The current season is Semyon Bychkov's fifth as Conductor principal and music of the Czech Philharmonic. The first season with Bychkov included an international tour to London, New York, and Washington. The following year the orchestra last the Tchaikovsky Project, with the release of a 7-disc box set and a series of international residencies, as well as the commissioning of 14 new works to be premiered. For the past two seasons Bychkov's work with the Czech Philharmonic has focused on the music of Gustav Mahler, with performances of the symphonies at the Rudofinum, on tour and finally on disc. The release of the complete symphonic cycle marks the beginning of the orchestra's new relationship with Pentatone. 

Like the Czech Philharmonic, Bychkov has one foot firmly in Eastern culture and one in Western culture. Born in St. Petersburg in 1952, Bychkov emigrated to the United States in 1975 and has lived in Europe since the mid-1980s. Bychkov studied piano before getting a place at the Glinka Choir School where, at age 13, he received his first conducting lesson. At 17, he entered the Leningrad Conservatory to study with the legendary Ilya Musin and, within three years, won the influential Rachmaninov Conducting Competition. Denied the prize to conduct Filarmonica della Scala in Leningrad, Bychkov leaves the former Soviet Union.

When Bychkov returned to St. Petersburg in 1989 as Conductor Principal Guest Conductor of the Philharmonic, he had already enjoyed success in the United States as Conductor Musicale of the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra and the Buffalo Philharmonic. His international career, which began in France with the Opéra de Lyon and at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, took off with invitations to conduct New York Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. In 1989 he was appointed Conductor music of the Orchestre de Paris; in 1997 Conductor principal of the WDR Symphony Orchestra in Cologne and the following year Conductor principal of the Dresden Semperoper.

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