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Juri Lebedev

“… An inspiring conductor who subtly senses the musical styles of different eras and embraces the traditions of two great conducting schools; a versatile and well-educated musician who discovers new composer names at contemporary music festivals; a talented teacher and musician who participates in radio and television music programmes; in successful cooperation with publishing companies like Universal Edition and Sikorski … “

Juri Lebedev is conductor of the State Symphony Orchestra of St. Petersburg and of Capella Symphony Orchestra of St. Petersburg, the honorable conductor of the Thuringian Youth Orchestra and the contemporary music ensemble in Weimar. He is also a permanent guest conductor of the Thuringian Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, actively collaborating with the Philharmonic Orchestras of Germany (Weimar, Leipzig, Neubrandenburg, Koblenz) and Russia (Krasnoyarsk, Volgograd, Saratov, Petrozavodsk).

Principal director of performances in theatres in Weimar, Erfurt, Hanover, Brandenburg and Putbus. Critics praise his work as a conductor in the theatres of Meiningen, Würzburg, Zwickau, Altenburg with the operas of K. Monteverdi, W. Mozart, D. Rossini, G. Donizetti, D. Verdi, R. Wagner, D. Shostakovich, M. Kagel and D. Glanert.

As a graduate of the boys’ choir school “M. I. Glinka”, Juri Lebedev continued his musical education, first at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in Choral and Symphonic Conducting, and then graduated with distinction from the “F. Liszt” Academy of Music in Weimar.

He studied conducting in St. Petersburg with Prof. A. Titov and then in Weimar with Prof. N. Pasquet and Prof. G. Kahlert.

He also studied with G. Abendrot, Prof. R. Reuter and A. G. Albrecht and was assistant to Prof. W.-D.Hauschild. He made his debut on the international stage in 1998 at the opera festival at the German National Theatre in Weimar with Benjamin Britten’s opera “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. The performance was awarded a prize under the Deutsche Bank event. “Yuri Lebedev on the conductor’s podium managed to convey an extremely rich atmosphere of musical sounds that can only be compared to the best interpretations of English orchestras,” wrote the “Thüringen Allgemeine”.

He subsequently received invitations to various theatres in Germany and France, including for performances of the operas by Monteverdi, Mozart, Rossini, Donizetti, Verdi, Wagner, Shostakovich, Kagel and Glanert. These interpretations showed his mastery of an enormous theatrical repertoire and his sensitive work with opera voices.

After Lebedev was awarded a diploma at Prokofiev’s 2nd conducting competition, he took his place as the youngest conductor in the history of the St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra. He performed in symphony concerts in the Great Hall of the Philharmonic and Kapella, as well as with the ballet ensemble of the Alexandria Theatre.

Together with an invitation to a position at the Meiningen Theatre, he received admission to the Franz Liszt School of Music Weimar. He took this as the occasion for his final move to Germany and the beginning of a new, extraordinarily creative career stage. Performances in the best concert halls in Germany and Europe were followed by performances with orchestras of the “Weimarer Landeskapelle” as well as with philharmonic and radio orchestras from Leipzig, Hamburg, Koblenz and Brandenburg. At the “St. Petersburg Dialogue Summit” he was given the opportunity to present Germany’s musical culture in the Brussels Parliament under his direction in a performance with the Thuringian Symphony Orchestra.

Not only the extensive symphonic repertoire of classical music, but also the premieres of new works by contemporary composers are an essential and important part of his work. Lebedev counts more than 50 world premieres of new pieces among the successes of his conducting activities. He is also a regular guest conductor at the Via Nova International Contemporary Music Festival in Weimar.

Lebedev attaches great importance to his work with youth orchestras. Under his direction, the orchestra of the High School of Music “Schloss Belvedere”, a school for highly gifted musicians in Weimar, won first place prize at an orchestra competition in Osnabrück. He also conducts the State Youth Orchestra of Thuringia, with which he performed works by Mahler, Strauss, Beethoven, Dukas and Mussorgski. With the Symphony Orchestra of the University of Leipzig he became a regular guest at the “Leipzig Gewandhaus”.

As a composer and arranger of works for symphony and string orchestras, jazz, pop and rock groups, Juri Lebedev has worked successfully with the Sikorski publishing house in Hamburg and Universal Edition in Vienna. The performance of Richard Wagner’s “Ring of the Nibelung”, which he wrote as an arrangement for 16 instrumentalists and soloists at the Erfurt State Theatre, was performed over three seasons and enjoyed great recognition and success.

“It was in no way a simplification of a bigger piece. Motives, accents, sonority, everything was there,” wrote one reporter. “I had completely forgotten that there is a greater composition behind it,” described another in the “Frankfurter Allgemeine”.

His successes also include the musical direction in the Festival of Contemporary Music in Weimar and Donaueschingen, concert appearances with the orchestras of Italy, Brussels and Hungary, and collaborations with the orchestras of Korea and Hong Kong. He teaches symphonic conducting at Germany’s oldest music institution and has recently received an invitation for a professorship at his native alma mater, the St. Petersburg Conservatory, with which he has been closely associated for more than ten years through his concert activities.