Azim Karimov

Azim Karimov, born in Pärnu, Estonia, is a conductor living and working in Germany. He began his musical training as an oboist at the Moscow State Schnittke Institute of Music before studying symphonic and opera conducting with Gennady Rozhdestvensky at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory. From 2023 to 2026, Karimov served as a conductor and musical assistant to General Music Director Vladimir Jurowski at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. There, he worked closely with Jurowski and the Bavarian State Orchestra on major new productions, including Prokofiev’s “War and Peace”, Shostakovich’s “The Nose”, Johann Strauss’s “Die Fledermaus”, Mozart’s “Don Giovanni”, Brett Dean’s “Of One Blood”, and Wagner’s “Der Ring des Nibelungen”. He also conducted a number of performances of Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf” and subsequently recorded the work in the studio. Karimov made his debut at the Hamburg State Opera with the new production of Glinka’s “Ruslan and Lyudmila”. At the Bavarian State Opera, he made his conducting debut with Weinberg’s “The Passenger”, followed by his debut with the Bavarian State Ballet conducting Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker”. In addition, Karimov opened the traditional Festival Service, and thus the Munich Opera Festival, with Weber’s “Missa sancta No. 1”. Alongside his work in opera and music theatre, Karimov pursues an active symphonic career. The orchestras with which he has collaborated include, among others, the Bavarian State Orchestra, the Philharmonic State Orchestra Hamburg, the Vorarlberg Symphony Orchestra, the Kiel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Transylvania State Philharmonic, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Romanian National Radio Orchestra. He is also the founder and Music Director of the chamber orchestra “Entre Nous” and served as Chief Conductor of the Moscow State Chamber Orchestra of the Pavel Slobodkin Centre. His earlier career also encompassed international projects and festivals. As a guest principal conductor, he was invited to the 26th International Music Festival Kyoto, and he conducted the world premiere of Andrey Besogonov’s “The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl” at the International Diaghilev Festival. In 2019, he initiated and conducted the Moscow premiere of Britten’s “Curlew River”, an international collaborative project between the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and the Royal College of Music in London.
Beginning with the 2026/27 season, Azim Karimov will serve as Kapellmeister at Deutsche Oper am Rhein, where he will conduct, among other works, Rossini’s “Il barbiere di Siviglia”, Puccini’s “Tosca”, Mozart’s “Le nozze di Figaro”, Verdi’s “Il trovatore”, and Puccini’s “Manon Lescaut”.