Valery Borisov was born in Leningrad. In 1968,he completed his studies at the Choir College of the Leningrad Academic Glinka Choir. He also graduated from two faculties of the Leningrad Conservatoire: the Choir Conducting faculty (1973) and the Opera-Symphonic Conducting faculty (1978). In 1976–86, he conducted the Leningrad Academic Glinka Choir. In 1988–2000, he was a chief chorusmaster and a conductor at the Mariinsky Theatre. He produced over 70 operatic, symphonic and oratorial pieces with the Mariinsky Theatre Chorus. Since 1996, he has been a senior lecturer of the SaintPetersburg Conservatoire, and an artistic director and conductor of the Saint-Petersburg–Mozarteum, an arts association combining a Chamber Orchestra and Chamber Chorus.
He is a winner of the St. Petersburg theatre award Zolotoy Sofit. With the Mariinsky Theatre Opera Company and its conductor Valery Gergiev, he has recorded over 20 operas for Philips. He has appeared with the Mariinsky Theatre Chorus in New York, Lisbon, Baden-Baden, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Omaha and elsewhere. Since April 2003 he is the Chief Chorus Master of the Bolshoi Theatre. At the Bolshoi, he rehearsed the new productions of The Snow Maiden (2002 and 2017), The Rake’s Progress, Ruslan and Lyudmila, Macbeth, Mazeppa, The Fiery Angel, The Flying Dutchman, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Falstaff, The Children of Rosenthal,Madama Batterfly, Die Zauberflöte, War and Peace, Eugene Onegin (2006 and 2019), Nabucco, Boris Godunov, Carmen(2008 and 2015), The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh, Wozzeck, Die Fledermaus, The Golden Cockerel, Der Rosenkavalier, The Enchantress, La Traviata, L’enfant et les Sortilèges, Prince Igor, The Tsar’s Bride, Don Carlo, The Maid of Orleans, Cosi fan tutte, The Story of Kai and Gerda, Rigoletto, The Queen of Spades (2007, 2015 and 2018), Le Nozze di Figaro, Don Pasquale, Iolanta, Katerina Izmailova, La Damnation de Faust, Manon Lescaut, Billy Budd, Il viaggio a Reims(2017 and 2018), The Idiot, The Maid of Pskov, Un Ballo in Maschera, La Bohème, Candide, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Rusalka, The Tale of Tsar Saltan, Sadko.
