Mikhail Shekhtman

Winner of the First Prize at the Ferenc Fricsay International Conducting Competition (September 2025), the young Russian‑Israeli conductor and pianist MIKHAIL SHEKHTMAN is regarded as one of the most promising musicians of his generation, acclaimed for his work in symphonic, operatic, and chamber music. He has been honored with the German Opus Klassik Award as well as the Bavarian Radio Award. Mikhail Shekhtman was born in 1989 in Moscow. His maternal grandfather, Moses Shekhtman, served as a cantor at the synagogue in Zhytomyr. Mikhail graduated with honors from the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory as both a pianist and an organist. He studied piano with Pavel Nersesyan, organ in Russia and Austria, and took part in conducting masterclasses with Mikhail Jurowski and Teodor Currentzis.He made his conducting debut in 2015 with the Russian State Chamber Orchestra in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. Since then, he has assisted renowned conductors including Valery Gergiev, Daniele Gatti, Sir Antonio Pappano, and Daniel Harding. As a pianist, Shekhtman has performed on major stages across Europe, Asia, and North America, including the Berlin Philharmonie, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and Benaroya Hall in Seattle. He has appeared as a soloist with the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Seoul Philharmonic, the Seattle Symphony, and others. Since 2007, he has been the artistic partner of soprano Yulia Lezhneva. Under his baton, her recording of some of the most beautiful Baroque arias by the little‑known German composer Carl Heinrich Graun, made together with Concerto Köln, was released by Decca in 2017 and received 5 stars from Diapason as well as the Opus Klassik Award (2018). Shekhtman has collaborated with prominent soloists both as a conductor and as a pianist, including Anna Netrebko, Augustin Hadelich, Ilya Gringolts, Yulia Lezhneva, Yusif Eyvazov, Maxim Vengerov, Daniil Trifonov, Vasilisa Berzhanskaya, Elene Gvritishvili, Alexander Malofeev, Valentin Misho, and others. He has participated in the Lucerne Easter Festival, the Menuhin Festival Gstaad, the Verbier Festival, and the Kissinger Sommer Festival in Bad Kissingen. His recordings have been broadcast on Medici.tv, Germany’s ZDF, Russia’s Kultura, BBC Radio 3, France Musique, and Bavarian Radio. In 2020, Shekhtman founded a festival orchestra bringing together musicians from Israel, Ukraine, Russia, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, South Korea, and several other countries. Their recordings of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and Mahler’s Symphony No. 7 have been highly praised by critics. Mo Shekhtman showed an absolutely outstanding performance conducting my beloved orchestra. His insight into the unknown dephths of Gustav Mahler's music, his absolutely crystal clear way to present his ideas and thoughts on how to perform it, his warm and heartfelt yet respectful way to interact with this giant orchestral organism and the human beings forming it impressed me deeply (Heiko Triebener, Bamberger symphoniker). In 2023, he recorded the world premiere of Con moto by contemporary composer Bernd Richard Deutsch with the Festival Orchestra; the recording was released by Boosey & Hawkes [BH1]. His current engagements include performances not only with the Sofia Philharmonic, but also with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, the Baden‑Baden Philharmonic, the Danish National Philharmonic, the Bern Symphony Orchestra, the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, and the Israel Philharmonic.