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Dmitry Sitkovetsky is an artist whose creativity defies categorising. He has built up an active and successful career as a violinist, conductor, arranger, chamber musician & festival director. Sitkovetsky has performed as a soloist with a number of the world’s leading orchestras including the Berlin, New York and LA Philharmonic Orchestras, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Concertgebouw Orchestra, all of the major London orchestras, NHK, Chicago, Philadelphia and Cleveland orchestras. He has performed at a number of high-profile festivals including Salzburg, Lucerne, Edinburgh, Verbier, Istanbul, Newport, Festival del Sole (Napa Valley) and the IMG Tuscan Sun Festival. In 2003, he was appointed Music Director of the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra, a position he currently holds with great success. In the 11/12 season, Sitkovetsky continues to work extensively throughout Europe and the USA with engagement highlights including concerto performances with the Concertgebouw Orchestra (Jansons/Britten), conducting the Zurich Chamber Orchestra and working with the Festival Strings Lucerne, Aarhus Symphony, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Tonkünstler Orchestra, Orchestra of the Opera North, Portland Symphony, Napa Valley Symphony, Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto and the Vaasa City Orchestra as part of the Korsholm Music Festival 30th anniversary.  He is coordinating some exciting chamber music projects

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Dmitry Sitkovetsky is an artist whose creativity defies categorising. He has built up an active and successful career as a violinist, conductor, arranger, chamber musician & festival director. Sitkovetsky has performed as a soloist with a number of the world’s leading orchestras including the Berlin, New York and LA Philharmonic Orchestras, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Concertgebouw Orchestra, all of the major London orchestras, NHK, Chicago, Philadelphia and Cleveland orchestras. He has performed at a number of high-profile festivals including Salzburg, Lucerne, Edinburgh, Verbier, Istanbul, Newport, Festival del Sole (Napa Valley) and the IMG Tuscan Sun Festival. In 2003, he was appointed Music Director of the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra, a position he currently holds with great success.

In the 11/12 season, Sitkovetsky continues to work extensively throughout Europe and the USA with engagement highlights including concerto performances with the Concertgebouw Orchestra (Jansons/Britten), conducting the Zurich Chamber Orchestra and working with the Festival Strings Lucerne, Aarhus Symphony, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Tonkünstler Orchestra, Orchestra of the Opera North, Portland Symphony, Napa Valley Symphony, Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto and the Vaasa City Orchestra as part of the Korsholm Music Festival 30th anniversary.  He is coordinating some exciting chamber music projects with King’s Place and the Lincoln Center over the next few seasons.

Recent engagement highlights included conducting the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony, China Philharmonic, Guangzhou Symphony, London Philharmonic Orchestra and San Francisco Symphony’s prestigious New Year’s Eve concert; concerto engagements included the Seattle Symphony (Inkinen/Britten) and the Royal Danish Opera Orchestra (Boder/Berg). Play/directing engagements  included the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony, Geidai Philharmonic, Württemberg Chamber Orchestra,  Symphony Orchestra of New Russia and the San Antonio Symphony.

Sitkovetsky has built a flourishing career as a conductor. From 1996–2001, he was Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Ulster Orchestra and then appointed Conductor Laureate, and from 2002–2005 held the position of Principal Guest Conductor of the Russian State Orchestra. From 2006–2009, he was the Artist-in-Residence at the Orquesta Sinfonica de Castilla y Leon (Spain) a position that involved conducting, solo playing, touring, chamber music and masterclasses. As a guest conductor, he has worked with leading orchestras including the London & Royal Philharmonic Orchestras, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, BBC, San Francisco, St. Louis, Seattle and Dallas Symphony Orchestras, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Santa Cecilia and the St Petersburg Philharmonic.

