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.” Born in Ukraine in 1991, conductor Sasha Yankevych began playing piano at the age of ten and graduated with honors at the Music Academy of Bydgoszcz in Poland.

Later Sasha joined the Opera Studio of the Warsaw State Opera and Opera Studio of the Zürich Opera House, before working as korrepetitor and assistant conductor at the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm.

During those years, Sasha had the opportunity to work with eminent artists such as Fabio Luisi, Andreas Homoki, Gianluca Capuano, Jonathan Darlington, Pier Giorgio Morandi, Alan Gilbert, Asmik Grigorian, Anne Sofie von Otter, Benjamin Bernheim, Malin Byström, Adriana Gonzalez and many others, incredibly enriching his operatic repertoire.

Sasha Yankevych has recently been announced as the new Conductor Fellow of the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra. He will have the opportunity to observe and work closely with Chief Conductor Alan Gilbert.

Highlights from the last season include Sasha’s debut at the Hamburg Staatsoper (Fledermaus), the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, the Opera de St. Etienne, the Luglio Musicale Trapanese (Elisir d’Amore), the Teatro Municipale di Piacenza for their New Year’s concert, the Orchestre Symphonique Région Centre Val de Loire, the MITO Festival in Milano, the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini in concerts in Parma and Bologna, and the Zielona-Gora Philharmonic Orchestra in Poland.

Sasha’s 23/24 season will see him return to the Hamburg Staatsoper and the Teatro Comunale di Bologna for Strauss’s Fledermaus, and the Royal Swedish Opera for Rossini’s Barber of Seville; as well as symphonic concert with the Opera de St. Etienne and Teatro Comunale di Bologna.

In recent months, Sasha has worked alongside James Gaffigan as Assistant Conductor at the Verbier Festival, as well as at Palau de les Arts, Valencia. This follows Sasha’s previous year serving as Assistant Conductor at the Verbier Festival working alongside Gianandrea Noseda, Klaus Makela, Reinhard Goebel – exploring the 18th century historical practice, Martin Frost, and Yuja Wang.

In 2021, Sasha was awarded the 2nd Prize and Orchestra Prize at the Arturo Toscanini Competition in Parma. He is laureate at several international competitions, such as the S. Richter International Piano Competition and HSBC Académie d’Aix-en-Provence in 2018.

Since 2018, Sasha Yankevych has been working at the Royal Swedish Opera, serving as assistant and cover conductor on Szymanowski’s Król Roger, Puccini’s La bohème and Verdi’s La traviata. His operatic repertoire is very wide and features titles from Mozart to Bizet, from Verdi, Puccini and Rossini to Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich.

In the last few years, Sasha has conducted concerts throughout Europe with orchestras such as the Youth Symphony Orchestra of St. Petersburg and Soloists of the Mariinsky Theater, Musikkolegium Winterthur, Toscanini Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de Bordeaux in a gala with Bernjamin Bernheim for Deutsche Grammophon CD release (highly praised by critics), Gävle Symfoniorkester, Nörrköping Symphony Orchestra, and Royal Swedish Orchestra. Sasha’s symphonic debut with the Kungliga Hofvkapellet Stockholm at the Open-air summer concert was highly praised by critics and audience alike.

Sasha is currently completing a Master Diploma of Conducting at the Royal Swedish Academy of Music and is being mentored by Alan Gilbert at the Royal Swedish Opera House in Stockholm.