Vladimir Jurowski & Konstantyn Napolov

Vladimir Jurowski has been Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the RundfunkSinfonieorchester Berlin (RSB) since 2017. In 2023/2024, his concerts, tours and recordings were the highlights of the ‘RSB100’ anniversary season. His current contract in Berlin runs until 2029,
while he has also been General Music Director of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich since 2021.

Vladimir Jurowski, one of the most sought-after conductors of our time, who is celebrated worldwide for his innovative musical interpretations and equally for his courageous artistic commitment, was born in Moscow in 1972 and completed the first part of his music studies at the Music College of the Moscow Conservatory. He moved to Germany with his family in 1990 and continued his studies at the music academies in Dresden and Berlin. In 1995, he made his debut at the Wexford Festival in Ireland with Rimsky-Korsakov’s ‘Mainacht’ and in 1996 at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden with ‘Nabucco’. He was then First Kapellmeister of the Komische Oper Berlin (1997-2001).

Vladimir Jurowski worked as Chief Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) for fifteen years until 2021 and has since been appointed Conductor Emeritus. In the UK, he was Music Director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera from 2001 to 2013, leading a wide range of highly acclaimed productions. His close connection to British musical life was recognised by King Charles III in spring 2024 when he appointed Vladimir Jurowski an Honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE). In April 2024, Vladimir Jurowski returned to London as a guest conductor to complete the concert performance cycle of Wagner’s ‘Ring’ with ‘Götterdämmerung’ with the LPO at the Royal Festival Hall.

He was Artistic Director of the State Academic Symphony Orchestra ‘Yevgeny Svetlanov’ of the Russian Federation until 2021 and Principal Artist of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in Great Britain, as well as Artistic Director of the International George Enescu Festival in Bucharest. He has also worked with the unitedberlin ensemble for many years. Vladimir Jurowski has suspended performances in Russia since February 2022. Ukrainian works are and will remain part of his repertoire, as will works by Russian composers.

Vladimir Jurowski has conducted concerts by the most important orchestras in Europe and North America, including the Berlin, Vienna and New York Philharmonics, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, the Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras, the Boston and Chicago symphony orchestras, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, the Staatskapelle Dresden and the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig. He is a regular guest at the music festivals in London, Berlin, Dresden, Lucerne, SchleswigHolstein and Grafenegg. Although Vladimir Jurowski is invited as a guest conductor by top orchestras from all over the world, he now concentrates his activities on those geographical areas that he can easily reach with reasonable effort from an ecological point of view.

The joint CD recordings by Vladimir Jurowski and the RSB began in 2015 with Alfred Schnittke’s Symphony No. 3, followed by works by Britten, Hindemith, Strauss, Mahler and again Schnittke. Vladimir Jurowski has been honoured many times for his achievements, including numerous international record awards. In 2016, he received an honorary doctorate from the Royal Philharmonic Society from the hands of the current King Charles III. In 2020, Vladimir Jurowski’s work as Artistic Director of the George Enescu Festival was honoured by the Romanian President with the Order of Cultural Merit.

Born in 1987, Konstantyn Napolov is one of the most outstanding percussionists of our time. A passionate pioneer and promoter of new music, he works closely with leading composers. He is in demand internationally for solo concerts and percussion concerts with orchestra, as an artist in residence in chamber music projects and as a jury member at important competitions. Performing throughout Europe and beyond, he plays repertoire and instruments from all over the world and throughout music history.
Napolov is constantly searching for new and unheard sounds – from subtle to powerful and overwhelming – and is always involved in a variety of projects. He loves to challenge himself and the composers he works with to push the boundaries of playing techniques and explore the sonic possibilities of percussion instruments to the utmost. Among the many composers who have written new works especially for him are Maxim Shalygin, Tansy Davies, Christiaan Richter, Jan-Peter de Graaff, Moritz Eggert, Martijn Padding, Aart Strootman, Robin de Raaff and Klas Torstensson. Artists such as Kaija Saariaho, David Lang, Louis Andriessen, John Luther Adams, Unsuk Chin and Philip Manoury have also collaborated with him. He worked with Steve Reich on the performance of his masterpiece Music for 18 musicians for 5000 listeners in the Netherlands. To promote the Dutch percussion repertoire, he established his own foundation, the Dutch Golden Collection Foundation. He has now realised over 50 world premieres.
Together with pianist Laura Sandee and cellist Maya Fridman, the percussionist forms a permanent ensemble and commissions new works for their unusual combination of instruments. He also enjoys developing new percussion instruments, such as Eva, which was created in collaboration with artist Rob van den Broek for a solo piece by Remy Alexander. As a soloist, Napolov has performed with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, the Residentie Orkest in The Hague, the Asko|Schönberg ensemble, the Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, among others. Since 2014, he has been principal timpanist with the Mannheim Philharmonic. He has recorded several CDs in collaboration with the TRPTK label since 2018.

Napolov studied percussion and conducting in Kyiv before completing his training in The Hague in 2015 with distinction under Fedor Teunisse, Luuk Nagtegaal, Hans Zonderop and Wim Vos. With an Erasmus scholarship, he studied in Strasbourg, the mecca of percussion, under Emmanuel Séjourné. Masterclasses took him to the Centre for Advanced Musical Studies in Chosen Vale (USA) and, with the prestigious Colin Currie Scholarship, to the Juilliard School in New York and the Boston Conservatory. He also attended masterclasses with renowned musicians such as Peter Sadlo, Mark Pekarski, Christian Dierstein, Paul Mootz, Marta Klimasara, Robyn Schulkowsky and Nancy Zaltsman. He has won numerous prizes, reached final rounds and received nominations in competitions such as the ARD Music Competition in Munich, the TROMP International Percussion Competition in Eindhoven, the Internationaal Kamermuziekconcours Almere, the International Percussion Competition Luxembourg, the Oh Oh Intro Festival in The Hague, Dutch Classical Talent, the Grachtenfestival Competition and the Prins Bernhard Cultuurprijs.

In 2021, Napolov was selected by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science to represent Dutch culture in Egypt as an artist in residence and to tour with renowned musician and composer Ahmed Saleh. He also had the honour of performing with the show percussion group Percossa in front of the Dutch government and the royal family. Napolov is an official artist for Adams, Zildjian, Vic Firth, Mike Balter Mallets and the TRPTK label.