Mikhail Zemtsov is one of the prominent violists in Europe today, he has developed brilliant carriere in different fields – as a soloist, chamber music player, teacher, educator and conductor.

He has participated in numerous International Festivals all over the world being chamber music partner to Bella Davidovitch, Boris Berezovsky, Sarah Chang, Janine Jansen, Julian Rachlin, Nobuko Imai; Alfredo Marcucci; Leipziger, Jerusalem, Aviv String Quartets.

Mikhail has recorded numerous CDs for Sony Masterworks, Ottavo, Tower Records, Deutsche Welle. His Solo CD “The Last Rose of Summer” (including world premier recording on viola of “The Last Rose of Summer” by W. Ernst) has been placed as number 2 among Top 50 on the TROS – Dutch Broadcast/TV Channel and has been described as “excellent” in the main Dutch recording magazine “LUISTER”. In 2015 Mikhail recorded Concerto – Rapsody by B. Martinu with Mtro. Neeme Jarvi and National Symphony Orchestra of Estonia. This recording, released by the british label Chandos, has got astornishing reviews in the Grammophone and other main music magazins. Mikhail’s performances are regularly transmitted by broadcast and TV worldwide.
Mikhail plays duo with the guitarist Enno Voorhorst (Duo Macondo), he is also a member of the Utrecht String Quartet. In 2010 Mikhail founded Zemtsov Viola Quartet, together with his wife Julia, daugther Dana en brother Alexander.

Zemtsov’s solo appearances include performances with the Moscow Conservatory Chamber Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestras of Mexico, Estonia and Lithuania, Luxembourg Philharmonic (R. Strauss “Don Quixote” with Misha Maisky as cello soloist), Wiener Volksoper, Hamburger Symphoniker, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra (Norway), Ontario Symphony (Canada), Residentie Orkest (Netherlands) under Jaap van Zweden, Neeme Jarvi, Dmitri Kitaenko, Leif Segerstam.

Mikhail first took violin lessons from his mother Ludmila Levinson at the age of 5, later studying viola and composition at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory (Prof. G. Odinetz and T. Tchudova). He gained Soloist Diplomas with Distinction from ABRSM (Mexico-GB, B. Dinerstein), Hochschuele fuer Musik in Hamburg (Germany, M. Nichetianu) and Maastricht Conservatory (Netherlands, M. Kugel). He is a prize winner of the First International Viola Competition (Vienna) and of the Elisa Meyer String Competition (Hamburg). Mikhail got a Master Degree in Orchestral Conducting in National Music Academy of Lithuania being a students of Mtro. Juozas Domarkas. Mikhail took conducting lessons and master classes with Lev Markiz, Neeme and Paavo Jarvi, Gianandrea Noseda, Daniel Raiskin.

Mikhail Zemtsov is currently playing and conducting about 80 concerts a year and he has teaching positions at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague and the Utrecht Conservatory. He is conductor of the Utrecht Conservatory Strings and the Young Talent Orchestra by Rotterdam Conservatory, he has worked with the soloists as Janine Jansen, Dmitri Makhtin and Gavriel Lipkind. Mikhail is teaching orchestral conducting at the annual “Kurt Thomas’’ course in the Utrecht Conservatory.