Alan Buribayev is Chief Conductor of the Astana Opera House in Kazakhstan. He completed his tenure as Chief Conductor of the RTE Orchestra in 2016, and previous roles include Chief Conductor of the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra from 2006 to 2011, Chief Conductor of the Brabants Orchestra in the Netherlands from 2007 to 2012 and Principal Guest conductor of the Japan Century Symphony Orchestra in Osaka from 2014 to 2018.
Highly acclaimed for his intensity and spontaneity, his precision and musicianship is equally praised, and his success brings him regular invitations to guest conduct at the highest level. Recent and future highlights include engagements with the NHK Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic, Finnish National Opera, St. Petersburg Symphony, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia, Stavanger Symphony and the St. Gallen Symphony. He has also conducted the Kyushu Symphony, Belgrade Philharmonic, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Russian National Orchestra and Deutsche Symphony Orchester in Berlin, the Oslo Philharmonic, NDR Hamburg, Tonkünstler Orchestra, BBC Symphony, Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Düsseldorf, City of Birmingham and Gothenburg Symphony orchestras, London and Dresden Philharmonic orchestras, as well as the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra and the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra.
Alan has also conducted a production of Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades at the Opéra National de Lyon. He also maintains a strong name in Japan having conducted most of the country’s major orchestras. His debut with the Bolshoi Orchestra on tour in the UK resulted in an immediate invitation to conduct Prokofiev’s Love of Three Oranges in December 2011 and he has since worked with them on a regular basis.
Alan began his career as Chief Conductor of Astana Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of the Meiningen Theatre, where he gained extensive operatic experience, with productions including Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffmann, Mozart’s Idomeneo and Le Nozze di Figaro, Janacek’s Jenufa, Weber’s Der Freischütz and Strauss’s Salome.
Alan Buribayev was born in 1979 to a family of musicians; his father is a cellist and conductor and his mother is a pianist. He graduated with honours from the Kazakh State Conservatory as both violinist and conductor, and continued his conducting studies at the University of Music in Vienna with Professor Uros Lajovic. His victory at the Lovro von Matacic Conducting Competition in Zagreb brought him to international attention and this success led to invitations from several European orchestras. In 2001, he reached the final of the Malko Conducting Competition in Copenhagen in which, where no first prize was awarded, he was awarded a Special Prize, which recognized his “outstanding talent and promise”. Alan Buribayev went on to win First Prize in the Antonio Pedrotti Competition in 2001.
