Born in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) to Jewish parents, Bychkov studied at the Glinka Choir School for ten years before moving to the Leningrad Conservatory. While at the Conservatory, Bychkov played volleyball for the Leningrad Dynamos. In 1973 he won the Rachmaninov Conducting Competition and was invited to conduct the Leningrad Philharmonic, a great honour in Soviet Russia. His family suffered from official antisemitism and he decided to leave the country.

In 1974, he emigrated to the United States from the Soviet Union. Bychkov attended Mannes College The New School for Music and was director of the Mannes College Orchestra. From 1980 to 1985, Semyon Bychkov served as Chief Conductor of the Grand Rapids Symphony and as principal guest conductor of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. He became music director of the Buffalo Philharmonic in 1985 and held that post until 1989. On 4 July 1983, he became a United States citizen. It was during his time as Chief Conductor of Michigan's Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra and as Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra that Bychkov's name came to international attention. In 1986, following a series of high-profile cancellations that resulted in invitations to conduct the New York Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, he was signed to a 10-year recording contract with Philips Classics Records.

From 1989 to 1998, Bychkov was music director of the Orchestre de Paris. He became Principal Guest Conductor of the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra in 1990, Principal Guest Conductor of Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in 1992, Chief Conductor of Dresden's Semperoper in 1998 and chief conductor of the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne in 1997. He remained in Cologne until 2010.

Bychkov made his debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in 2003 with a new production of Elektra and returned later that year to conduct Boris Godunov. 2012 marked Bychkov’s 60th year which he celebrated with performances with the Vienna Philharmonic in Vienna and Tel Aviv. In 2012, he assumed the newly created Günter Wand Conducting Chair with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, with whom he appears annually at the BBC Proms.

Semyon Bychkov holds the Otto Klemperer Chair of Conducting at the Royal Academy of Music in London and was appointed 2015's Conductor of the Year by the International Opera Awards.

Bychkov is married to the pianist Marielle Labèque. Source: Wikipedia

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