Aziz Shokhakimov

Conductor Aziz Shokhakimov has made significant impacts on both orchestral and operatic scenes in the West. At 13, Shokhakimov conducted Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67, with the National Symphony Orchestra of Uzbekistan, and the following year, he made his operatic debut, leading a performance of Bizet's Carmen at the National Opera of Uzbekistan. In 2001, he became assistant conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Uzbekistan, and he was named principal conductor in 2006. In 2018, he made his recording debut on the Orfeo label, leading the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin on the album Trip to Russia. In 2021, he became music director of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, an orchestra with which he had first appeared in 2014. Shokhakimov returned to recordings with that group in 2023, leading a performance of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Op. 64.