The Ukrainian-British violinist and conductor Maxim Rysanov is one of the most charismatic musicians in the world.Along with masterful viola playing, he has a successful career of music conductor and often combines directing as a part of his concert. He was born in Kramatorsk in 1978.

He attended Central Special Music School in Moscow where he studied viola in the class of Maria Sitkovska.He studied viola under John Glickman and conducting under Alan Hazeldine at the famous Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.He has participated in several master classes under Gennadi Rozhdestvensky, Jorma Panula and Oleg Caetani.

As a soloist and conductor, he has performed with the greatest European and world orchestras (the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Nordic Chamber Orchestra, the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, the West Australia Symphony Orchestra, the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra, the Spanish Radio Orchestra and many others). Rysanov is a passionate chamber musician and often collaborates with top artists such as M. Vengerov, J. Jansen, M. Maisky, G. Kremer, V. Repin, V. Mullova, A. Sitkovetsky and others.

He has received numerous awards including the Gramophone magazine Young Artist of the Year Award, the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Award, the Lionel Tertis Award and the Valentino Bucci Award in Geneva. His recordings have been nominated for numerous recognitions including Gramofon magazine prestigious Editor's Choice awards, the ECHO Award and the International Classical Music Award (the ICMA).

As a soloist and conductor, he has participated in the debut album of composer Dobrinka Tabakova. It reached the second place in the British classical music charts and was shortlisted for the Grammy Award in 2013. The latest 2020 Voices album of the BIS production company with Sinfonietta from Riga features the music of Peteris Vasks and it has received excellent reviews. Maxim Rysanov plays Giuseppe Guadagnini’s viola from 1780 known as Il Soldato which has been provided to him by thePremiere Performancesof Hong Kongmusical movement as a private loan.