Dmitry Yablonsky has gained international prominence both as a cellist and as a conductor. With some difficulty, and only after the intercession of Leonard Bernstein and actress Katharine Hepburn, Yablonsky and his mother emigrated to the U.S. in 1977. When he was 26, he filled in as conductor on an emergency basis, leading a performance of Stravinsky's Octet even though he had never conducted professionally before. Since then, although he has continued to perform as a cellist, the focus of his career has been on conducting. Yablonsky's recording career began in 1995, leading the Latvian National Symphony in an album of works by Jazeps Vitols. In 2008, he joined violinist Vadim Repin and pianist Boris Berezovsky for a recording of trios by Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich. In 2021, he and the Kiev Virtuosi backed Azer Zada on the album Italian Tenor Arias.