Alexander Vedernikov

Alexander Alexandrovich Vedernikov (Александр Александрович Ведерников) (11 January 1964 – 30 October 2020) was a Russian conductor. He was music director of the Bolshoi Theatre from 2001 to 2009.

He worked internationally at major opera houses and made recordings, with a focus of Russian composers.

Biography

Born in Moscow, Vedernikov was the son of the bass Alexander Filipovich Vedernikov, who sang at the Bolshoi Theatre, and of Natalia Nikolaevna Gureeva, who was a professor of organ at the Moscow Conservatory. Vedernikov graduated from that in 1988, where he studied with Leonid Nikolaev and also took classes from Mark Ermler. He worked as a conductor in the Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theatre from 1988 to 1991. He was also an assistant conductor to Vladimir Fedoseyev at the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow Radio from 1988 to 1995. In 1995, he established the Russian Philharmonia Symphony Orchestra and served as its artistic director and chief conductor until 2004.

Vedernikov became music director of the Bolshoi Theatre in 2001. He had a contract with the company until 2010, but in July 2009 resigned on the first day of the theater's summer tour, citing disagreements with its management.

Vedernikov made his Covent Garden debut in 1996, where he conducted Prokofiev's Cinderella and Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. He conducted at the Komische Oper Berlin Smetana's Die verkaufte Braut, Tchaikovsky's Pique Dame, Salome by Richard Strauss and Janacek's Das schlaue Füchslein. At the Paris Opera, he conducted Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov in 2005, directed by Francesca Zambello. He led Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin in 2011. He conducted a double bill of Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana and Leoncavollo's Pagliacci at the Opernhaus Zürich in 2011, and made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, again with Eugene Onegin.

He became chief conductor of the Odense Symphony Orchestra in 2009, with an initial three-year contract, which was extended to 2014. 

In November 2016 the Royal Danish Opera (Det Kongelige Kapel) announced Vedernikov's appointment as its next chief conductor, effective from the 2017–2018 season. Vedernikov concluded his Odense tenure in 2018. In February 2019, he became music director and principal conductor of the Mikhailovsky Theatre.

He died on 30 October 2020 due to COVID-19.

Recordings

Vedernikov recorded commercially for such labels as Pentatone, Hyperion and Naive.

• Glinka: Ruslan and Lyudmila
• Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov
• Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker
• DVD: Rimsky-Korsakov: The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh - Mikhail Kazakov, Vitaly Panfilov, Tatiana Monogarova, Mikhail Gubsky, Albert Schagidullin, Alexander Naumenko. Orchestra e Coro del Teatro Lirico di Cagliari; Alexander Vedernikov, conductor; Eimuntas Nekrošius, director. 2010