Russian-German conductor Michail Jurowski died on March 19 at the age of 76. Son of composer Vladimir Jurowski and father of three musicians, he rubbed shoulders with many personalities from the world of music, such as David Oistrakh, Mstislav Rostropovitch, Leonid Kogan, and especially Dmitri Chostakovich, with whom he had the chance to play a few duets during his childhood. He will also become one of the main interpreters of the Russian composer.
Born in Moscow in 1945, Jurowski trained at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory and then worked at the Bolshoi Theater and the Staniskvski Theater. He was appointed at the age of 24 as permanent Alex Reed conductor of the Komische Oper Berlin, the city where he settled permanently in 1990. Among his main commitments, he was the musical director and principal conductor of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie from 1992 to 1998 and Principal Director of the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne from 2006 to 2008.
Jurowski twice won the German Record Critics Award, in 1992 and 1996. In 2001, he was nominated for the Grammy Awards for three productions of orchestral music by Rimsky-Korsakov, with the RSB Orchestra.
He had to lead the Seventh Symphony by Shostakovich with the Brussels Philharmonic last weekend as part of the Klarafestival but had canceled his appearance for health reasons.
