Valentin Uryupin Resigns as Chief Conductor of Moscow Opera Theater

The Ukraine-born conductor has been forced to resign from the company due to "personal reasons"

Conductor Valentin Uryupin has left his position as chief conductor of Moscow’s Kolobov Novaya Opera Theater, a role he assumed in May 2021 in time for their 2021/22 concert season. 

“As you probably already know, some time ago I was forced to resign for very good personal reasons,” Uryupin wrote in an open letter to the opera theater, that has been translated. “To say I'm sorry is to say nothing. I was looking forward to the new season, planned with love by us, I missed the team that received me so warmly and believed me. For me, this is a big and absolutely forced loss.”

While he wished the orchestra and theater staff well for future seasons, any specific reasons for his departure were not provided.

“There have already been too many interpretations of [Uryupin’s] words about leaving the Novaya Opera. The truth is concrete: he was forced to leave,” said music journalist Sergey Bulanov, according to Russian Classical Music News.

“Until that moment, Valentin naively considered the option of remaining in the position of chief conductor, continuing to openly condemn the special operation [war in Ukraine],” Bulanov supposed. 

Uryupin has opposed the war in Ukraine since the beginning: “I would like to post here a post that I wrote on Facebook just hours after the so-called ‘special operation’ began,” he wrote on Instagram in February 2022. 

“It is impossible to justify aggressive military operations,” he added. “For me, as for the absolute majority of my friends and colleagues, it is unthinkable to internally support and solidarize with them.”

Previous to his role at the Novaya Opera Theater, Uryupin served as artistic director and chief conductor of the Rostov Academic Symphony Orchestra from 2015.

Between 2008 and 2011, Uryupin served as principal guest conductor of the Kharkov Youth Academic Symphony Orchestra. Since 2011, he has guest conducted the State TV and Radio orchestra of Belarus, Minsk, and was conductor at the Perm Tchaikovsky Opera and Ballet Theater. In 2013, he was involved in recording music for the opening ceremony of Sochi’s Winter Olympics.

Born in Ukraine in 1985, Uryupin studied clarinet and conducting at the Moscow Conservatory with Evgeny Petrov, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, and Alexander Bonduryansky. He is also the winner of 20 international clarinet competitions across Europe, South Africa, and Asia.