Mikhail Agrest was born in St. Petersburg and then moved with his family to the USA in 1989 where he studied with Josef Gingold at the Indiana University School of Music.
He later returned to St Petersburg for post-graduate studies in conducting with Ilya Musin and Mariss Jansons. He was awarded a fellowship at the Aspen Music Festival’s American Academy of Conducting where he studied with David Zinman and Jorma Panula. Agrest is a laureate of the A. Pedrotti International Conducting Competition (Italy, 2001) and of the Mitropoulos Conducting Competition (Greece, 2002).
Mikhail Agrest joined the Mariinsky Theatre in 2001 and, together with the Mariinsky, has performed in many European capitals, the Far East and Japan, the UK and the USA. In July 2003, again on tour with the orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre, Mikhail Agrest made his Metropolitan Opera debut in Rimsky-Korsakov´s The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and Maiden Fevronia, and his Covent Garden debut with Le Sacre du Printemps and Les Noces. The Observer reviewed one of the performances and wrote, "The effect was breathtaking. Conducted by a Gergiev protégé, Mikhail Agrest, the orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre caressed and pounded its way through Stravinsky's revolutionary score with vigour and conviction…"
Agrest has also established a thriving career as a guest conductor both in the symphonic repertoire and the opera house. He conducted the award-winning production by David Alden of Jenufa at the English National Opera early in the 2006/7 season and has also conducted the Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in productions of Le Sacre du Printemps and Romeo and Juliet.
In addition, Mikhail Agrest has conducted the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, replacing an indisposed Vassily Sinaisky and, in January 2007, he took over the closing concert of the BBC’s Gubaidulina festival, ‘A Journey of the Soul’ with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in place of an unwell Valery Gergiev. He has appeared with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra. In the last season, he made his debut with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Northern Sinfonia, Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra, the orchestras of the Komische Oper, Berlin and the Royal Swedish Opera, the Opera de Lyon and the Teatro di San Carlo, Napoli. He made his operatic debut in Tosca with the Royal Swedish Opera in May 2008, Don Giovanni with Opera Australia in July 2008, and Rake’s Progress with Opera de Oviedo in November ‘08.
In the current season, Agrest has also worked with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra and the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra. He will also return to conduct the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC PO, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and a symphonic concert with Scottish Opera. Mikhail Agrest will make his debut with Glimmerglass Opera this summer in a new production of La Traviata.
Mikhail Agrest is represented by Jessica Ford at Intermusica, jford@intermusica.co.uk.
February 2010 / 513 words. Not to be altered without permission. Please destroy all previous biographical material.
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra / Glinka, Karlowicz, Respighi, Musorgsky
“Agrest... conducted a concert that progressed from intiguing to alluring to utterly gripping... a superb evening... a gleaming interpretation of Respighi’s Botticelli Triptych, with supremely-drawn sketches and breathtaking string playing from the SSO in a bewitching piece of musical portraiture... an extraordinary version of Mussorgski’s Pictures from an Exhibition... with the conductor finding layers and levels of details and joined-up detail at that, such as are seldom heard in the old warhorse... the sheer musical tension accumulating right through to the Great Gate was riveting. More of Mikhail Agrest please.”
Michael Tumulty, The Herald, May 2009
Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie Konstanz / Beethoven, Prokofiev, Shostakovich
“[Mikhail Agrest] is an impulsive musician. He conducted Shostakovich’s 5th Symphony without a baton, grasping the music in his hands and kneading it into shape. He was actually living the music, even groaning through its grief. He breathed a touch of the operatic into it, and shaped the opening bars wonderfully, building the tension up to the brutal climax, when the brass section marched in like the Soviet army.”
Südkurier, March 2009
Opera di Oviedo / Stravinsky The Rake’s Progress
“Making his debut at Oviedo was the Russian conductor Mikhail Agrest – linked to the Mariinsky theatre of St Petersburg - and a name on the rise in the principal international theatres. He demonstrated a good knowledge of the score, and exquisite control of the latter during the entire evening.”
La Nueva España, January 2009
"Mikhail Agrest, a regular collaborator with Valery Gergiev at the Mariinsky Theater, was in charge of the Musical Direction and gave a remarkable performance. His direction was very careful... the Orchestra played at a higher standard than usual … In summary, this was a good choice of conductor."
Musicweb.net, December 2008
Richmond Symphony ‘Masterworks Series’ / Verdi, Rouse, Tchaikovsky
“Mikhail Agrest, a native of St. Petersburg, Russia, who is now an American citizen, provided a diverse and powerful program to show off his technique.
Giuseppe Verdi's overture to "La Forza del Destino" opened the program and set the tone for the evening…Agrest led this piece with a vigor that merely preceded what was to come. Rounding out the first half was [Christopher Rouse’s] Trombone Concerto … Agrest was very adept with the orchestra in the concerto with a score that requires countless changes of tempo and times.
The final piece of the concert was a Tchaikovsky war horse -- his Symphony No.4… an oft-performed symphony. But Agrest laid down his baton and used just his hands to conduct the work, giving it a fuller feeling. The first two movements he took at a slower pace than most conductors [and] this listener realized he heard notes from the score that he had never really heard before.
