Dmitrij Kitajenko ranks among the great conductors of our times. Born in Leningrad, he studied music at renowned institutions, such as the Glinka Music School and the Rimsky Korsakov Music Conservatory of his home town. He continued his studies in Moscow with Professor Leo Ginzburg and in Vienna at the Academy of Music with Professors Hans Swarowski and Karl Österreicher.

In 1969 Dmitrij Kitajenko won the first International Herbert von Karajan Conducting Competition in Berlin. His artistic development was greatly influenced by the stage director Walter Felsenstein when working together on a new production of Bizet's "Carmen", which was first presented in Moscow and then in Berlin at the Komische Oper and is a milestone in the history of opera. Dmitrij Kitajenko was only 29 years old when he was appointed Chief Conductor of the Stanislavsky Opera Theatre in Moscow.

During the 70ies Dmitrij Kitajenko successfully conducted a great number of operas in Moscow and abroad at important houses such as Vienna, Munich and Brussels. At the same time he had an equally busy concert schedule in his home country and abroad.

In 1976, Dmitrij Kitajenko was nominated principal conductor of the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra. During his 14 years in this position, the Moscow Philharmonic grew to one of the best orchestras of the world. Together, they toured the major music centres in Europe, the USA and Japan, including such prestigious music Festivals as Salzburg, Edinburgh and the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival.

In 1990, Dmitrij Kitajenko left the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra and moved to Western Europe. He simultaneously held the posts of principal conductor of the Radio Symphony Orchestra in Frankfurt (1990-1996), the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra in Norway (1990-1998) and the Berne Symphony Orchestra in Switzerland (1990-2004) and later on the KBS Symphony Orchestra in Seoul (1998-2004). In addition, Kitajenko was First Guest Conductor of the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1990 to 1996.

Dmitrij Kitajenko has appeared in concerts with some of the best symphony orchestras of the world, including the Philharmonic Orchestras of Vienna and Berlin, Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Czech Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra. He is also a regular guest of orchestras such as the Bayerischer Rundfunk, the Munich Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Santa Cecilia di Roma, Orchestra della Scala di Milano and many famous American Orchestras.

Aside from numerous recordings made in the former USSR, Dmitrij Kitajenko has recorded a considerable number of acclaimed CDs, first and foremost his complete recordings of the symphonies by Skriabin, Rachmaninov, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Rimsky-Korsakov as well as orchestral works by Edvard Grieg.

With the Cologne Gürzenich Orchestra Dmitrij Kitajenko recently recorded for the Capriccio label the complete symphonies of Dmitri Shostakovich. Released in April 2005 the recording received the Midem Classic award and an ECHO in 2006. In 2008 his new box with the recordings of all Prokofiev symphonies will be released.