Born in 1972 in London, Damian studied conducting with Alexander Polishchuk and Ilya Musin at the St. Petersburg Conservatory after completing violin studies in the UK and the USA. In 1999 he won the Second Prize at the Leeds Conductors‘ Competition. He is a regular guest conductor in Europe and Russia. Among the orchestras Damian has conducted are the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and others. He also has taken part in different international festivals. He is a frequent guest conductor throughout Russia, where he works with orchestras such as the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the State Hermitage Orchestra, the Novosibirsk State Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra and the Nizhny Novgorod State Symphony Orchestra. From 1999 to 2005, Damian was Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Murmansk, with whom he has toured Russia and Scandinavia, and has collaborated with Norwegian National Opera. Damian‘s work in Russia also includes the production of Benjamin Britten‘s opera «The Turn of the Screw», with performances in St Petersburg and Novosibirsk, and the Russian premiere, in Moscow, of Michael Nyman’s opera «The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat». Now based in Italy, he has had great success with many important Italian orchestras. Next year he will work on a production of Verdi‘s «Macbeth» at the Glyndebourne Opera Festival.