Semyon Bychkov is chief conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra since 2018. He was a student of Ilya Musin in Leningrad, emigrated to the United States in his twenties and settled in Europe in the 1980s.
He made his name as music director of the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and has held similar positions with the Orchestre de Paris (1989), the WDR Sinfonieorchester in Cologne (1997) and the Semperoper in Dresden (1998). Bychkov has regularly guest conducted the Vienna, Munich and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and the symphony orchestras of New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.
At the Concertgebouw Orchestra he has been a regular guest since 1984. Most recently, in April 2025, he conducted Shostakovich’s ‘ Leningrad ’ Symphony.
Mr Bychkov has worked with contemporary composers such as Bryce Dessner, Detlev Glanert, Thierry Escaich and Thomas Larcher. Opera is a crucial field of work for him; he has led numerous productions at the Royal Opera Covent Garden (debut 2003), the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Opéra de Paris, the Staatsoper Wien, La Scala in Milan, the Teatro Real in Madrid, the Salzburg Festival and the Bayreuth Festival.
Semyon Bychkov holds honorary positions at the Royal Academy of Music in London and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He was named Conductor of the Year in 2015 at the International Opera Awards and in 2022 in Musical America .