Alexander Rudin

Alexander Rudin is known as one of the most prominent musicians of the new generation. He is equally world famous as conductor, working with both symphony and chamber orchestras, music instructor – professor of the Moscow Conservatoire, researcher of the early music scores, and author of his own orchestra arrangements of chamber music, as well as unique thematic cycles. He belongs to the new era of Russian performers whose talent can be applied universally. Rudin stands out in a group of his truly professional colleagues for his extraordinary personality: he is talented in various aspects of musical performance, with all his talents creating a perfect balance. He strictly follows the direction he has chosen for himself, the path of creative ideas and experiments in a purely academic musical tradition. “Music cannot be brought down to simply something you create for entertainment. It does not exist solely for the audiences’ appreciation and applause,” believes Rudin. <>

Alexander Rudin received his degree in music (cello and piano) at the Gnesins’ Academy of Music (formerly known as the Gnesins’ State Musical and Pedagogical Institute) in Moscow in 1983. Mr. Rudin pursued his advanced conducting studies in the Moscow Conservatoire, and graduated in 1989. He studied music with Lev Evgrafov, Yuri Ponizovkin, and Dmitry Kitaenko.

When a student, he won the most prestigious European music competitions of the time: The J.S. Bach International Music Competition in Leipzig (1976), The Gaspar Cassado International Music Competition in Florence (1979), The Tchaikovsky Music Competition in Moscow (1978, 1982), giving a brilliant start to his artistic career. Today Alexander Rudin is one of the most popular musicians both in Russia and abroad. He performs with the most famous orchestras, and participates in prestigious international festivals.

Mr. Rudin has recorded over 30 CDs (both solo and with the Musica Viva Orchestra) on the leading Russian and foreign labels, such as Naxos, Olympia, Tudor, Melodia, Cello Classics, Russky Sezon, Russky Disk, RCD and others.

Alexander Rudin is the Honored Performer of Russia, Professor of the Moscow Conservatoire, the Laureate of the State Award, the Laureate of the Moscow Government Award, and Artistic Director and Conductor of the “Musica Viva” Chamber Orchestra.

Interest in less famous or even unknown music, and new interpretations of popular works, - is a combination typical for most of his concert programs. Thanks to his interest to the long-forgotten pages of the music history, the Moscow public heard some of the music pieces for the first time, such works as Overture on Russian Themes for the cello with orchestra by Davydov, Cello concertos of Kraft, Triklir, Facius, and Folkman. Together with the Musica Viva Chamber Orchestra he has been Artistic Director for since 1988, Rudin was the first who introduced the works of V.S. Bach, Salieri, Dussek, Dittersdorf, Kozlovsky and Pashkevich, Alyabyev, and others to the Moscow audience of the modern Russia.

A musician who received a very traditional education, Alexander Rudin was initially interested in authentic performances of ancient music, and gradually reached a perfect balance of different styles. In his present day performances, he combines modern instruments and viola da gamba, performs both in a traditional way, as well as uses his own, yet “historically-correct" interpretations of the classical pieces. This tradition of keeping the “authentic line” when working with the orchestra, resulted in cooperation with many world-known experts in this field. At Mr. Rudin’s invitation, the orchestra performed under the outstanding British conductors Christopher Hogwood and Roger Norrington (Sir Roger came to Musica viva twice in Russia).

Musica Viva is an orchestra with the highest level of performance, which is famous for its universal style, attracting the famous traditional musicians: Eliso Virsaladze, Nikolay Petrov, Natalia Gutman, Sergey Stadler, Alexander Melnikov have been working with conductor Rudin and his orchestra for a long time. The majority of Rudin’s repertoire is the works of modern composers Golovin, Silvestrov and Artemov. Mr. Rudin premiered several music works written for him, namely Schubert variations by Edison Denisov (he taught orchestration to Rudin) and “Eight Poems of Count Vasily Komarovsky” which he presented together with a soprano Mlada Khudoley, conducting the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra (the concert program also included rarely played Myaskovsky’s Third Symphony and Three Melodeclamations by Anton Arensky).

Alexander Rudin organized a series of chamber music performances “Musical Assemblies.” These concerts started to take place in late 80s in different halls of the State Tretyakov Gallery. This tradition developed into the international chamber music festival, which closes the Gallery’s music season.

Rudin’s career as an instructor is closely connected with the Moscow Conservatoire. A professor of the Conservatoire, he teaches the Chamber Ensemble class, as he believes that this way he will give his students more knowledge and skills, than simply instructing them in their specialization. Additionally, Mr. Rudin gives master classes all over the world, and collaborates with youth orchestras as a conductor (student orchestra of the Moscow Conservatoire, Yekaterinburg youth orchestra, etc.)

The musician has recorded over 30 CDs, among those are the recordings of Bach’s suites (Naxos label) and the cello concerto by N. Myaskovsky. His “Grieg Album” presents him to the audience not only as cellist and conductor, but as true master of orchestration. The CD includes the chamber music compositions arranged by Rudin in a very unique way. Among Rudin’s latest works are the CDs featuring the works by Alyabyev, Cherepnin, as well as a live performance – the recording of Beethoven’s Third Symphony and Kraft’s cello concerto from the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire.