Biography

About Dima

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Praised for his exhilarating approach and energetic leadership by musicians and audiences alike, Dima Slobodeniouk has become one of the most sought-after conductors of his generation.

Slobodeniouk works with the world’s foremost orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Berliner Philharmoniker, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Munich Philharmonic, Concertgebouworkest Amsterdam and NHK Symphony Orchestra.

In the 2023/24 season, Dima Slobodeniouk has been invited to make his debuts with the National Symphony Orchestra Washington and Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich. He will furthermore return to the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester and Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin. He will furthermore appear with the Wiener Symphoniker and Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and will make a special return to the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, whose Music Director he was until 2022. Further afield, Dima Slobodeniouk opens the 2023/24 season with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Tanglewood. He will return to the orchestra later this season and will also appear with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra next spring.

Slobodeniouk sped the orchestra into a hail of thundering timpani and exalted brass, the moment ranked among the most sublime in Beethoven’s entire oeuvre.

The Houston Chronicle

In the opera pit, Dima Slobodeniouk will make his debut at the Bayerische Staatsoper, where he will conduct the revival of Calixto Bieito’s production of “Boris Godunow”.

Soloists he has worked with include Leif Ove Andsnes, Emanuel Ax, Khatia Buniatishvili, Seong-Jin Cho, Isabelle Faust, Kirill Gerstein, Barbara Hannigan, Håkan Hardenberger, Martin Helmchen, Alexandre Kantorow, Patricia Kopatchinskaya, Beatrice Rana, Baiba Skride, Yuja Wang and Frank Peter Zimmermann.

Known for his musical expertise and interpretive depth, Slobodeniouk is also an acclaimed recording artist. Recent notable recordings include Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Cello Concerto with Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and Nicolas Altstaedt on Alpha, for which he received an ICMA Award. On the BIS label, he released an album of music inspired by the Finnish folk epic, the Kalevala. Other releases on this label include the works of Kalevi Aho with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra, which won the 2018 BBC Music Magazine Award, a later disc of Aho’s “Sieidi” and his Fifth Symphony. For the Ondine label, Dima Slobodeniouk recorded works by Perttu Haapanen and Lotta Wennäkoski with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Dima Slobodeniouk studied with the Ukrainian violinist Olga Parkhomenko at Helsinki’s Sibelius Academy, where he graduated in 2001. It was there that he also took up his conducting studies with Leif Segerstam, Jorma Panula and Atso Almila.

From 2016 to 2021 he was Principal Conductor of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Artistic Director of the Sibelius Festival. He was Music Director of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia from 2013 to 2022, Principal Conductor of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra from 2016 to 2021, as well as the Artistic Director of the Sibelius Festival. Together with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia he built an extensive and highly acclaimed media library of live concert recordings in recent years. A passionate believer in widening opportunity, he started a conducting initiative whilst at the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, giving aspiring conductors podium time with a professional orchestra and the opportunity to work with him on selected repertoire.