Conductor Valery Gergiev was born in Moscow on September 21, 1953, to Ossetian parents. They returned to their Caucasian homeland, and Valery grew up in Orjonikidze (the capital of Ossetia). Gergiev's first studies were in piano, for which he displayed a prodigious talent. In his teens, he began to study conducting and was subsequently admitted to the Leningrad Conservatory (now St. Petersburg Conservatory) to study conducting with Ilya Musin. In 1975, while a student, Gergiev won the All Union Conductors Competition in Moscow. A year later, he won the Herbert von Karajan Conductors Competition in Berlin.

In 1977, at age 24, Gergiev was named assistant conductor to Yuri Temirkanov at Leningrad's Kirov Opera. He made his debut the following year, conducting Prokofiev's War and Peace. From 1981 to 1985, he was also director of the Armenian State Orchestra, and he later toured Europe and Japan. Gergiev was promoted to music director at the Kirov Opera in 1988 when Temirkanov left to assume the directorship of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic. He quickly set out to increase the Kirov's reputation with daring productions and an ambitious agenda of tours, televised performances, and domestic and foreign festivals.

In 1991, Gergiev made his United States debut in San Francisco with the Kirov Opera's production of Prokofiev's War and Peace. He returned in 1994 with a production of Prokofiev's The Fiery Angel and Massenet's Herodiade. That year, he also made his Metropolitan Opera debut, conducting Verdi's Otello. He returned the following year to conduct a production of Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades. In 1995, Gergiev became principal conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic.

In 1996, Gergiev was named artistic director of the Mariinsky Theatre, home of both the Kirov Opera and the Kirov Ballet. The Metropolitan Opera named Gergiev Principal guest conductor in 1997. Gergiev is the organizer and artistic director of St. Petersburg's Stars of the White Nights Festival, which features a variety of international guest artists and is held annually at the Mariinsky Theatre. He is also artistic director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Gergiev Festival. In addition, Gergiev is founder and director of Finland's Mikkeli International Festival, the Peace To The Caucasus Festival, and the Red Sea International Music Festival in Eilat, Israel.

Since 1989, Gergiev has recorded exclusively with Philips Classics. Gergiev has also been the recipient of many prestigious awards, including Musical America's Conductor of the Year award, Russia's Golden Mask Award, Dmitri Shostakovich Award, People's Artist of Russia (the highest cultural award in the country), and in 1999, the independent Triumph award.