ALEXANDER DMITRIEV

The Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Academic Symphony Orchestra of St Petersburg, Alexander Dmitriev, was born in a family of native residents of St Petersburg, where his father had worked in the E. Mravinsky’s orchestra for more than 30 years. He graduated from the Leningrad Conservatory as a choral conductor (Class of E. Kudryavtseva) and as a theorist (class of Y. Tyulin), after which the musician continued his studies in graduate school (class of N.Rabinovich in symphonic conducting). For 10 years (1961-1971), he led the Symphony Orchestra of the Karelian Radio and Television. During this period, he won the II All-Union Conductors’ Competition (1966), completed an internship at the Vienna Academy of Music and Performing Arts under the guidance of H.Swarovsky and K. Österreicher and then, at the invitation of E. Mravinsky, continued with the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra and toured in Poland, Romania and Japan.

In addition, he performed with the orchestras of the GDR (Staatskapelle and Opera in Berlin, the Dresden (Saxony) Staatskapelle, as well as France, Spain, Belgium and Luxembourg. During 1971-1977, he was the Chief Conductor of the Leningrad Maly Theatre of Opera and Ballet (Mikhailovsky Theatre now). He was the first in the country to stage “Iphigenia in Aulis” and “Iphigenia in Tauris” by Gluck, “The Clever One” (“Die Kluge”) by Orff and – in collaboration with the director, Y. Lyubimov, and choreographer, O. Vinogradov – Tishchenko’s ballet “Yaroslavna” (1974). During 1990-1998 he led the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra in Norway.

Since 1977, Alexander Dmitriev has held the post of Chief Conductor of the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra. He led the St. Petersburg premiere performances of Händel, Mahler, Debussy, Ravel, Scriabin and Leningrad-St.Petersburg composers. The artist’s repertoire includes all the symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich and Schubert, and almost all orchestral works by Prokofiev, Mahler, Scriabin, Ravel, Sibelius, as well as Requiems by Mozart and Verdi, many new and latest opus.

With customary success, the musician and his orchestra have toured abroad (the event of the 2015-2016 season was the first trip to Israel).

This season’s program is a balanced mix of domestic and foreign classics. This includes an evening of Viennese music of different eras (Haydn, Schubert, Webern), and a colorful program of works by Glinka, Rachmaninoff and Shostakovich, concert-dialogues “Tragic” and “Fantastic” symphonies by Schubert and Berlioz, works by Dvorak and Grieg as well as a concert – “Italian experience” – from a combined series of the Grand Hall of the Philharmonic and the Hermitage. Among the conductor’s invited soloists are pianists B. Douglas, V. Feltsman, violinist S. Chang and The First Prize winner of the International Award Tchaikovsky Competition – cellist A. Ionita.

Alexander Dmitriev is a Professor of the St Petersburg Conservatory (among his students were V. Altshuler, A. Anikhanov, A. Steinlucht, A. Boreyko, D. Rusu). He is an Honored People’s Artist of the USSR, laureate of the State Prize of Russia, holder of the Order of Merit “For Services to the Fatherland” IV degree.