Multi-talented Mischa Damev was born in 1963 in Bulgaria. He completed his piano studies at the Musikhochschule in Basel and switched from his career as a concert pianist to study conducting intensively in Vienna with the legendary Prof. Karl Österreicher on the advice of his mentor Mariss Jansons. Mischa Damev has conducted orchestras such as the Moscow Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra (Permanent Guest Conductor since 1996), Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, Beijing Symphony Orchestra, Bulgarian National Orchestra, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Orchestra del Teatro la Fenice, Latvian National Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Prague Philharmonic and the Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala in Milan among others. In 2007 Damev was appointed Head of Music of the Migros Culture Percentage Classics in Zurich.