Russian conductor Boris Gruzin was born in Tashkent and studied piano, theory, opera and symphonic conducting at the Moscow Conservatory. He has conducted concerts, opera and ballet performances in countries including Germany, France, Japan, Holland, USA, Spain and Finland, and was a principal conductor at the Novosibirsk and Odessa Opera and Ballet theatres. In 1992 he joined the Mariinsky Theatre and was invited to work as a professor at the St Petersburg Conservatory.
His opera repertoire includes over fifty works. To name a few: Glinka -Ruslan and Lyudmila; Musorgsky -Boris Godunov, Khovanshchina; Borodin -Prince Igor; Tchaikovsky -Eugene Onegin, Mazepa, The Queen of Spades, Iolanta; Rimsky-Korsakov -The Maid of Pskov, The Snow Maiden, The Tsar’s Bride, The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maid Fevronia; Rachmaninov -Francesca da Rimini, The Miserly Knight; Prokofiev -War and Peace.
The 2020-21 Mariinsky season will see Boris Gruzin conduct Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky, Giselle by Adolf Adam (celebrating Natalia Makarova’s birthday), Don Quichote by Ludwig Minkus and Sylvia by Léo Delibes.
He has toured with the Mariinsky Theatre to the UK, the USA, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, France, Switzerland, South Korea, Japan, Italy, Spain and Australia.
Independently of the Mariinsky Theatre, he performs as guest conductor at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Norwegian Opera and Ballet, Dutch National Opera and Ballet, the Oulu Theatre (Finland) and the Oviedo Opera House (Spain).
Maestro Gruzin made his debut at the Royal Opera House in 2000, conducting the Kirov Opera in Mazepa. He has since conducted regularly for The Royal Ballet, in repertory including Giselle, Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, Cinderella, The Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, Sylvia, The Firebird and in the ‘Life Reimagined’ gala. Cinderella was the first production in the Netherlands in 2004. He has been guest conductor of Holland Symfonia from 2008 to 2011, conducting ballet and symphonic repertoire. Recent productions with Het Balletorkest and the Dutch National Ballet were Bayadère, The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake and Giselle.
In 1982 Gruzin was named People’s Artist, the highest Russian title for work in the arts.
