Alexander Alexeev (1938-2020) *82

was a Russian conductor and Honored Artist of the RSFSR.

Alexeev was born in Belkovo (Novgorod Oblast), Russia. From 1957 to 1966 he studied choral and symphonic conducting (with K. A. Olchova and Edouard Grikurov) at the Leningrad Conservatory, and 1971-1972, after being selected by cultural authorities in Moscow and Leningrad, as one of very few Russian conductors like Mariss Jansons, selected as a postgraduate student of Hans Swarowsky at the Vienna Music Academy.

Hans Swarowsky teaching and conducting in Ossiach (1972). Alexander Alexeev to his left. He held first positions as conductor at the Ulyanovsk State Symphony Orchestra, the Leningrad State Academic Maly Opera Theatre (today Mikhailovsky Theatre), as well as the Chelyabinsk State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre, before becoming Music Director of the Ulyanovsk State Symphony Orchestra. After two years at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow (1982–84), Alexeev, who never joined the communist party, was declined[clarification needed] to accept an offer to serve as Music Director of the Finnish Radio Orchestra in Helsinki, and had to stay in the Soviet Union, where he worked until 1992 as Music Director of the Kharkov Philharmonic Orchestra. Alexeev recorded with different orchestras in Russia for the label Melodya, including the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra, as well performed regularly with leading musicians of the Soviet Union like Gidon Kremer, Oleg Kagan, Vadim Repin, Yuri Bashmet, David Geringas, Natalia Gutman, Dmitri Alexeev, Mikhail Pletnev, Grigory Sokolov, and Dmitri Bashkirov.

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