Biography

Margarita Mikhailova is a freelance conductor in active collaboration with orchestras and choirs across the UK and Norway. Her broad repertoire embraces music from the early classical period to large-scale Romantic and 20th century compositions of Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky, Sibelius, Grieg, Elgar, Britten, Stravinsky and Debussy. Her particular interest in contemporary music has led her to conduct the premieres of several new works, both in Norway and the UK.

 

She recently enjoyed working with various orchestras including Oslo Philharmonic, St Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic, the English Symphony Orchestra; Cardiff Sinfonietta (UK), the Danube Orchestra (Hungary), the Liepaja Symphony Orchestra (Latvia), the Estonian National Youth Orchestra and the Macedonian Philharmonic.

 

While having a special expertise in Russian and Slavic music Margarita is passionate about developing new concert formats and bringing back to the stage the music of neglected composers from diverse backgrounds. During her work in Norway and across Scandinavia she has achieved critical acclaim performing Russian Orthodox Church music and contemporary Scandinavian choral and symphonic repertoire.

 

Educating young musicians is a vital part of her conducting activities. Founder of a company – MuzikFermata - she has launched conducting workshops in collaboration with foremost UK conducting teachers and several Music Colleges in Oxford. She balances between giving her unwavering collegial support to the students, teaching and her own performance work, as well as developing independent young people and family concerts series for the schools in Oxford.