SEMYON BYCHKOV
Chief Conductor & Music Director – Czech Philharmonic
Music Director (from 1 August 2028); Music Director Designate (from 1 August 2026) – Opéra national de Paris
Otto Klemperer Chair of Conducting – Royal Academy of Music
Günter Wand Conducting Chair – BBC Symphony Orchestra
BIOGRAPHY
Bychkov’s tenure as Chief Conductor and Music Director of the Czech Philharmonic – Gramophone’s Orchestra of the Year 2024 – was initiated with concerts in Prague, London, New York, and Washington celebrating the 100th anniversary of Czechoslovak independence. The following year marked the culmination of The Tchaikovsky Project: concerts, residencies and recordings of Tchaikovsky’s symphonies with the Orchestra both at home and on tour. For 2024’s Year of Czech Music, Czech composers were given pride of place and, in addition to recordings of Smetana’s Má vlast – voted by BBC Music Magazine as Orchestral Recording of the Year 2025 – and Dvorak’s Symphonies 7, 8 and 9, Czech music was at the centre of extensive European tours and concerts in the US, including three concerts at Carnegie Hall. This season, as well as subscription concerts in Prague, Bychkov will tour with the Orchestra to Taiwan, Japan. Korea, Austria, Italy, Germany, Luxemburg, Sweden and Finland and, in Spring 2026, PENTATONE will release the complete cycle of Mahler symphonies recorded with the Orchestra over the past 8 seasons.
CONCERT SCHEDULE
January 2026
PARIS, FRANCE – OPÉRA NATIONAL DE PARIS – TCHAIKOVSKY: EUGENE ONEGIN
PARIS, FRANCE – OPÉRA NATIONAL DE PARIS – TCHAIKOVSKY: EUGENE ONEGIN
PARIS, FRANCE – OPÉRA NATIONAL DE PARIS – TCHAIKOVSKY: EUGENE ONEGIN
February 2026
PARIS, FRANCE – OPÉRA NATIONAL DE PARIS – TCHAIKOVSKY: EUGENE ONEGIN
PARIS, FRANCE – ORCHESTRE DE PARIS – TCHAIKOVSKY, R. STRAUSS
PARIS, FRANCE – ORCHESTRE DE PARIS – TCHAIKOVSKY, R. STRAUSS
NEWS
Paris Opera announces the appointment of Semyon Bychkov as Music Director, effective 1 August 2028
Alexander Neef, Director General of the Paris Opera, announces the appointment of Semyon Bychkov as Music Director, effective 1 August 2028, for four seasons. From 1 August 2026, Semyon Bychkov will accompany the musical ensembles of the Paris National Opera as...
Semyon Bychkov returns to the Paris Opera to conduct Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin
Semyon Bychkov returns to the Paris Opera to conduct a new production of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, directed by Ralph Fiennes. Bychkov first conducted Onegin while still a student at the Leningrad Conservatory and 20 years later, following performances at Théâtre...
Semyon Bychkov returns to Europe to conduct the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
The evening was rounded off with Beethoven's Second Symphony in D major, played as a transparent stream of tones with many dynamic changes, rhythmic vivacity, softness, and purity of the larghetto and the third movement's minuet bursting with verve and power....
FEATURED VIDEO
FEATURED ALBUM
Mahler: Symphony No. 3
Pentatone releases Mahler’s Symphony No. 3
The Czech Philharmonic’s Mahler cycle, conducted by Chief Conductor and Music Director, Semyon Bychkov, continues in with the release of Mahler Symphony No. 3 with mezzo-soprano, Catriona Morrison and the Women of the Prague Philharmonic Choir. Symphony No. 3 marks the fifth release in the cycle. The Czech Philharmonic’s Mahler cycle for PENTATONE launched in 2022 with the release of Mahler Symphony No. 4 and, subsequently Symphonies Nos. 5, 2 and 1.
