Mihhail Gerts

Hailed by critics as ‘a name to remember’ thanks to his ‘astonishing precision, highly expressive gestures and warmth’, the prominent Estonian conductor Mihhail Gerts has made a name for himself following recent successful debuts with the Orchestre Nazionale delĺ Accademia di Santa Cecilia, BBC Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, with the acclaimed baritone Matthias Goerne as soloist. He is also the artistic director of the TubIN Festival, initiated to promote the outstanding symphonic music of the Estonian composer Eduard Tubin.

In the 2021/22 season, Gerts looks forward to debuts with Staatskapelle Dresden, Belgian National Orchestra, Kuopio Symphony Orchestra, the Toulon Opera, and the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra, in addition to return visits to the RTE National Symphony Orchestra, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Bremen Philharmonic, Oulu Sinfonia, and the National Philharmonic of Russia.

Highlights from the last seasons include successful debuts with the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Gulbenkian Symphony Orchestra, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National d’Ile de France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg, Beethoven Orchester Bonn, and many others.

In addition to his symphonic concert career, Gerts has also gained extensive operatic experience as First Kapellmeister and deputy GMD of the Hagen Theater (2015 to 2017) and resident conductor of the Estonian National Opera (2007 to 2014). During these years, he conducted over forty different productions of opera and ballet - most recently, a new production of "The Flying Dutchman". As a guest conductor, he has appeared at the Teatro la Fenice, Teatro delle Muse, Mikhailovsky Theater St. Petersburg, Belarus National Opera, and many others.

Gerts studied conducting at the Estonian Academy of Music and the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler, Berlin; in 2011, he was awarded his PhD. From 2013 to 2017, he was a Stipendiate of the Dirigentenforum Programme of the German Music Council, and in 2014 was a finalist in the London Symphony Orchestra’s Donatella Flick Competition and Evgeny Svetlanov Conducting Competition.