Aziz Shokhakimov
was born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. At the age of 13, he conducted the Uzbekistan National Symphony Orchestra, of which he later became General Music Director. The following year he conducted his first opera: Carmen by Georges Bizet at the Uzbek National Opera. In 2010, he won second prize at the International Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition in Bamberg and subsequently worked with orchestras such as the Staatskapelle Dresden, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi. In 2016 he won the Herbert von Karajan Young Conductors Award of the Salzburg Festival. Since 2017 he has been Artistic Director of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Tekfen (Turkey), and since 2021 Musical and Artistic Director of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg. As Kapellmeister at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein from 2015 to 2021, he conducted numerous productions, including Madame Butterfly, Salome, Tosca and Pique Dame. In 2023 he will make his debut at the Opéra national de Paris with Lucia di Lammermoor. In 2023/24 he will take over the musical direction of a production of Pique Dame at the Bavarian State Opera for the first time.