The third and fourth movements Agrest pulled out to full force and he gave it a glorious finish.”
Richmond Times Dispatch, September 2008
Richmond Symphony ‘Kicked-Back Classics Series’ / Beethoven, Shostakovich, Britten, Mozart, Rossini, Prokoviev
"Agrest started the program with Beethoven's overture to The Consecration of the House … It was clear from the outset that the evening would be audibly pleasing…
[For] Britten's "Soirées Musicales" the orchestra was true under Agrest's demanding hands.
In fact, this could be said for the entire evening. The players were on their toes, but relaxed…
And a bombastic reading of the final movement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 4 finished off a night that was obviously pleasing to an appreciative crowd.”
Richmond Times Dispatch, September 2008
Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini, Parma / Borodin, Prokofiev, Rachmaninov
“Agrest is a very confident and energetic conductor … His menacing interpretation of the famous soviet March of the Capulets was perfect…”
L’Informazione di Modena, March 2008
“Long and hearty applause greeted young Russian conductor Mikhail Agrest onThursday evening at the Paganini Auditorium... The conductor has proven himself to be confident and precise, in good harmony with the orchestra and perfectly at ease in the program…”
Gazzetta di Parma, March 2008
RTÉ Symphony Orchestra, Dublin with Demidenko / Grieg, Rachmaninov, Sallinen, Sibelius
"Under the baton of Mikhail Agrest, the heart of the music seemed to dwell in rhythm. He's no time-beater; and he conveys a sense of metre that moves in long spans and allows musical events to find their right place and time."
The Irish Times, November 2007
English National Opera / Janacek Jenufa
"Mikhail Agrest conducted Janacek's wonderful score with a great sense of its fractured wholeheartedness, seizing its fleeting ecstasies like they might vanish before he could."
The Independent, October 2006
"Mikhail Agrest, a 30-year-old Russian, brings singer-friendly temperament, Slavic definition and a sensitive touch to the beautiful score. The orchestra is transformed; even the violin solos sound luscious."
Financial Times, October 2006
"The Russian conductor Mikhail Agrest led an impassioned account of the score… the orchestral detailing was sumptuously realised."
The Telegraph, October 2006
"Mikhail Agrest… has the measure of Janácek's obsessive rhythms and ebbing passions."
The Times, October 2006
"… beguiling orchestral playing, conducted by Mikhail Agrest in his house debut. He handled all the pulsating accompaniments and melodic inventions with enormous clarity, pacing everything carefully to the work's radiant end."
The Evening Standard, October 2006
"Mikhail Agrest, of the Mariinsky Theatre… conducts a vibrant and exciting performance, bringing out the distinctive colours of Janacek's wonderful score."
musicomh.com, October 2006
"It is also, thanks to the highly perceptive conductor Mikhail Agrest, a galvanized orchestra..."
Independent on Sunday, October 2006
"On his ENO debut, the suave Russian conductor Mikhail Agrest ensures that this is an evening as distinguished musically as theatrically."
The Observer, October 2006
Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra / Rimsky-Korsakov, Prokofiev
"Russian born conductor Mikhail Agrest came; he conducted; he conquered. Subbing at the "last minute" … Agrest once again proved that the right conductor can walk in "off the street" (as it were) and get the best from our city's 87 foremost musicians.
Agrest saved his real fireworks till his final offering: 10 selected ballet excerpts from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64 (1936). Certainly among the Russian/Soviet composer's finest orchestrated, most tuneful writing, this music has always been a crowd pleaser. The Circle Theatre audience certainly responded to Agrest's shaping of the myriad emotional contrasts Prokofiev's material evokes."
nuvo.com, April 2006
Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchester / Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet
"In Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, Mikhail Agrest's conducting placed him firmly in the centre of attention. He alternated enthusiastic liveliness and fiery seriousness; passion and playfulness. The orchestra played with a bright and powerful sound, never veering towards clumsiness or harshness. The excellent horns gave it their all, the strings were no less impressive, and the percussion announced Tybalt's Death with a roll of thunder."
The evening then became a bit more spring-like. Agrest maintained the high standards set in the first half. The flutes, pearl-like, circled the singing theme; the cello and English horn competed as to which was the more languishing. After a furious finale, one can only agree with an earlier reviewer who said: There can be no thoughts whatsoever of Russio-phobia."
Leipziger Volkszeitung, September 2005
The Metropolitan Opera / The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh
"Discoveries abounded in "Kitezh", including the young conductor Mikhail Agrest, who on one of Gergiev's rare nights off led a performance that was at once intense, serene and sweeping."
Newsday, July 2003
Royal Opera House / Les Noces
"…The score was superb: four spiffing Kirov Opera soloists, plus chorus and pianists brought total conviction to the music under Mikhail Agrest's baton - I have never heard it played better in the theatre….
Financial Times, July 2003
Graz / La Cleopatra
"…the Mariinsky orchestra under direction of young Agrest gave a flawless performance. They brought out all the expression that this music contains…"
Salzburger Nachrichten, February 2003