Mark Fridrichovich Ermler, born on May 5, 1932, in Leningrad, Soviet Union, was a Russian conductor. Inspired by the concerts of Yevgeny Mravinsky, he studied at the Leningrad Conservatory from 1950 to 1956 and made his conducting debut with the Leningrad Philharmonic in 1952. He conducted his first opera, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail, in 1953. He joined the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow in 1955, where he directed the first public, staged performance of Sergei Prokofiev's opera Die Geschichte vom wahren Menschen in 1960. In 1964, he conducted his first ballets, Igor Stravinsky's Der Feuervogel and Petruschka. Ermler served as a permanent conductor at the Bolshoi Theatre and established an international career with engagements at the Vienna State Opera, the Welsh National Opera, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, and the Opéra Bastille in Paris. He was the chief conductor of the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra from 1996 to 1998, returned to the Bolshoi as music director and chief conductor from 1998 to 2000, and served as the chief conductor of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra from 2000 until his death on April 14, 2002, in Seoul, South Korea. His recordings with the Royal Opera House Orchestra included all of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballets. His accolades included the Glinka State Prize in 1978 and the Order of Merit for the Fatherland in 2001.
