In 1985 he graduated from Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory majoring in piano (Lev Naumov’s class) then again in 1989 he got a degree in symphonic and operatic conducting (Yury Simonov’s class).
In 1983 he joined the Bolshoi Theatre company as ballet accompanist. In 1987-1989 he did work experience with Paris conservatory under prof. Jean-Sebastian Berrault. During summer 1989 he took part in the Boston Symphony Orchestra Tanglewood Festival. He studied under Serge Osawa and Leonard Bernstein. At the end of his work placement in Paris he was given an excellent certificate and an opportunity to give live concert at an American music hall; after that he auditioned for the Bolshoi Theatre and was accepted into the Company.
During his term at the theatre he has conducted the performance of Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta (1997) opera, and ballets: Stravinsky’s Petrushka (1991), Prokofiev’s Prodigal Son (1992), Adam’s Le Corsaire (1992, 1994), Lovenskjold’s La Sylphide (1994), Melikov’s A Legend of Love (2002) and Swan Lake (2001), Glazunov’s Raymonda (2003), Shostakovich’s The Bright Stream (2003) and Bolt (2005), Asafiev’s The Flames of Paris (2008), Jewels to music by Fauré, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky (2012) Classical Symphony to music by Sergei Prokofiev (2012), Dream of Dream to music by Rachmaninoff (2012), Stravinsky’s Apollon Musagète (2012), Minkus’ La Bayadère (2013), Onegin to music by Tchaikovsky (2013), Lady of the Camellias to music by Chopin (2014).
He was assistant to Mstislav Rostropovich at the 1996 staging of Khovanshchina. The conductor’s repertoire includes the following operas: Glinka’s Ivan Susanin, Tchaikovsky’s The Oprichnik, The Maid of Orleans, Eugene Onegin, The Queen of Spades, Prince Igor by Borodin, Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina, Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Tsar’s Bride, Mozart and Salieri, The Golden Cockerel, Rachmaninoff’s Francesca da Rimini, Prokofiev’s Betrothal in a Monastery, The Gambler, Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Verdi’s La Traviata, Un Ballo in Maschera, Macbeth, and ballets The Nutcracker and The Sleeping Beauty by Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich’s The Golden Age, Schnittke’s Sketches, Adam’s Giselle, Chopiniana to music by Chopin and symphonic pieces by composers from Russia and eastern Europe.
In 2000-02, Pavel Sorokin was chief conductor of the Radio and Television State Symphony Orchestra. In 2003-07, he was chief conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of Russia. From 2007, he has been a guest conductor at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden.
His discography includes recordings of the pieces by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff and Grieg with the Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Moscow State Philharmonic Society, and the Radio and Television State Symphony Orchestra. In 2014 he recorder The Nutcracker ballet in cooperation with Queensland Symphony Orchestra.