Askonas Holt is delighted to announce that Tugan Sokhiev and Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse (ONCT) will continue their collaboration until at least 2019. Today in Toulouse, he and representatives from the Mairie de Toulouse signed a contract for a further three year term with an option for a further one-year extension. Sokhiev became Music Director of ONCT in 2008, having previously served as Principal Guest Conductor for three seasons. 

Since his appointment, Sokhiev has become a key figure in musical life in France. In 2013, French Minister of Foreign Affairs Laurent Fabius presented him with his medal as a newly appointed "Chevalier dans l’Ordre National du Mérite" in recognition of musical excellence and his outstanding contribution to French cultural life. Le Figaro has described his partnership with ONCT as “at the centre of the French musical life” and his performance in 2005 in the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées with ONCT resulted in his being named ‘Révélation musicale de l'année’ by the French Critics’ Union.

Mr Sokhiev and ONCT enjoy an excellent international reputation and the partnership appears regularly in prestigious venues, including each season at the new Philharmonie de Paris. The orchestra’s ambition to inspire young musical talent has proved to be enormously successful.  Their discography includes numerous highly-acclaimed recordings for Naïve Classique – including Tchaikovsky’s Fourth and Fifth Symphonies, Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances and Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf and most recently Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Firebird.  

Mr Sokhiev combines his position as Music Director in Toulouse with his role as Music Director of Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and, since February 2014, Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Bolshoi Theatre.  

He is currently conducting Prokofiev’s Betrothal in a Monastery at Théâtre du Capitole, Toulouse (premiere: 15 May) and notable recent highlights include his debut with London Symphony Orchestra, European and Far East tours with DSO Berlin and ONCT respectively.