Kondrashin an haife shi ne a Moscow a cikin dangin mawaƙa na ƙungiyar mawaƙa. Bayan ya shafe sa'o'i da yawa a gwaje-gwaje, ya yanke shawara mai ƙarfi a lokacin da yake da shekaru 14 don zama jagora. Ya yi karatu a Moscow Conservatory daga 1931 zuwa 1936 a ƙarƙashin jagora Boris Khaykin. Kondrashin ya fara gudanar da wasan kwaikwayo na matasa a Moscow a 1931, ya ci gaba a Stanislavsky da Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theatre shekaru uku bayan haka. Ya gudanar a gidan wasan kwaikwayo na Maliy Opera a Leningrad daga 1938 zuwa 1942 da kuma gidan wasan kwaikwayo na Bolshoi a Moscow daga 1943.
1943 shekara