Nikolay Alexeev, Chefdirigent St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra

People’s Artist of Russia, deputy Artistic Director of the St.Petersburg Philharmonia graduated from the Leningrad Choral College named after M.I.Glinka and the Leningrad Conservatory, where he studied choral conducting with A.Mikhailov and opera and symphony conducting with M.Jansons. The creative activity of the musician, the laureate of international contests such as the Herbert von Karajan Foundation (West Berlin, 1982), V.Talich (Prague, 1985) and Min-On (Tokyo, 1985), is extremely rich. He led the Orchestra of the Zagreb Philharmonic, conducted the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bolshoi Symphony and the Russian National Orchestra. He has worked with such foreign orchestras as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the philharmonic orchestras of Rotterdam, Dresden, Stuttgart and Copenhagen, the symphony orchestras of Berlin and Baltimore, the Liverpool Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Scottish BBC Symphony orchestra and the New Japan Philharmonic. From 2001-2010, Nikolay Alexeev led the oldest orchestra in the Baltic States – the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra (for which the musician was awarded the State Culture Prize of the Republic of Estonia). At present, the artist’s concert activity covers the countries of Europe (Germany, France, Italy, UK, Belgium, Netherlands), Latin America, Japan and the United States. Since 2000, Nikolay Alexeev has been the conductor of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra. The musician’s repertoire encompasses the Viennese classics, works by Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich. With Nikolay Alexeev, the orchestra has performed all Brahms symphonies, a number of works by Stravinsky and Prokofiev, and Mahler’s Eighth Symphony, entitled “Symphony of a Thousand”, “Gurrelieder“ by Schoenberg and “Turangalila-symphony“ by Messiaen. The conductor regularly introduces the audience to new compositions. He conducted the premiere performances of Tishchenko’s Second and Fifth “Dante Symphony“, Slonimsky’s Thirteenth Symphony, Korolev’s “Figure of Speech“ and “Heretic“, Korchmar’s “Royal Chants” as well as the Russian premieres of the First Symphony “The Triumph of Heaven” and “Wunderbare Leiden” by Borisova-Ollas, fantasy for piano and orchestra “Romeo and Juliet” by A. Warenberg, created on the basis of Rachmaninov’s Symphony No. 1, as well as the St Petersburg premieres of “Concerto Cantabile” by R. Shchedrin and the Violin Concerto No. 5 by Paganini.