Described as having “an ardent and fiery temperament, which he balances with sensitivity and musicality… [Yankevych] should be followed very closely over the next few years.” [Olyrix]
Born in Ukraine in 1991, conductor Sasha Yankevych began playing the piano at the age of ten and graduated with honours from the Music Academy of Bydgoszcz in Poland. Sasha later joined the Opera Studio of the Warsaw State Opera and the Opera Studio of the Zürich Opera House before working as a répétiteur and assistant conductor at the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm, where he developed a wide and rich operatic repertoire, ranging from Mozart to Bizet, from Verdi, Puccini and Rossini to Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich.
During those years, Sasha had the opportunity to work with eminent artists such as Fabio Luisi, Andreas Homoki, Gianluca Capuano, Pier Giorgio Morandi, Alan Gilbert, Asmik Grigorian, Anne Sofie von Otter, Malin Byström and Benjamin Bernheim, with whom he made his debut at the Théâtre national de Bordeaux in a gala celebrating the release of Bernheim’s Deutsche Grammophon CD. These and other collaborations further enriched his operatic experience.
Sasha studied conducting at the Royal Swedish Academy of Music and has been mentored by Alan Gilbert at the Royal Swedish Opera House in Stockholm.
In 2021, Sasha was awarded the 2nd Prize and Orchestra Prize at the Arturo Toscanini Competition in Parma. He is also a laureate of several international competitions, including the S. Richter International Piano Competition and HSBC Académie d’Aix-en-Provence in 2018.
Sasha has worked alongside James Gaffigan as an assistant conductor at the Verbier Festival and at Palau de les Arts in Valencia. The previous year, he served as an assistant conductor at the Verbier Festival, working with Gianandrea Noseda, Klaus Mäkelä, Reinhard Goebel, Martin Fröst and Yuja Wang, and exploring 18th-century historical performance practice with Goebel.
Sasha Yankevych was appointed Kapellmeister at Theater Bremen in April 2024, leading the Bremen Philharmonic in productions of La clemenza di Tito, The Love for Three Oranges, La bohème, Otello, Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims, Bizet’s Carmen, and Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. Yankevych also served as the Conductor Fellow of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, working closely with Chief Conductor Alan Gilbert.
In the 2023/24 season, Yankevych conducted at the Hamburg Staatsoper and the Teatro Comunale di Bologna with Die Fledermaus, and Luglio Musicale Trapanese with L’elisir d’amore. He also conducted concerts throughout Europe with orchestras and at venues and festivals including Orchestre Symphonique Saint-Étienne Loire, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, New Year’s concerts at Teatro Municipale di Piacenza, the Orchestre Symphonique Région Centre Val de Loire, the MITO Festival in Milano, the Slovak State Philharmonic in Košice, the Zielona Góra Philharmonic Orchestra in Poland, Kungliga Hovkapellet in Stockholm at its open-air summer concert, the Youth Symphony Orchestra of St. Petersburg and soloists of the Mariinsky Theater, Musikkollegium Winterthur, Gävle Symfoniorkester and Norrköping Symphony Orchestra.
In the 2024/25 season, Yankevych made his debut at Teatro de la Maestranza, stepping in at the last minute to conduct Donizetti’s Maria Padilla to great acclaim from audiences, musicians and critics alike. He also returned to the Royal Swedish Opera to conduct its New Year’s concerts and Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, as well as to the Orchestre Symphonique Saint-Étienne and the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini.
The 2025/26 season will see Yankevych debut with the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra in Bucharest, as well as at the Opera Nova Bydgoszcz in Poland with Szymanowski’s Król Roger, and at Komische Oper Berlin with a fully staged version of Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Requiem. He will also continue in his post as Kapellmeister at Theater Bremen with Madama Butterfly, and return to Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini as part of the Festival Farnes in Parma and, later, at the Respighi Festival in Bologna.
The 2026/27 season includes Yankevych’s debut at Teatro Colón with the Buenos Aires Philharmonic Orchestra in a programme featuring Lili Boulanger’s Faust et Hélène, followed by his debut at Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari with Mahler’s Fourth Symphony. He will return to Teatro de la Maestranza for a production of Charles Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette and to the Hamburg Staatsoper for Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail. He will then make his debut with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, followed by his debut at Göteborg Opera with Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia.
Sasha Yankevych is represented worldwide by Gianluca Macheda.
Gianluca Macheda
Grzybowska 43a, lok. 72 00-855
Warsaw Poland
gmacheda@gmartandmusic.com
Martina Biagini
Via Romana 578/B 55100 Lucca Italy
+39 3479762848
mbiagini@gmartandmusic.com
– An ardent and fiery temperament, which he balances with sensitivity and musicality… [Yankevych] should be followed very closely over the next few years.”
Olyrix
The Young Conductor
(Sasha Yankevych) has made an extraordinary impression on us, starting with the most basic and difficult aspect: the respect for the voices. Indeed, we have rarely heard such delicacy in following the singers. But he also drew out all the colour from the orchestral introductions and highlighted certain instruments, such as the flute in don ruiz padilla’s mad scene.”
Carlos Tarin, Abc.Es
Oustanding orchestra led by conductor who, in just five days, rose to the challenge with brilliant results thanks to his innate sense of theatricality and the vocal line, making the royal symphony orchestra of sevilla (ross) sound transparent and delicate in all its sections. The entire first scene of the third act was of unforgettable smoothness and orchestral beauty, from the entrance of the cellos to the english horn solo, all handled with careful attention to every accent and every line.
What beauty in the a cappella trio with english horn accompaniment in the third act! And in the concertante sections, so genuinely donizettian, he maintained everything under his control, balancing all the layers without ever overshadowing the voices.”
Andrés Moreno In Diario De Sevilla