Aziz Shokhakimov

Music Director of Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra
Artistic Director of Tekfen Philharmonic Orchestra

Aziz Shokhakimov is Music Director of Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra and Artistic Director of Tekfen Philharmonic Orchestra. During 2015-2021 he held the position of Kapellmeister to Deutsche Oper am Rhein. His guest conducting has included orchestras such as Bergen Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. In North America he has conducted Dallas, Atlanta, Seattle, Toronto, Houston and Utah Symphony Orchestras.

Upcoming engagements include returns to the Gulbenkian Orchestra, Antwerp Symphony, Staatsorchester Hamburg and Konzerthaus Orchester Berlin. He also makes his debut with the Rotterdam Philharmonic and Netherlands Philharmonic. Alongside his guest engagements, Shokhakimov continues to reaffirm the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg as one of France’s top orchestras. Shokhakimov reunites with star cellist Gautier Capuçon to open the 25/26 season, which also features works by Puccini, Szymanowski, Strasnoy and Ravel. In April, Shokhakimov leads the orchestra on a tour throughout Germany. Recent season highlights include triumphs with the Dallas Symphony, Wiener Symphoniker, Bergen Philharmonic, Basel Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Radio Symphony, Tokyo Symphony and Seoul Philharmonic.

Aziz Shokhakimov is equally prolific in the operatic repertoire. The 2023/24 season saw his debut at Bayerischer Staatsoper conducting Tchaikovsky’s Pique Dame, where he will also return in 2024/25 to conduct Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. In 2022/24 he made his debut with Opera National de Paris with Lucia di Lammermoor. As part of his tenure with Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg he has conducted a new production of Wagner’s Lohengrin at Opera du Rhin. As Kapellmeister at Deutsche Oper am Rhein he conducted a new production of The Queen of Spades, Madame Butterfly, Salome and Tosca among others.

Together with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Aziz Shokhakimov has released three recordings on Warner Classics. In May 2025, to coincide with the 150th anniversary of Ravel’s birth, they released a full recording of his stunning ballet score Daphnis et Chloë, to a great critical reception. In 2024, they released Prokofiev Symphony No.1 and Suites No. 1&2 Romeo from Juliet and in 2023, Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5 and Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture.

In August 2016, having been selected from more than 100 candidates, he won the prestigious Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award. He returned to the Salzburg Festival in August 2017 for the prize-winner’s concert with RSO Wien and conducted the Opening Ceremony of Salzburg Festival with Patricia Kopatchinskaja in 2019. 

Born in 1988 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Shokhakimov entered the Uspensky Music School for Gifted Children at the age of six, studying violin, viola and orchestral conducting (in the class of Professor Vladimir Neymer). At 13 he made his debut with National Symphony Orchestra of Uzbekistan, conducting Beethoven’s Symphony No.5 and Liszt’s Piano Concerto No.1. During the following year he conducted his first opera, Carmen, at the National Opera of Uzbekistan. He was appointed Assistant Conductor of National Symphony Orchestra of Uzbekistan in 2001 and became its Principal Conductor in 2006. In 2010, at the age of just 21, Shokhakimov won second place at the Gustav Mahler International Conducting Competition in Bamberg, under the auspices of the Bamberger Symphoniker. In 2023, he received the French critics’ prize “la personnalité musicale of the year”.