In 1991 he graduated from the Military Conducting Faculty of the Moscow Tchaikovsky State Conservatory, and in 2003 completed the assistant‑traineeship in opera and symphonic conducting at the Ural State Conservatory in the class of Professor Ye. V. Kolobov.
In 2016 he completed a Master’s degree at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration in the field of Sociology.
From 1993 to 2002 Nikolai Sokolov was Principal Conductor of the Tyumen Region Governor’s Symphony Orchestra, winning a prize at the International Festival of Symphony and Wind Orchestras in Lyon (France) and the V. I. Muravlenko Prize (2001) for art and culture.
From 2002 to 2014 he served as Chief and Conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of the Central Military Band of the Russian Ministry of Defence.
Since 2004 Nikolai Sokolov has worked at the E. V. Kolobov «Novaya opera» Theatre in Moscow, where he is Music Director and conductor of the children’s opera production of P. P. Valdgardt’s «The Cat’s House» and has taken part in productions of Glinka’s «Ruslan and Lyudmila», Mozart’s «Die Zauberflöte» («The Magic Flute»), Verdi’s «Nabucco», Wagner’s «Lohengrin», and Donizetti’s «L’elisir d’amore» («The Elixir of Love»).
He has collaborated with composers V. Agafonnikov, V. Belyayev, K. Volkov, A. Pakhmutova, G. Chernov, V. Nikolayev, Ye. Derbenko, A. Morozov, R. Ledenev, G. Salnikov, among others, and has toured in China, the DPRK, the USA, and France.
Since 2015 he has taught in the Orchestral Conducting Department and the Department of National Instruments of the Peoples of Russia and conducts the student orchestra of national instruments of the Peoples of Russia.
