Alexander Sitkovetsky
Violin

Alexander Sitkovetsky was recently announced as the Artistic Director of the renowned NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra Wroclaw, Poland, taking up his position from the 2023-24 season.

Alexander was born in Moscow into a family with a well-established musical tradition. He made his concerto debut at the age of eight, and the same year moved to study at the Yehudi Menuhin School where he is now an Associate Artist. Lord 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), in 2016 Alexander received the Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award, 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 won many awards, including 1st prize at the 2011 Trio di Trieste Duo Competition alongside pianist Wu Qian, and he is now increasingly in demand worldwide across multiple roles.

As a soloist he is regularly invited to guest with orchestras touring the UK, in recent years including the Brussels Philharmonic, Tonkünstler Orchester Vienna, Russian Philharmonic Novosibirsk, St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra.

Key concerto performances include appearances with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Konzerthaus Orchester Berlin, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, European Union Chamber Orchestra, Halle Orchestra, Academy of St. Martin’s in the Fields, Moscow Symphony Orchestra, St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Filarmónica de Bolivia, National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Russian State Philharmonic Orchestra, Residentie Orkest The Hague, Welsh National Opera Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, London Philharmonic Orchestra and Philharmonia Orchestra.

He is much in demand as a director and has worked with Australian Chamber Orchestra, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Liszt Chamber Orchestra, London Mozart Players, Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, New York Chamber Players, Camerata Zurich, Arctic Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra and the Romanian Sinfonietta.

The forthcoming season 2023-24 sees Alexander establish the first season of his artistic directorship in Wroclaw with 5 projects with the NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra, Wroclaw as well as various tours. He will also return as soloist to Brno Philharmonic, Aarhus Symphony Orchestra and English Symphony Orchestra, and will direct the Salzburg Camerata, the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, the Camerata Novi Sad and the Romanian Sinfonietta. He will appear internationally in chamber music performances with the Sitkovetsky Trio, Julia Fischer Quartet and as a duo with pianist Wu Qian.

During the recent season 2022-23, Alexander gave concerto performances with Brno Philharmonic Orchestra, Czech Republic, returned to Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and Chattanooga Symphony, and also debuted as soloist/director with the Royal Northern Sinfonia, and Liszt Chamber Orchestra, Budapest. He returned as director to the Romania Sinfonietta, Detmold Chamber Orchestra and NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra, Wroclaw. As a chamber musician, he performed regularly at the CMS of Lincoln Center New York, and at the Storioni Festival in the Netherlands, Stavanger Festival and Music for Galway, and his summer tour of European festivals included Denmark, Italy, and the Schubertiade Festival in Austria. In December 2022 he performed the Bruch Concerto under Gábor Takács-Nagy Verbier Festival at Schloss Elmau.

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

Alexander is a founding member of the award-winning Sitkovetsky Trio with whom he has performed worldwide. The Trio won the BBC Music Magazine award for Chamber Music in 2022. He also tours regularly as a permanent member of the Julia Fischer string quartet.

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