Pavel Kogan - Music Director/Conductor

Pavel Kogan, son of outstanding Soviet artists Leonid Kogan and Elisaveta Ghilels, began his musical studies at the Central Music School and continued at the Moscow Conservatory. His violin studies were under the guidance of the great pedagogue Juri Yankelevic and he studied conducting in the class of Leo Ginzburg and Ilya Musin. In 1970 at the age of eighteen Pavel Kogan won First Prize and the Gold Medal at the Sibelius International Violin Competition in Helsinki, Finland. Tours followed throughout the USSR, Europe, Japan, and the United States in recital and as soloist with leading orchestras.
Pavel Kogan made his conducting debut with the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra. Considered one of the top conductors of the Soviet Union, he conducts regularly the major orchestras in the USSR and appears frequently conducting the leading orchestra of Europe and the United States. A frequent guest of festivals such as Prague Spring, Helsinki, Dubrovnik, Flanders, and Leningrad White Nights, Pavel Kogan was invited by the legendary Evgenii Mravinsky to conduct the Leninguard Philharmonic on a triumphant tour of Spain in 1985.
From 1988 to 1990 Pavel Kogan was Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra. As a permanent conductor of the Bolshoi Opera in Moscow, he opened the 1988/1989 season with a new production of La Traviata.
In May 1989 Pavel Kogan was named Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra. His first concert in Moscow as Chief Conductor with this orchestra was recorded live for RCA/Melodiya. Extensive tours in addition to numerous other recordings are planned for the next seasons.

Moscow State Symphony Orchestra

In a country whose cultural tradition is rich with extraordinary orchestral ensembles, the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra is acclaimed as one of the highest examples of this tradition. Its founder and first Musical Director was Nikolai Anosov, one of the outstanding musicians of his time, whose son Gennadi Rozdestvenski is today one of the best known Soviet conductors.
Under the leadership of Leo Ginzburg, the orchestra cultivated a close relationship with leading Soviet composers including Prokofiev and Shostakovich and made many of the first performances of their works.

With a vast and continually expanding repertoire, the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra performs together with the traditional composers such as Tchaikovsky, Rimsky Korsakoff, Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Mussorgsky, Borodin and the great Western Romantic symphonic literature, much new music of the Twentieth century, both Soviet and foreign.

The Moscow State Symphony Orchestra, besides touring extensively within the Soviet Union, has also been enthusiastically received throughout major musical centers of the world. The orchestra has taken part in numerous international festivals and has made over 100 recordings, many of which have been awarded prestigous prizes.