Since 1988, Valery Gergiev’s inspired leadership as Artistic and General Director of the Mariinsky Theatre has taken Mariinsky ensembles to 45 countries and has brought universal acclaim to this legendary institution, now in its 227th season.

At home in St. Petersburg, Valery Gergiev's leadership has resulted in the new and superb Mariinsky Concert Hall, which opened in November 2006, and the Mariinsky Label, which was launched in 2009. The new Mariinsky Theatre (Mariinsky II) is scheduled to open in the summer of 2012, immediately after the original and classic Mariinsky Theatre (currently celebrating its 150th anniversary) will be renovated to bring its staging facilities to 21st century standards.

The Mariinsky Label releases in the first year included Shostakovich “The Nose” and Symphonies Nos. 1 & 15, a Tchaikovsky disc of short pieces, Rodion Shchedrin “The Enchanted Wanderer,” Rachmaninoff Piano Concerti No. 3 and “Paganini Variations,” and Stravinksy “Les Noces” and “Oedipus Rex.” The label’s first two recordings received five Grammy nominations. In the fall of 2010, the Mariinsky Label will release Wagner’s “Parsifal” and DVD’s of Tchaikovsky’s Symphonies Nos. 4, 5, and 6.

Presently Principal Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra and the World Orchestra of Peace, Valery Gergiev is also founder and Artistic Director of the Stars of the White Nights Festival and New Horizons Festival in St. Petersburg, the Moscow Easter Festival, the Gergiev Rotterdam Festival, the Mikkeli International Festival, and the Red Sea Festival in Eilat, Israel.

Born in Moscow, Valery Gergiev studied conducting with Ilya Musin at the Leningrad Conservatory. At the age of 24, he was the winner of the Herbert von Karajan Conductors’ Competition in Berlin and made his Mariinsky Opera debut conducting Prokofiev’s War and Peace one year later in 1978. In 2003, he led St Petersburg’s 300th anniversary celebrations, and opened the Carnegie Hall season with the Mariinsky Orchestra, the first Russian conductor to do so since Tchaikovsky.

A frequent visitor to the world’s music capitals, Valery Gergiev in New York alone has presented recent cycles of works by Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Berlioz, and Stravinsky, along with Shostakovich’s opera “The Nose.”

For the 2010-11 season, Maestro Gergiev will conduct a Mahler Cycle for the composer’s centennial at Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall, “Boris Godunov” at the MET, and the Mariinsky Orchestra and Chorus on tour in the United States, Europe, and Russia. He will also conduct the London Symphony on tour in Japan, the U.S., and Europe, as well as the World Orchestra of Peace in London and Abu Dhabi.

Maestro Gergiev is the recipient of a Grammy Award, the Dmitri Shostakovich Award, Golden Mask Award, People’s Artist of Russia Award, the World Economic Forum’s Crystal Award, Sweden’s Polar Music Prize, Netherlands’ Knight of the Order of the Dutch Lion, Japan’s Order of the Rising Sun, Valencia’s (Italy) Silver Medal, the Herbert von Karajan prize, and France’s Royal Order of the Legion of Honor.

He has recorded exclusively for Decca (Universal Classics), but appears also on Philips and DG labels, on LSO Live and Mariinsky Live.