Having established much of his professional presence in Britain, violist Maxim Rysanov ranks among the foremost interpreters of his instrument on the international stage. The distinguished Russian violist Yuri Bashmet is reported to have commented after hearing Rysanov perform, "My rival has arrived!" Rysanov simultaneously maintains a separate path as a conductor.
Born in 1978 in Kramatorsk, in eastern Ukraine at the time part of the Soviet Union, Rysanov attended the Central Special Music School in Moscow, studying under Maria Sitkovskaya, before moving to the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London amid Russia’s westward opening during the 1990s. There he received viola instruction from John Glickman and conducting lessons from Alan Hazeldine, earning the institution’s gold medal in 2000. Since being named a BBC New Generation Artist in 2007 and receiving the Gramophone Young Artist of the Year award in 2008, Rysanov has sustained an elevated profile as a soloist, appearing in concertos with prominent ensembles across both regions, among them the Mariinsky Orchestra of St. Petersburg, the BBC Symphony, and the Seattle Symphony. A committed advocate for new music, he has worked with composers including Giya Kancheli, Peteris Vasks, and Krzysztof Penderecki, giving the world premiere of the latter’s double concerto in Moscow under the composer’s own direction. His chamber-music partnerships have included leading figures such as Leif Ove Andsnes, Nicola Benedetti, and Gidon Kremer. Rysanov pursued advanced conducting studies through master classes with Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Jorma Panula, and Oleg Caetani, and has led, among numerous ensembles, the Basel Symphony Orchestra, the Russian National Orchestra, and I Musici de Montréal.
Rysanov entered the recording catalogue in 2007 with a program featuring works by Brahms, Frank Bridge, and George Enescu. Subsequent releases have appeared chiefly on the Onyx and BIS labels, encompassing both standard repertoire and contemporary scores. In 2020 he produced the first recording of Vasks’ Viola Concerto and String Symphony (“Voices”) with the Sinfonietta Riga, appearing simultaneously as soloist and conductor. As of the early 2020s, composer Gabriel Prokofiev was preparing a symphony-concerto for Rysanov that calls for him to perform both roles.
