Nagae Ceschina.

Recordings

As of 2006, Gergiev worked on recording the music of Russian composers, including operas and symphonies by Mikhail Glinka, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Alexander Borodin, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Sergei Prokofiev, Dmitri Shostakovich, Igor Stravinsky, and Rodion Shchedrin. Many of his recordings, released on the Philips label, were performed by the Kirov Orchestra. He also recorded with the Vienna Philharmonic. Works such as the complete Prokofiev symphonies (from live concerts in 2004) and a series of Berlioz recordings were performed by the London Symphony Orchestra.

Gergiev’s recording of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet with the London Symphony Orchestra, released on LSO Live in 2010, won the Orchestral category and the Disc of the Year award at the 2011 BBC Music Magazine Awards.

• Valery Gergiev in Rehearsal and Performance
• Verdi: La forza del destino, Marinsky Theatre Orchestra, 1998
• Valery Gergiev Conducts the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in Prokofiev, Schnittke & Stravinsky, 2003
• 60 Minutes: The Wild Man of Music, 2004
• Prokofiev: Betrothal in a Monastery, Kirov Opera, 2005
• Shostakovich against Stalin, 2005
• Rimsky-Korsakov: Sadko, Kirov Opera, 2006
• Puccini: Turandot, Vienna Philharmonic, 2006
• All the Russias – a musical journey: A five-part documentary about Russian music traditions
• Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin; Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Renee Fleming, Ramon Vargas, Metropolitan Opera, 2007
• Gergiev Conducts Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem; Kringelborn, Kwiecien, Swedish Radio Choir, Rotterdam Philharmonic, 2008
• Berlioz: Benvenuto Cellini; Burkhard Fritz (Benvenuto Cellini), Maija Kovalevska (Teresa), Laurent Naouri (Fieramosca), Kate Aldrich (Ascanio), Xavier Mas (Francesco), Brindley Sherratt (Balducci), Roberto Tagliavini (Bernardino), Adam Plachetka (Pompeo), Sung-Keun Park (Innkeeper), Mikhail Petrenko (Pope Clement VII), Wiener Philharmoniker, Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor, Philipp Stozl, Stage Director. Blu-ray or DVD Naxos 2007–2009 Les Troyens; Lance Ryan (Énée), Gabriele Viviani, Corhèbe, Gorgio Guiseppini, Panthée, Stephen Milling (Narbal), Éric Cutler (Iopas), Dmitri Voropaev (Hylas), Oksana Shilova (Ascagne), Elisabete Matos (Cassandre), Daniele Barcellona (Didon), Ziata Bulicheva (Anna), Cor de la Generolitat Valenciana, Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana, Carlus Padrissa, Stage Director. (Recorded in 2009) Blu-ray or DVD Unitel Classica 2010

• Tchaikovsky: Pique Dame, Acts 1 and 2, Kirov Opera, 1992
• Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov, Kirov Opera, 1993
• Tchaikovsky: Pique Dame, Kirov Opera, 1994
• Mussorgsky: Kovanshchina, Kirov Orchestra, 1994
• Prokofiev: Fiery Angel, Polygram Video, 1996

Honours and awards

• Hero of Labour of the Russian Federation – for special service to the country and its people. The honor was established on March 29, 2013, and first given on May 1, 2013.
• Cavalier of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland"

Gallery

• Received the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland," 3rd class on 25 December 2003
• Met with Vladimir Putin on 27 February 2008
• Received the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland," 4th class on 23 December 2008
• Received the title of Hero of Labour of the Russian Federation on 1 May 2013
• Received the State Awards of the Russian Federation on 12 June 2016
• Received the Order of Alexander Nevsky on 22 September 2016
• Received the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland," 2nd class on 30 May 2024