Pavel Smelkov

Pavel Alexandrovich Smelkov (Russian: Павел Александрович Смелков) is a Russian conductor.

Pavel Smelkov studied opera and symphony music with Ilya Musin and Mikhail Kukushkin at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory and following it, studied composition with Alexander Mnatsakanian at the same place.

Smelkov founded Baltic Youth Chamber Orchestra in 1999 and served as its artistic director and conductor until 2014. In 2000, he joined the Mariinsky Theatre, with which, as a conductor, he toured Austria, France, Finland, Germany, Israel and the United States. During his career he conducted operas such as Attila, Don Carlos, Falstaff, Macbeth, Rigoletto, Die Frau ohne Schatten, The Gambler, The Maid of Pskov, The Miserly Knight, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Aleko, Betrothal in a Monastery, Dead Souls,Don Giovanni, Idomeneo, Mazeppa, Otello, The Brothers Karamazov, Semyon Kotko, The Demon, The Enchanted Wanderer, The Enchantress, The Fair at Sorochyntsi, The Gamblers, The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevronia, The Oprichnik, The Queen of Spades, The Station Guard and War and Peace as well as ballets Ondine and The Nutcracker. He also is known for conducting classical music works such as Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 and George Frederick Handel's Messiah.

In 2007 Smelkov conducted The Turn of the Screw, for which he was awarded the Golden Mask. In 2010 he made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera with Dmitry Shostakovich's opera The Nose and following it, returned to the same opera house with such operas as Bluebeard's Castle, Boris Godunov, Eugene Onegin, Iolanta and Prince Igor.

Smelkov took part in the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 2011 and 2015 respectively, participating with the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Russian Federation and the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra. During the 2013-2014 season Pavel Smelkov orchestrated the absent version of Alexander Borodin's opera Prince Igor and then did Cesare Pugni's ballet Ondine, which was reworked to his taste. In March 2015 he conducted Iolanta in Yakutsk, Russia and in December of the same year his version of Prince Igor was shown in Beijing, China.

Since January 2016 he serves as the Principal Conductor of the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre in Vladivostok, Russia.