Kirill Karabits

"The Ukrainian conductor Kirill Karabits, now principal conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, conducted one of the suites from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet in a way which – amazingly – made this warhorse seem fresh and urgent. The magic of the ballroom scenes had a wonderfully childlike vividness." (The Daily Telegraph, May 2010)

"Kirill Karabits is a conductor to keep an eye on. The young Ukrainian, stepping in at the last minute for Claus Peter Flor, who was stuck in Europe thanks to Eyjafjallajökull, coaxed the most thrilling performance this season out of the musicians of the Houston Symphony. Macedonian pianist Simon Trpceski, making his HSO debut, played with impeccable technique and musicality, and the all-French program was a delight from start to end.

Without a baton, he plucks delicate, precise articulations from the orchestra and coaxes enormous, well-balanced brass chorales with wing-like gestures. One is reminded of a conductor like Dimitri Mitropoulos, whose visceral style created unforgettable, impulsive performances that never became routine. This was one of those performances, and the audience was clearly appreciative of the fresh interpretive stance that Karabits brought to the podium." (Concertonet.com, April 2010)

"Karabits conducted three frequently performed works, but guided interpretations that didn't sound the least like tired warhorses. Surging to a climax with a richly textured performance of Hector Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique, the concert proved a marvelous demonstration of the orchestra's ample strengths... Perhaps he listened to the orchestra's acclaimed Beethoven recordings and concluded that they excelled at wide dynamic contrasts, unflagging intensity and unconventional emphases, so he asked for all of the above on the Berlioz, as well as a stirring concert-opening version of Modest Mussorgsky's A Night on Bald Mountain. TheSymphonie fantastique was relentlessly gripping, especially during the pastoral middle movement, in which a lovely lushness dissolved into birdsong while stormy timpani murmured in the distance." (Pioneer Press, April 2009)

“Six months before Kirill Karabits becomes the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s chief conductor, it’s already clear that the man from Ukraine is a winner. Podium demeanour is modest; baton manoeuvres are tightly confined. Not so the music-making. On Wednesday, the enthralled musicians let rip with passionate precision and the richest forest of colours this side of a Pre-Raphaelite canvas. The seascapes of Britten’s Peter Grimes Interludes were brilliantly painted, from those grey streaks of dawn to the storm’s glowering tumult. Not a hair of a note was out of place; this was a performance by a world-class orchestra.” (The Times, February 2009)

“There is a natural clarity about the conducting style of Kirill Karabits that is most persuasive.  His technique is unequivocal: tightly disciplined and geared towards rhythmic precision.  In this performance, with the Orchestra of Welsh National Opera, his ability to crystallise the fundamental rhythmic character of the music made the Cardiff audience, who were seeing him for the first time, sit up and take notice.” (The Guardian, April 2009)

 “Bold and original, this performance takes the symphony into new territory and the orchestra into strong new hands - I have not heard Bournemouth play so powerfully in years.” (The Lebrecht Weekly, October 2009)