About Valery Gergiev
Valery Abisalovich Gergiev is a Russian conductor and opera company director. He is currently general director and artistic director of the Mariinsky Theatre and of the Bolshoi Theatre and artistic director of the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg. He was formerly chief conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and of the Munich Philharmonic. In 1978, Gergiev became assistant conductor at the Kirov Opera, now the Mariinsky Opera, under Yuri Temirkanov, where he made his debut conducting Sergei Prokofiev's War and Peace. Gergiev is the first person to hold the directorships of the Mariinsky Theatre and the Bolshoi Theatre simultaneously. In 1988, Gergiev guest-conducted the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) for the first time.
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