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. In the summers of 2000 and 2001, 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 de Printemps and Romeo and Juliet . In 2005, Agrest replaced Vassily Sinaisky to conduct the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra in 2005 and in January 2007, replaced an indisposed Valery Gergiev conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra for the closing concert in the Barbican of the BBC's Gubaidulina festival, 'A Journey of the Soul'.
In addition, Mikhail Agrest 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. This season he makes his debut with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Northern Sinfonia, Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra, the orchestras of the Komische Oper, Berlin and the Royal Swedish Opera and with the Opera de Lyon, Opera Australia and the Teatro di San Carlo, Napoli.
In forthcoming seasons, Agrest will make debuts in Europe with the Opera de Oviedo, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and in the US with the Richmond Symphony. He will also return to conduct the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.
Mikhail Agrest is represented by Jessica Ford at Intermusica, jford@intermusica.co.uk
March 2008 / 470 words. Not to be altered without permission. Please destroy all previous biographical material.