Alexander Vedernikov
Music Director and Chief Conductor
Biography
Born in Moscow, into a musical family: his father was the bass, Alexander Vedernikov, Bolshoi Theatre soloist, and his mother, Moscow Conservatoire professor, organist Natalia Gureyeva. In 1988, he graduated from the Moscow Conservatoire (Professor Ltonid Nikolayev’s class) and, in1990, he completed his postgraduate studies there.
From 1988-90, he worked at Moscow’s Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theatre. From 1988-95, he was assistant to the chief conductor and second conductor of Gosteleradio’s Bolshoi Symphony Orchestra, with which he went on many tours of Russian cities and also to Austria, Germany, Greece, Turkey and Great Britain.
From 1995-2004, he was artistic director and chief conductor of the Russian Philharmonia Symphony Orchestra which he founded.
He has conducted Russia’s State Symphony Orchestra and the Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Sankt-Peterburg State Philharmonia (a merited collective of Russia).
As guest conductor, he has appeared with such well known foreign orchestras as London’s Royal Phiharmonia, the Philharmonic Orchestras of Tokyo, London, Bergen, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Dresden State Capella, the RAI National Orchestra (Turin), the Royal Symphony Orchestra of Danish Radio, the Symphony Orchestras of Montreal, the Hague, Budapest, Sidney, the Orchestra of the Teatro Colon.
He was the Groningen Symphony Orchestra’s (Netherlands) first guest conductor.
Since 2003, he has been a member of the conductors’ board of the Russian National Orchestra, with which he has toured in France, Germany and the United States.
In January 2004, as part of the Russian National Orchestra’s tour of nine USA Cities, Alexander Vedernikov made his debut at the Carnegie Hall, New York, and the Kennedy Centre, Washington.
Alexander Vedernikov has appeared as guest conductor at leading opera houses, including La Scala, Teatro Reggio, in Turin, the Teatro Communale, in Bologna, the Teatro La Fenice, in Venice, Rome Opera, London’s Royal Opera.
In April, 2005, as music director of a new production of Boris Godunov (director Francesco Zambello), he made his debut at Paris National Opera (Opera Bastille).
Among the soloists and musicians with whom he has worked are Lisa Leonskaya, Nikolai Lugansky, Mikhail Pletnev, Vadim Repin, Yuri Bashmet, Natalia Gutman, Mstislav Rostropovich, Yelena Obraztsova, Sergei Leiferkus, Galina Gorchakova, Vladimir Chernov, Olga Borodina.
At the Bolshoi Theatre
In August, 2001, Alexander Vedernikov was appointed music director and chief conductor of the Bolshoi Theatre. At the Theatre he has conducted the following productions: Adriana Lecouvreur (2002, 1st Bolshoi Theatre production), Khovanshchina (2002), Turandot (2002), Glinka’s Ruslan and Ludmila (in the original authorial version, 2003), Prokofiev’s The Fiery Angel (2004, 1st Bolshoi Theatre production) and The Flying Dutchman (2004, 1st Russian performance of first version of opera).
In the 2004/05 season, he conducted Falstaff and Leonid Desyatnikov’s The Children of Rosenthal (world premiere, opera commissioned by the Bolshoi Theatre).
In the 2005/6 season, he conducted Prokofiev’s War and Peace and was music director of the Prokofiev ballet Cinderella.
Since Alexander Vedernikov joined the Company, the Bolshoi Theatre has developed an active concert program, both in its own theatres, mainly at its New Stage, and at the country’s chief concert hall - the Big Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire. In the 2005/6 season, a joint season ticket system for the Theatre and the Moscow State Philharmonia was initiated for concerts to take place at the Big Hall of the Conservatoire. The following are among the works conducted by Alexander Vedernikov under the aegis of the Bolshoi Theatre (with, or without, the participation of guest soloists): Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust, Verdi’s Requiem, Scenes from the operas of Wagner, the music of Richard Strauss, Alban Berg, Dmitry Shostakovich, Georgy Sviridov.
Discography
The conductor has extensive compact disc recordings issued by Russian Disk, Agora, ARTS, Triton, Polygram/Universal.
In 2003, he signed a long term, exclusive contract with the Dutch firm, PentaTone Classics, which specializes in the production of SuperAudio CD discs.
Already available on the PentaTone Classics label are:
2003 - Gordon Getty’s Joan and the Bells cantata/ Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet ballet, Suite No 2, Russian National Orchestra, soloists Lisa Delan and Vladimir Chernov;
2004 - Ruslan and Ludmila, "live" recording of Bolshoi Theatre performance;
2004 - Russian Ballet Suites (Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, Khachaturyan’s Spartacus, Shostakovich’s Bolt), Russian National Orchestra.
"Vedernikov is, without doubt, a conductor who should be kept in one’s field of vision. He knows how to make the listener quiver and achieves all possible nuances and semitones from the orchestra, the recording is simply marvelous". (International Record Reviews on the Joan and the Bells/Romeo and Juliet disc, September 2003.