Valeri Polyansky was born in 1949 in Moscow. After completing the musical college Polyansky entered the Moscow Conservatoire, starting his studies with professor B.I.Kulikov (choral conducting). At this time Polyanky’s interests went far beyond his basic specialty: he was attracted first of all by that special powerful musical synthesis, which appears while merging choir with orchestra. Polyansky attends simultaneously two different faculties: besides taking choral conducting he attends symphonic conducting (his teacher here was the well-known musician O.Dimitriadi). During his post-graduate course the fate brings him together with Gennady Rozhdestvensky. While being a student, Valeri Polyansky works in the Operetta Theatre, where he conducts the main repertoire.

In 1977 he was invited as a conductor to the Bolshoi Theatre where together with Gennady Rozhdestvensky took part in the production of Shostakovich’s opera “Katerina Izmailova”. While being at the head of the State Chamber Choir, Polyansky productively worked with the leading symphonic collectives both in Russia and abroad. He repeatedly performed with orchestras of Belarus, Iceland, Finland, Taiwan, Turkey, Germany and Holland. He also conducted the Tchaikovsky’s opera “Eugene Onegin” at the Goteborg Musical Theatre in Sweden. For many years he is Chief Conductor of the Opera Nights Festival in Goteborg.
Since 1992 he is Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the State Symphony Capella of Russia both symphonic orchestra and choir, numbering more than 200 artists. According to specialists marks, Polyansky’s creative practice is a rare example of a musician who combines skillful technique of choral and symphonic conducting.
In the repertoire of the State Symphony Capella there are works of different stylistic trends and currents: baroque, classics, romanticism, impressionism and contemporary works. And in all cases, as music critics emphasize, musicians led by Polyansky succeed in achieving accuracy and clearness of style, while remaining faithful to the spirit of the composition they perform.
Polyansky boasts a great number of musical recordings with the leading international recording labels. Among them are compositions by Tchaikovsky, Taneev, Glazunov, Skryabin, Bruckner, Dvorak, Reger, Prokofiev, Schostakovich and many others. Polyansky has also recorded all symphonic and choral compositions by S.Rachmaninov, and the 8th Symphony by A.Schnittke, issued by English firm Chandos in 2001, which was awarded “Best Recording of the Year”.