The nomination of SVETOSLAV BORISOV for Conductor of the Year by the renowned specialist magazine Opernwelt in October 2023 is a significant recognition for his interpretation of Richard Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos. He has staged dozens of successful productions since 2016 as Principal Conductor and Deputy Music Director of the Opera House in Magdeburg, Germany. There, he successfully presented Verdi’s Rigoletto and Falstaff and Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Under his baton, dozens of titles from the operatic repertoire have been performed: Gounod’s Faust and Romeo and Juliet, Verdi’s Aida, Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, R. Strauss’ Salome, Puccini’s Tosca, Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman, Donizetti’s Don Pasquale and many others. Borisov’s repertoire also includes the operas Don Carlos, La Traviata, Hernani, The Barber of Seville, The Marriage of Figaro, Love Potion, Carmen and Otello.
The 2023/2024 season in Magdeburg saw him conducting the latest stage productions of Prokofiev’s The Love for Three Oranges, Elena Katz Czernin’s new opera The Wind in the Willows and the ballet premiere of La Borgia set to music by Shostakovich, Glass and Gorecki.
The path into the music profession of Mo. Borisov (b. 1978) began with piano studies in the town of Ruse. Later he switched and graduated with a degree in trumpet from the Varna School of Music and the University of Music and Theatre Arts in Graz (2003). Subsequently, he obtained a Master’s degree in orchestral conducting with honours in the class of Martin Sieghart (2010). He participated in masterclasses of famous musicians and conductors: Ralf Weikert, Bernard Heiting, Jesús López Cobos, Kurt Masur, Steven Sloane, Sir Roger Norrington, Sylvain Cambreling and others.
As a student he held the position of Assistant Conductor at the Klagenfurt Opera House. From 2003 to 2012 he was artistic director of the Grazer BläserVielharmoniE (Wind Orchestra), the Hugo von Montfort Mixed Choir and founded and directed the Con fuoco Chamber Orchestra (since 2007). From 2009 to 2013 he was the permanent conductor of the Schönbrunn Palace Orchestra in Vienna, as well as chief artistic director until 2011 of the Technischen Universität (TU) Orchester Wien. Since 2012 he has been conductor of the State Opera Varna, since 2013 its chief conductor and conductor of the Bochumer Symphoniker (2013-2016).
He has worked with various orchestras in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Belgium, Austria, Czech Republic, China, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Lithuania, Romania, Ukraine performing works by classical and contemporary composers. His collaboration with the Beethoven Orchestra in Bonn, the Bruckner Orchestra in Linz, the Brandenburger Symphoniker and Göttinger Symphonieorchester, the Chamber Orchestra of Lausanne, the National Symphony Orchestra of Denmark, the Algarve Orchestra – Portugal, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Arad – Romania, the Győr Philharmonic Orchestra – Hungary, the North Czech Philharmonic – Teplice is successful and valuable. He has conducted concerts at the Musikverein – Vienna, Stefanienzal – Graz, Beethoven Halle – Bonn, Konzerthaus – Dortmund, Beijing Poly Theater. He has been a frequent guest of prestigious international festivals, welcomed and invited by orchestras and opera houses on several continents.