Ignat Solzhenitsyn

Conductors

Manager: R. Douglas Sheldon, Denise A. Pineau
Management Territory: Worldwide

"...conductor laureate Ignat Solzhenitsyn (a much-seasoned Beethovenian) returned to conduct a smaller-scale, gently provocative performance that reminded you how seldom [Beethoven's] grandest symphony is heard with fine nuances ... " —David Patrick Stearns, The Philadelphia Inquirer, April 2013

“Solzhenitsyn coaxed the best playing of the season from any guest conductor, creating sharply drawn statements, allowing this mysterious but captivating music to fully emerge.” —Rick Walters, Milwaukee Shepherd Express, February 2013

Solzhenitsyn proved himself an interpreter of probing intellect as well as an avid risk-taker. —Thomas May, The Washington Post

About

Recognized as one of today's most gifted artists, and enjoying an active career as both conductor and pianist, Ignat Solzhenitsyn is both Principal Guest Conductor of the Moscow Symphony Orchestra and Conductor Laureate of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, which he served as Music Director for six seasons.

Having just turned 40, Maestro Solzhenitsyn is in demand as a guest conductor internationally, having led the Mariinsky Orchestra, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Moscow Philharmonic, the Moscow Symphony, the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie (Germany), and the Czech National Symphony (Prague) . . . .

In North America, he conducts the orchestras of Baltimore, Dallas, Seattle, Toronto, Buffalo, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Nashville, New Jersey, North Carolina, Phoenix, and Toledo, and has partnered with such world-renowned soloists as Richard Goode, Gary Graffman, Steven Isserlis, Leila Josefowicz, Sylvia McNair, Garrick Ohlsson, Mstislav Rostropovich, and Mitsuko Uchida.

Successful conducting débuts with the Bolshoi Orchestra, and the Mariinsky Opera's much-anticipated revival of Lady Macbeth, led to multiple re-engagements with both the Mariinsky Opera and Orchestra. Having conducted Bruckner Symphony No. 5 with the Mariinsky Orchestra in January 2013, Solzhenitsyn was invited by Valery Gergiev to join him in conducting some of the engagements during the Orchestra’s October 2013 North American tour.

Solzhenitsyn regularly returns to Philadelphia as Conductor Laureate of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, most recently playing and conducting Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 and leading the “Eroica” Symphony. He leads the orchestra in Beethoven Symphony No. 9 in the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts at the Kimmel Center in April 2013.

In recent seasons, his extensive touring as an internationally concertizing pianist has included concerto performances on the world’s major concert-hall stages with the orchestras of Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Los Angeles, Seattle, Baltimore, Washington, Montreal, Toronto, London, Paris, Israel, and Sydney, and collaborations with such distinguished conductors as Herbert Blomstedt, James Conlon, James DePreist, Charles Dutoit, Lawrence Foster, Valery Gergiev, Krzysztof Penderecki, André Previn, Mstislav Rostropovich, Gerard Schwarz, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Maxim Shostakovich, Yuri Temirkanov and David Zinman.

In addition to his recital appearances in the United States at New York’s 92nd Street Y, Philadelphia's Kimmel Center, St. Paul's Ordway Theatre, Ann Arbor’s Hill Auditorium, Salt Lake City’s Abravanel Hall, San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre, and many others from coast to coast, Mo. Solzhenitsyn has also given numerous recitals in Europe and the Far East in such major musical centers as London, Milan, Zurich, Moscow, Tokyo, and Sydney.

An avid chamber musician, Solzhenitsyn has collaborated with the Emerson, Borodin, Brentano, and St. Petersburg String Quartets, and in four-hand recital with Mitsuko Uchida. He has frequently appeared at international festivals, including Salzburg, Evian, Ludwigsburg, Caramoor, Ojai, Marlboro, Nizhniy Novgorod and Moscow’s famed December Evenings.

A winner of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, Ignat Solzhenitsyn serves on the piano faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music, and is both Piano Program Coordinator of the Tanglewood Music Center and a member of its Chamber Music Faculty. He has been featured on radio and television specials, including CBS Sunday Morning and ABC’s Nightline. Born in Moscow, Solzhenitsyn resides in New York City with his wife and three children.