Sitkovetsky is the founding director of the New European Strings Chamber Orchestra (NES CO) established in 1990 which is comprised of distinguished string players from Eastern & Western Europe. Since his successful transcription of Bach’s Goldberg Variations for string trio and string orchestra, he has transcribed more than 40 works mostly for string orchestra by Haydn, Beethoven, Brahms, Dohnanyi, Bartók, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, Stravinsky and Schnittke. He has been a member of ASCAP since 1985 and his transcriptions are published by Doblinger, Sikorski and Schirmer.

Sitkovetsky was the Artistic Director of a number of 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 has worked with a diverse range of artists such as Argerich, Ashkenazy, Bashmet, Davidovich, Harrell, Kissin, Maisky, Ohlsson, Penderecki, Repin, Schnittke and Shchedrin. In May 2007, Sitkovetsky was the Artist-in-Residence at the Bodensee Festival in Germany where he performed a wide variety of activities: soloist, conductor, chamber musician, recitalist, masterclasses and conducted the NES 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 2010, Hänssler Classic released a boxed set of the complete Mozart Violin Sonatas with Antonio Pappano and Konstantin Lifschitz. The same label, recently released Sitkovetsky’s string orchestra transcriptions of works by Shostakovich and Stravinsky with the NES CO, as well as Piano Trios of Rodion Shchedrin and Peteris Vasks. On the Concertgebouw Live label, there was a release of Dutilleux’s L'Arbre des Songes with the Concertgebouw Orchestra and Mariss Jansons.

Sitkovetsky shows a keen interest in performing contemporary repertoire - he premiered the violin concerti written for him by John Casken (1995) and Krzystof Meyer (2000) and often performs works by Dutilleux, Penderecki, Schnittke, Pärt and 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. He also played a unique solo recital of contemporary music at the Verbier Festival in 2009 with a programme by Schedrin, Vasks, Auerbach and Ali-Zadeh.

Born in Baku, Azerbaijan, he grew up in Moscow studying at the Moscow Conservatory and after his emigration in 1977, at the Juilliard School in New York. Since 1987 he has resided in London with his wife, Susan, and their daughter, Julia.

 

Season 2011/12

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Photos

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Reviews

"Dmitry Sitkovetsky played the work for all it is worth, which is a great deal, despite its relative rarity in the concert repertoire. Intensity and precision constituted a potent pair of qualities, which, allied with his finely focused tone, resulted in a totally convincing and indeed moving musical experience."

www.seenandheard-international.com

"Not only is he a professional violinist, as demonstrated in this concert . . . he is an outstanding conductor, a creative programmer."

News & Record

"It is not very often that one hears any symphonic concert without a low spot. The Portland Symphony Orchestra, under guest conductor Dmitry Sitkovetsky, accomplished that feat Sunday afternoon at Merrill Auditorium, before a larger-than-usual audience […] The conductor's experience as a soloist and chamber music player was evident from the first note of the Overture to Rossini's "The Barber of Seville." The tempo was just right and the precision of entrances was outstanding. Sitkovetsky also is able to bring out individual voices without losing, indeed adding to, the overall effect of the music. The attention to detail was amazing. One instance of many was the tiny appoggiatura on the final chord, which I've never heard anywhere else. The performance transformed the old warhorse into a lively colt. "

The Portland Press Herald

"Auch das Interesse der Bonner...richtet sich erst mal suf den grandiosen Geiger Sitkovetsky, der mit Schuberts (originalem) A-Dur-Rondo D einen glanzvollen Höhepunkt markierte...Sitkovetsky het daran jedenfalls seinen Ruf als Dirigent bestätigt. Er is kein Armwedler, sondern beschränkt sich aufs Nötige. Das klang alles stark und eindrucksvoll."

