ABOUT
EVGENII SAKMAROV
Bio Season 2021-22//
"Evgenii is endowed with a very sensitive musicality, an innate sense of gesture and rhythm. He has already great experience working with professional orchestras. Evgenii is committed to excellence, is an assiduous learner, and has a very nice personality. Given all his human, musical, and conducting abilities, I am convinced that he has a very bright future." (Neeme Järvi)
Conductor Evgenii Sakmarov has held such positions as assistant conductor to Maestro Boris Brott of the Orchestra Classical of Montreal (OCM), assistant conductor to Michael Newnham of the Orchestra Toronto and principal conductor of the Youth Symphony Orchestra of the Regional Charitable Foundation of the Republic of Tatarstan, "Sforzando".
He was awarded by Tatneft the grant "Culture and Arts", which brought him in 2019 to Canada, Montreal. Evgenii graduated from the University of Montreal as a symphony orchestra conductor in the Ph.D. program under the tutelage of Professors Jean-François Rivet and Paolo Bellomia. In 2021 he already successfully defended in the French language his doctoral thesis with a focus on Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances. Also Sakmarov received the "Graduate Scholarship" from the University of Montreal's Faculty of Music for academic excellence.
In 2022 he was successfully qualified for the Evgenii Svetlanov International Conducting Competition
in Monaco with the Monte-Carlo Symphony Philharmonic Orchestra, and was selected and included in the top 18 among 330 participants.
Evgenii Sakmarov was born in the Republic of Tatarstan where he was enrolled in a Music School and Music College. From an early age, Evgenii possessed leadership qualities, and his love for symphonic music led him to the decision to study orchestral conducting after he graduated from Music College.
At the age of 18, he moved to Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan, where he graduated from the renowned Kazan State Conservatory and completed a conducting assistant study. Already during his university years, he taught orchestral conducting at the Kazan Music College and at the Kazan Conservatory.
As a conductor, he made his debut with the Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra at the Saydashev State Great Concert Hall in Kazan. Thereupon, re-invitations followed, whereby Evgenii conducted several concert programs during the 2016-2017 season, working closely with the Principal Conductor Alexander Sladkovsky.
From 2016-2019 Evgenii Sakmarov was the principal conductor of the Youth Symphony Orchestra of the Regional Charitable Foundation of the Republic of Tatarstan, "Sforzando". During these years, he has significantly increased the professional level and overall status of the orchestra and established a great reputation in the musical and social life of the Republic of Tatarstan.
Under his leadership, the orchestra won the 2017 Presidential Grants Fund and has been very active in concert programs such as XXVII Summer Universiade, FIFA WORLD CUP 2018, and WorldSkills 2019 in Kazan. Only during Sakmarov’s last year of work with the orchestra, more than 80 concerts were performed, including a guest performance at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall.
The orchestra conducted by Evgeny Sakmarov according to critics sounds new, fresh, and refined.
During Sakmarov’s tenurship as principal conductor, the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Tatarstan presented many symphonic programs, as well as opera productions including Rachmaninov’s Aleko, Mozart’s Bastien and Bastienne, Menotti's The Telephone, Anisimov’s Viy, Abdullina’s Berenika and 1+6, Handel’s Acis and Galatea, Piazolla’s María de Buenos Aires, Fried’s The Diary of Anne Frank, among others. In 2018, Fried's opera The Diary of Anne Frank received the Tantana (Triumph) Award, one of the most important and prestigious awards in the musical world of Tatarstan.
Evgenii Sakmarov participated in major national and international projects and festivals. He has also conducted such orchestras as the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic symphony orchestra, Orchestra classic of Montreal, Orchestra Toronto, Quebec symphony orchestra, Symphony orchestra of the University of Montreal, Chamber Orchestra of the Kostroma Philharmonic, Symphony orchestras of the Kazan Conservatory, Tatarstan National symphony orchestra and among others.
Sakmarov is listed in Volume III of the Book of Philanthropists of the Republican Foundation for Restoration of Monuments of History and Culture of the Republic of Tatarstan.
Evgenii has studied and taken part in masterclasses with celebrated conductors such as Neeme Järvi, Rafael Payare, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Boris Brott, Michael Newnham, Yuri Simonov, Yoav Talmi, Adrian McDonnell, Günther Stegmüller, Jean-François Rivest, Paolo Bellomia among others.