Vassily Sinaisky studied with Ilya Musin at the Leningrad Conservatory and was assistant to Kirill Kondrashin at the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra before winning the Gold Medal at the 1973 Karajan Competition in Berlin. Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra from 1991 to 1996, Sinaisky has also held the posts of Chief Conductor of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor of the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Russian State Orchestra (formerly Evgeny Svetlanov’s USSR State Symphony Orchestra). He is Principal Conductor of the Malmö Symphony Orchestra and Chief Guest Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic. In opera, he has worked as Principal Guest Conductor with the Bolshoi Theatre, and conducted Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District at the Komische Oper, Berlin and Carmen and Der Rosenkavalier at the English National Opera. A regular visitor to the BBC Proms, he works with many orchestras around the world, including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. His numerous recordings with the BBC Philharmonic for Chandos include works by Szymanowski, Shchedrin and Schreker besides a series devoted to film music by Shostakovich.