Bonner Rundschau

"The biggest gift of the evening, however, came with the 'Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 15' of Benjamin Britten, played by Dmitry Sitkovetsky. Between the soloist's intensely focused sound and Inkinen's control of the brilliant orchestration, one could not hope for a more satisfying performance."

www.sgn.org

"…The account of the Goldberg Variations was the outstanding performance of the evening, testament both to the success of violinist Dmitry Sitkovetsky's arrangement for string orchestra and the quality of the Britten Sinfonia's playing. Sitkovetsky's arrangement demands impeccable ensemble, intonation and articulation; these were all delivered in an astonishing performance that preserved the delicate contrapuntal intricacy of Bach's original. The result was musically compelling as well as something of a virtuoso tour de force for the Britten Sinfonia strings"

The Guardian

"The Russian-born musician possesses authority, confidence and indefatigable fingers. He has a sound of single-minded beauty but one that is focused and penetrating. These traits served him well in Britten's First Violin Concerto. This is a work of considerable beauty coupled with dark melancholy. It is astringent and somber. Written when the composer was only in his 20s, on the eve of World War II, the concerto calls for maturity and a mercurial temperament. Those Sitkovetsky possesses to a major degree. He never played the bravura card and gave the work a luminous performance."

www.gatheringnote.org

"He made his violin sing with profound emotion and prodigious technique."

Star Tribune

"Das Orchester der Komischen Oper zeigt wie es geht: Dirigent Dimitry Sitkovetsky hat den Mut, musikalischen Ausdruck auch mal über die Form zu stellen. Das belebt, es beseelt diese Sinfonie: Im ersten Satz, in dem aller Klang frei atmen darf, ebenso wie im Andante, wenn Sitkovetsky die Melancholie fortwährend neu definiert. "

Der Tagesspiegel (Berlin)

"What made the evening special? First, it was the best playing I've ever heard from Sitkovetsky, who is known as a What made the evening special? First, it was the best playing I've ever heard from Sitkovetsky, who is known as a strong, bold, straight-ahead violinist with great technique and musicality. In this recital he was something considerably more: an artist of considerable subtlety who turned one arresting, ear-catching phrase after another. The very attractive program extended from two beloved classical-era standards - Beethoven's Sonata No. 1 in D Major, and Mozart's brief little G Major Sonata (K.501) - to the Ravel Violin Sonata and Prokofiev's Violin Sonata No. 2 in D Major. With each repertoire shift, Sitkovetsky retooled everything - style, articulations, phrasing, bowing - to make the strongest case for each sonata, with Lifschitz matching him phrase for phrase…. Sitkovetsky's tremendous bow control means that he can achieve just about anything on his instrument.What made the evening special? First, it was the best playing I've ever heard from Sitkovetsky, who is known as a strong, bold, straight-ahead violinist with great technique and musicality. In this recital he was something considerably more: an artist of considerable subtlety who turned one arresting, ear-catching phrase after another. The very attractive program extended from two beloved classical-era standards - Beethoven's Sonata No. 1 in D Major, and Mozart's brief little G Major Sonata (K.501) - to the Ravel Violin Sonata and Prokofiev's Violin Sonata No. 2 in D Major. With each repertoire shift, Sitkovetsky retooled everything - style, articulations, phrasing, bowing - to make the strongest case for each sonata, with Lifschitz matching him phrase for phrase…. Sitkovetsky's tremendous bow control means that he can achieve just about anything on his instrument. http://www.king.org/http://www.king.org/ 10strong, bold, straight-ahead violinist with great technique and musicality. In this recital he was something considerably more: an artist of considerable subtlety who turned one arresting, ear-catching phrase after another. The very attractive program extended from two beloved classical-era standards - Beethoven's Sonata No. 1 in D Major, and Mozart's brief little G Major Sonata (K.501) - to the Ravel Violin Sonata and Prokofiev's Violin Sonata No. 2 in D Major. With each repertoire shift, Sitkovetsky retooled everything - style, articulations, phrasing, bowing - to make the strongest case for each sonata, with Lifschitz matching him phrase for phrase…. Sitkovetsky's tremendous bow control means that he can achieve just about anything on his instrument."

http://www.king.org/

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Discography