Shortly after his conducting debut at the age of 12, Maxim Emelyanychev was invited to conduct a few orchestras in Russia. In 2013, he was appointed Principal Conductor of Il Pomo d’Oro. In 2014, he made a remarkable debut in Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the Teatro de la Maestranza. These critically acclaimed performances were swiftly followed by a series of guest engagements all over Europe. The 2016/17 season featured a major international tour with Il Pomo d’Oro and Joyce DiDonato, his debut at the Opernhaus Zürich in Mozart’s Entführung aus dem Serail and at the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse.

An invitation to conduct the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in Schubert Symphony No. 9 on a last-minute replacement led the enthused musicians to appoint him their new Principal Conductor, effective from the autumn of 2019. On the very first concert of his mandate, the Orchestra extended his contract until 2025, and has since extended it until 2028.

Emelyanychev has conducted leading orchestras including Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Berliner Philharmoniker, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Sveriges Radios Symfoniorkester, New Japan Philharmonic, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Seattle Symphony, Orchestre de Paris, Gulbenkian Orchestra and London Philharmonic Orchestra. Emelyanychev has also conducted the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment at the Glyndebourne Festival and the Royal Opera House.

Emelyanychev has recorded several albums with Il Pomo d’Oro: Haydn symphonies and concertos with Riccardo Minasi; In War and Peace: Harmony through Music (Gramophone Recital Award 2017) and Handel’s Agrippina (Gramophone Opera Award 2020) with Joyce DiDonato; and Handel’s Theodora (Edison Klassiek 2024). He has also released his first solo album of Mozart sonatas on fortepiano (Choc de Classica 2018, ICMA 2019), and an album of Brahms sonatas with violinist Aylen Pritchin in 2021. His first recording with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Schubert’s Symphony No. 9, was released in 2019 on Linn (5 stars in The Guardian, The Times and The Scotsman), and was followed by their recording of Mendelssohn’s Symphonies Nos. 3 & 5, released in 2023. In 2022 Maxim has embarked on recording the complete Mozart Symphonie with Il Pomo d’Oro. Its first album won an Edison Klassiek 2024.

Emelyanychev was awarded in 2013 the Golden Mask for his participation as the harpsichordist in the production of Le nozze di Figaro conducted by Teodor Currentzis. Born in 1988 into a family of musicians, Emelyanychev received his music education in his home city Nizhny Novgorod and in Gennady Rozhdestvensky’s conducting class at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory.