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The Russian violinist, conductor and arranger, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, was born in Baku, Azerbaijan, and grew up in Moscow studying at the Moscow Conservatory and after his emigration in 1977, at the Juilliard School in New York.
Dmitry Sitkovetsky has performed as soloist with a number of the world’s leading orchestras including the Berliner Philharmoniker, New York Philharmonic Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Philharmonia Orchestra (London), London Symphony Orchestra, NHK Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra and Cleveland Orchestra. He has performed at a number of high-profile festivals including Salzburg, Lucerne, Edinburgh, Verbier, Istanbul and the Georges Enescu festival as well as being a founding artist of the IMG Tuscan Sun Festival since 2003.
Dmitry Sitkovetsky has built a flourishing career as a conductor. In 1996, he was appointed Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Ulster Orchestra for five years, in 2001, was appointed Conductor Laureate, and from 2002-2005 held the position of Principal Guest Conductor of the Russian State Orchestra. In 2003, Sitkovetsky was appointed Music Director of the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra, and in 2006, named Artist-in-Residence of the Orquesta Sinfonica de Castilla y Leon (Spain), positions he still holds. In Spain, the position involves orchestral touring, conducting, playing as a soloist and in chamber music as well as giving master-classes. As a guest conductor, he has worked with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris and St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra.
Dmitry itkovetsky is also the founding director of the New European Strings Chamber Orchestra (NES CO), founded in 1990, which is composed of distinguished string players from Eastern & Western Europe. Since his successful transcription of J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations (BWV 988) for string trio, he has transcribed more than 30 works mostly for string orchestra by Haydn, L.v. Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Dohnanyi, Béla Bartók, Tchaikovsky, Dmitri Shostakovich, Igor Stravinsky and Schnittke. He has been a member of ASCAP since 1985 and his transcriptions are published by Doblinger, Sikorski and Schirmer.
Between 1983 and 2002 Dmitry Sitkovetsky was the Artistic Director of a number of music festivals including the Korsholm Music Festival in Finland (1983-1993 and 2002), Seattle International Music Festival (1992-1997), "The Silk Route of Music" Festival in Baku, Azerbaijan (1999) and worked with a diverse range of artists such as Martha Argerich, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Bashmet, Davidovich, Lynn Harrell, Evgeny Kissin, Mischa Maisky, Garrick Ohlsson, Penderecki, Repin, Schnittke and Rodion Shchedrin. In May 2007, Sitkovetsky was the Artist-in-Residence at the Bodensee Festival in Germany where he performed the J. Brahms Concerto with the SWR Orchestra, conducted the Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie, played a chamber concert with Gary Hoffman & Konstantin Lifschitz, played solo Bach recitals, gave master-classes and had the New European Strings Chamber Orchestra in residence. He has an active and varied recording career with an extensive discography which includes all the major violin concerti, numerous chamber music works as well as orchestral recordings that he’s conducted. In the spring of 2005, a new CD with his string orchestra transcriptions of works by D. Shostakovich and I. Stravinsky was released by Hänssler Records with the New European Strings Chamber Orchestra. In 2006, Hänssler released a recording of Trios by D. Shostakovich and Mieczyslaw Weinberg with David Geringas and Jascha Nemtsov as well as the first recording of the complete W.A. Mozart Violin Sonatas with Antonio Pappano. Recent releases include W.A. Mozart’s Violin Sonatas Vol. 2 with Konstantin Lifschitz, Piano Trios of Rodion Shchedrin and Peteris Vasks (Hänssler) and his most recent concerto release is Henri Dutilleux’s L'Arbre des Songes with the Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam and Mariss Jansons (Concertgebouw Live).
Dmitry Sitkovetsky’s increasing involvement in contemporary music shows a keen interest in performing new repertoire. He premiered the violin concerti written for him by John Casken (1995) and Krzystof Meyer (2000) and often performs works by H. Dutilleux, Penderecki, Schnittke, Arvo Pärt and Rodion Shchedrin who has written several works for Sitkovetsky both as violinist and conductor. In 2005, he performed two major works by John Corigliano - his Second Symphony and the Red Violin Suite in a play/conduct concert. Sitkovetsky’s latest premiere was The Gifts of the Magi written by Jakov Jakoulov after O’Henry’s famous story and narrated by Peter Coyote with the Greensboro Symphony.
Recent engagements included conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Orchestre National de Lille, Tonkünstler Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, as well as the UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra in Italy and on tour in South America. Concerto engagements included the Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, Wiener Symphoniker, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the NHK Symphony Orchestra. Future engagements in the 2008-2009 season include play/conducting engagements with the Berlin Komische Oper orchestra, return invitations to the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris and Orchestre National de Lille as well as the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra; concerto performances with the Berliner Symphoniker, Philharmoniker Hamburg, Tenerife Symphony and recitals in Seattle (with Bella Davidovich), Brussels, Seville, Cape Town (with Konstantin Lifschitz), London (Wigmore Hall: Mstislav Rostropovich tribute) and a special recital of new music at the Verbier Festival.
Since 1987 Dmitry Sitkovetsky has resided in London with his wife, Susan, and their daughter, Julia. |
