in 2007 he followed in the footsteps of his mentor, the late mstislav rostropovich, and turned his attention to conducting and in 2010 was appointed the first chief conductor of the gstaad festival orchestra. june 2014 saw mr vengerov graduate with a diploma of excellence" "from the moscow institute of ippolitov-ivanov with professor yuri simonov and he has since enrolled in a further 2-year program of opera conducting.