Alexander Sitkovetsky
Violin

Artistic Director of the renowned NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra in Wrocław, Poland from the 2023/2024 season, Alexander Sitkovetsky was born in Moscow into a family with a well-established musical tradition. He made his concerto début at the age of eight, and in the same year moved to study at the Yehudi Menuhin School where he is now an Associate Artist. Menuhin was his inspiration throughout his school years, and they performed together on several occasions.

Following a three-year residency at the Lincoln Center in New York through the prestigious Bowers Program of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (CMS), Sitkovetsky received the Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award in 2016, and now retains a position on the CMS artist roster, making several visits annually to perform at the Center. Also an alumnus of the Royal Academy of Music in London and the Kronberg Academy, Germany, his outstanding talents as soloist, orchestra director and chamber musician have attracted accolades and many awards, including the BBC Music Magazine award for Chamber Music in 2022 with the Sitkovetsky Trio – of which he is a founding member – and 1st Prize at the 2011 Trio di Trieste International Chamber Music Competition alongside pianist Wu Qian.

As a soloist, Sitkovetsky is regularly invited to perform with orchestras touring the UK, in recent years including the Brussels Philharmonic, Tonkünstler-Orchester, Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra and St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra. Key concerto performances include appearances with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, The Hallé, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Welsh National Opera Orchestra, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, Residentie Orkest, European Union Chamber Orchestra, Moscow Symphony Orchestra, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Filarmónica de Bolivia, as well as with Gábor Takács-Nagy at Schloss Elmau as part of the Verbier Festival.

Sitkovetsky is much in demand as a director and has worked with Australian Chamber Orchestra, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra, London Mozart Players, Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, New York Chamber Players, Camerata Zürich, Norwegian Arctic Philharmonic and Romanian Sinfonietta. As a chamber musician, Sitkovetsky has performed at the Storioni Festival in the Netherlands, Stavanger Festival, Music for Galway and Schubertiade Festival in Austria.

Highlights in recent seasons include appearing as soloist with the Brno Philharmonic, Aarhus Symphony Orchestra and English Symphony Orchestra; as director with Camerata Salzburg, Royal Northern Sinfonia and Detmold Chamber Orchestra; and in chamber music performances with the Sitkovetsky Trio, Julia Fischer Quartet where he is a permanent member, and as a duo with pianist Wu Qian.

Sitkovetsky’s recordings have won great critical acclaim, notably his 2018 Chandos recording of Philip Sawyers’ Violin Concerto with the English Symphony Orchestra, and a CPO recording of Andrzej Panufnik’s Violin Concerto with the Konzerthausorchester Berlin to commemorate the composer’s 100th birthday, which won the ICMA Special Achievement Award.

Sitkovetsky plays the 1679 “Parera” Antonio Stradivari violin, kindly loaned to him through the Beare’s International Violin Society by a generous sponsor.