Hailed by critics for his “astonishing precision, highly expressive gestures and warmth“ as “a name to remember”, the Estonian conductor Mihhail Gerts (*1984) has made a name for himself following recent successful debuts with the Orchestre Nazionale delĺ Accademia di Santa Cecilia, BBC Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France with the acclaimed baritone Matthias Goerne as soloist.
Gerts has established a regular collaboration with orchestras such as RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia, National Philharmonic of Russia and Estonian National Symphony Orchestra. Forthcoming dates include debuts with the Staatskapelle Dresden, St. Petersburg State Academic Symphony Orchestra, Gulbenkian Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National d ́Ile de France, as well as returning to Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Ulster Orchestra, Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, Bremer Philharmoniker etc.
Highlights from the last seasons include a successful debut with Opera Saint-Etienne in Benjamin Godard’s Dante, as well as debuts with NHK Symphony Orchestra, Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra etc.
In addition to his symphonic concert career, Gerts has also gained extensive operatic experience as First Kapellmeister and deputy GMD of the Hagen Theater (2015 to 2017) and resident conductor of the Estonian National Opera (2007 to 2014). During these years, he conducted over forty different productions of opera and ballet, most recently a new production of The Flying Dutchman. As a guest conductor, he has appeared at the Teatro la Fenice, Teatro delle Muse, Mikhailovsky Theater St. Petersburg, Belarus National Opera, and many others.
Gerts studied conducting at the Estonian Academy of Music and the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler, Berlin. In 2011 he received his PhD. From 2013 to 2017 he was a Stipendiate of the Dirigentenforum Programme of the German Music Council, and in 2014 was a finalist in the London Symphony Orchestra’s Donatella Flick Competition and Evgeny Svetlanov Conducting Competition.