conductor & violinist
Sergej Bolkhovets
Sergej Bolkhovets is an ascending Russian-born Swedish conductor with an already extensive international career as a violinist playing as a guest a.o. with Berliner Philharmoniker. He was awarded the prestigious positions of Junior Fellow in Conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music from 2016 to 2018, as well as the Leverhulme Conducting Fellowship at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2019–20.
Since the 2020–21 season Sergej Bolkhovets holds the position of Assistant Conductor at the Gothenburg Opera. This season he assists on Rossini’s Il Barbiere, Puccini’s Tosca, Wagner’s Götterdämmerung and Verdi’s Rigoletto. He also conducts performances of Donizetti’s Viva la Mamma and an Operetta-Gala concert. Additionally, Sergej debuts with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and returns later in the season for a second project with them.
Last season at the Gothenburg Opera, Mr. Bolkhovets assisted on Puccini’s Tosca and La Bohème, Wagner’s Siegfried and Kander’s Cabaret. Mr. Bolkhovets also celebrated his debut with the Bamberger Symphoniker and returned to Dalasinfoniettan in Sweden for symphonic concerts. Invitations from Norrlandsoperan, London Sinfonietta and Southbank Sinfonia were cancelled due to the pandeminc.
In the 2019–20 season, Mr. Bolkhovets celebrated his debut with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, where he also acted as assistant to Chief Conductor Thomas Dausgaard as part of his Leverhulme Conducting Fellowship. Through the fellowship he also collaborated with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Scottish Opera, Red Note Ensemble, and was scheduled to conduct Poulenc´s Les Dialogues des Carmélites at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. He finished the season conducting the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra as part of a conducting workshop.
Highlights from recent seasons include his conducting debuts with The Hallé Orchestra, Manchester Camerata and BBC Philharmonic in Manchester, as well as with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zürich during a masterclass with David Zinman. He has also worked repeatedly with leading Swedish orchestras such as the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, Norrlandsoperan, Gävle Symphony Orchestra and Dalasinfoniettan.
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Other past conducting engagements include the 10/10Ensemble, Jenaer Philharmoniker, Västerås Sinfonietta, Norrbotten “NEO” and “KammarensembleN”. He also acted as Assistant Conductor at the State Opera of Plovdiv for productions of Verdi’s Falstaff and Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, where he also made his Bulgarian debut with a symphonic programme. At the Daegu International Music Festival 2018 in Korea he served as Assistant Conductor for Verdi´s Don Carlo. He assisted on and conducted performances of Händel’s Theodora and Massenet’s Cendrillon at the Royal Northern College of Music.
Sergej Bolkhovets has conducted concerts with soloists such as Norbert Anger (Principal Cellist of the Dresden Staatskapelle) in the Schumann Cello Concerto, Vashti Hunter (soloist and member of Trio Gaspard) in Tchaikovsky Rococo Variations, Hannah Roberts (Solo Cellist of the Manchester Camerata) in the Elgar Cello Concerto, and Avan Yu (winner of the Silver Medal at Santander International Piano Competition and Gold Medal at the Sydney International Piano Competition) in Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2.
Sergej Bolkhovets was a Conducting Fellow at the Verbier Festival 2018 assisting Valery Gergiev, Christoph Eschenbach, Gianandrea Noseda, Alain Altinoglu. Furthermore, he has assisted leading conductors at the BBC Philharmonic in Manchester (Juanjo Mena, Nicholas Collon), Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (Vasily Petrenko, Cristian Mandeal), as well as at the Hallé Orchestra (Sir Mark Elder).In addition to his Conducting Fellowships in Great Britain with Garry Walker as his main mentor, Mr. Bolkhovets studied conducting at the University of Music Franz Liszt Weimar with Markus Frank and at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm with Prof. B. Tommy Andersson. He has also participated in masterclasses with Paavo and Neemi Järvi, Sir Mark Elder, Leonid Grin, Peter Rundel, Jac van Steen, Timothy Reynish and Kenneth Kiesler.
In his career as a violinist, Sergej Bolkhovets started playing in the Berlin Philharmonic already at the age of 22, prior his graduation from the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin, where he studied with Prof. Ulf Wallin and in the post-graduate programme with Prof. Tabea Zimmermann. He also studied violin at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm in a post-graduate soloist diploma programme with Joakim Svenheden.
He has played in a total of 23 prestigious orchestras, such as Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Frankfurter Oper- und Museumsorchester, and has been a guest concertmaster in approximately half of them, including at the Royal Opera Stockholm, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra.
As a pedagogue, Sergej is a dedicated violin teacher. He has served as faculty member at the Nordic Music High School in Stockholm since 2008, and 2011–2013 also at Stockholm’s Royal College of Music. Furthermore, he has given violin masterclasses in Benasque, Spain, at the Boston Conservatory, USA, in Tallinn, Estonia and Stockholm. Since 2017 he is also teaching conducting and chamber music at the Junior RNCM in Manchester.
“I have known Sergej for many years, first as a violinist playing with me in the Berlin Philharmonic and as my conducting student at the Järvi Academy, where he demonstrated a very rapid and impressive development. His engaging and pleasant character make him very easy to engage with. It has been my pleasure to see his growth as a conductor and I strongly believe he has all the necessary tools to succeed at the highest international level.”
“Sergej is an absolutely outstanding musician and conductor, with an honest and pleasant approach to music making. I’ve known him for quite a few years, and he was an excellent Assistant to me. He is an absolutely first rate human being, with a pleasant yet authoritative manner in front of an orchestra.”
conductor & violinist
Sergej Bolkhovets
Sergej Bolkhovets is an ascending Russian-born Swedish conductor with an already extensive international career as a violinist playing as a guest a.o. with Berliner Philharmoniker. He was awarded the prestigious positions of Junior Fellow in Conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music from 2016 to 2018, as well as the Leverhulme Conducting Fellowship at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2019–20.
Since the 2020–21 season Sergej Bolkhovets holds the position of Assistant Conductor at the Gothenburg Opera. This season he assists on Rossini’s Il Barbiere, Puccini’s Tosca, Wagner’s Götterdämmerung and Verdi’s Rigoletto. He also conducts performances of Donizetti’s Viva la Mamma and an Operetta-Gala concert. Additionally, Sergej debuts with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and returns later in the season for a second project with them.
Last season at the Gothenburg Opera, Mr. Bolkhovets assisted on Puccini’s Tosca and La Bohème, Wagner’s Siegfried and Kander’s Cabaret. Mr. Bolkhovets also celebrated his debut with the Bamberger Symphoniker and returned to Dalasinfoniettan in Sweden for symphonic concerts. Invitations from Norrlandsoperan, London Sinfonietta and Southbank Sinfonia were cancelled due to the pandeminc.
In the 2019–20 season, Mr. Bolkhovets celebrated his debut with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, where he also acted as assistant to Chief Conductor Thomas Dausgaard as part of his Leverhulme Conducting Fellowship. Through the fellowship he also collaborated with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Scottish Opera, Red Note Ensemble, and was scheduled to conduct Poulenc´s Les Dialogues des Carmélites at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. He finished the season conducting the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra as part of a conducting workshop.
Highlights from recent seasons include his conducting debuts with the Hallé Orchestra, Manchester Camerata and BBC Philharmonic in Manchester, as well as with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zürich during a masterclass with David Zinman. He has also worked repeatedly with leading Swedish orchestras such as the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra, Norrlandsoperan, Gävle Symphony Orchestra and Dalasinfoniettan.
Read more
Other past conducting engagements include the 10/10Ensemble, Jenaer Philharmoniker, Västerås Sinfonietta, Norrbotten “NEO” and “KammarensembleN”. He also acted as Assistant Conductor at the State Opera of Plovdiv for productions of Verdi’s Falstaff and Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, where he also made his Bulgarian debut with a symphonic programme. At the Daegu International Music Festival 2018 in Korea he served as Assistant Conductor for Verdi´s Don Carlo. He assisted on and conducted performances of Händel’s Theodora and Massenet’s Cendrillon at the Royal Northern College of Music.
Sergej Bolkhovets has conducted concerts with soloists such as Norbert Anger (Principal Cellist of the Dresden Staatskapelle) in the Schumann Cello Concerto, Vashti Hunter (soloist and member of Trio Gaspard) in Tchaikovsky Rococo Variations, Hannah Roberts (Solo Cellist of the Manchester Camerata) in the Elgar Cello Concerto, and Avan Yu (winner of the Silver Medal at Santander International Piano Competition and Gold Medal at the Sydney International Piano Competition) in Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2.
Sergej Bolkhovets was a Conducting Fellow at the Verbier Festival 2018 assisting Valery Gergiev, Christoph Eschenbach, Gianandrea Noseda, Alain Altinoglu. Furthermore, he has assisted leading conductors at the BBC Philharmonic in Manchester (Juanjo Mena, Nicholas Collon), Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (Vasily Petrenko, Cristian Mandeal), as well as at the Hallé Orchestra (Sir Mark Elder).
In addition to his Conducting Fellowships in Great Britain with Garry Walker as his main mentor, Mr. Bolkhovets studied conducting at the University of Music Franz Liszt Weimar with Markus Frank and at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm with Prof. B. Tommy Andersson. He has also participated in masterclasses with Paavo and Neemi Järvi, Sir Mark Elder, Leonid Grin, Peter Rundel, Jac van Steen, Timothy Reynish and Kenneth Kiesler.
In his career as a violinist, Sergej Bolkhovets started playing in the Berlin Philharmonic already at the age of 22, prior his graduation from the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin, where he studied with Prof. Ulf Wallin and in the post-graduate programme with Prof. Tabea Zimmermann. He also studied violin at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm in a post-graduate soloist diploma programme with Joakim Svenheden.
He has played in a total of 23 prestigious orchestras, such as Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Frankfurter Oper- und Museumsorchester, and has been a guest concertmaster in approximately half of them, including at the Royal Opera Stockholm, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra.
As a pedagogue, Sergej is a dedicated violin teacher for over 18 years. He has served as faculty member at the Nordic Music High School in Stockholm since 2008, and 2011–2013 also at Stockholm’s Royal College of Music. Furthermore, he has given violin masterclasses in Benasque, Spain, at the Boston Conservatory, USA, in Tallinn, Estonia and Stockholm. Since 2017 he is also teaching conducting and Chamber Music at the Junior RNCM in Manchester.
“I have known Sergej for many years, first as a violinist playing with me in the Berlin Philharmonic and as my conducting student at the Järvi Academy, where he demonstrated a very rapid and impressive development. His engaging and pleasant character make him very easy to engage with. It has been my pleasure to see his growth as a conductor and I strongly believe he has all the necessary tools to succeed at the highest international level.”
“Sergej is an absolutely outstanding musician and conductor, with an honest and pleasant approach to music making. I’ve known him for quite a few years, and he was an excellent Assistant to me. He is an absolutely first rate human being, with a pleasant yet authoritative manner in front of an orchestra.”