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 Cultivating Westchester since 1951  |
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Eugene Sirotkine ~ Our Conductor & Music Director
Conductor Eugene Sirotkine is fast becoming recognized
as
one of the most promising young talents in his field
The San Francisco Chronicle, on the occasion of Mr. Sirotkine’s 1997 performance of Beethoven’s Second Symphony noted, “Sirotkine’s passionate approach to music-making spoke to members of the audience and orchestra. I felt he understood the music better than others.” Nearly a decade later, the Cape Times of South Africa opined, “Sirotkine demonstrated empathy for the onstage singing, crafting an accompaniment that was pleasingly sensitive and well-balanced. In particular, the subtleties of coloration, present in the score but not always realized in performance, were faithfully reproduced as exemplified by the delicacy of the La Fumée women’s chorus.” These notices are a window into the uniquely contemporary and passionate style Sirotkine has developed as a young and rising international conductor.
Born in Soviet Russia, Eugene Sirotkine, like many of his contemporaries, applied himself to the arts, in this case to music, as a means of gaining a future that would distinguish him from the urban proletariat. He started studying piano privately at six and within a year, gained acceptance into the Glinka Choir College, a boy’s music school with a very unique status in Russia.
Sirotkine spent eleven years at Glinka, receiving choral training combined with an all-encompassing music and general education. Upon graduation, he enrolled into the distinguished St. Petersburg Conservatory, where he advanced his choral and orchestral conducting studies. He next won first prize at the Riga International Conducting Competition in Latvia. A career on the rise, his debut as a conductor came in 1989 with the Latvian Philharmonic in St.Petersburg soon after which he immigrated to the United States in 1991. Sirotkine continued his education, enrolling in the Oberlin Conservatory, where he received advanced degrees in Organ Performance, and the Mannes College of Music in New York, where he earned an advanced degree in Conducting.
Now a full-fledged professional, Sirotkine wanted to make his mark in New York. He created his own opportunities by founding the New York Metamorphoses Orchestra (NYMO) in 1994. In its first year, the orchestra was prolific, performing eight concerts. Two years later Metamorphoses produced its first CD in 1996. It followed with a two-week season, collaborating with the Paul Taylor Dance Company at the New York City Center and the Kennedy Center Orchestra at Kennedy Center, Washington, DC.
In 1998 Sirotkine was chosen as conductor and music director of the Hudson Valley Singers, an 80-member choral group that was founded in 1951. He continues in this position and with his current positions at the New York Metropolitan Opera, where he began his first engagement as an assistant conductor in 1999.
Sirotkine has numerous orchestral and choral conducting collaborations to his credit, both in the U.S. and abroad. These include conducting the Hong Kong Philharmonic and Olga Borodina; the Orquesta Sinfónica UNCuyo in Mendoza, Argentina; Conductor and Vocal Coach at Israeli Vocal Arts Institute; Assistant Conductor, Glyndebourne Opera Festival, England; the Orquestra Sinfônica Nacional in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; the Orquesta Filarmónica del Valle del Cauca in Cali, Colombia; and the Washington Opera.
He earned the outstanding opportunity in 2005 to debut with the Cape Philharmonic and the Cape Town Opera, conducting a magnificent production of “Carmen.” He has collaborated with noted performers including Felicity Palmer, Alessandro Corbelli, Sergei Leiferkus, Placido Domingo, Olga Borodina, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, and Renata Scotto.
Sirotkine reveals that he takes his inspiration from two great composers, Berlioz and Bartok and is most proud of his abilities to deftly handle a trio of unique, yet overlapping disciplines -- conducting opera, orchestras and choruses. Next for Sirotkine is preparing the Hudson Valley Singers for the New York City performance of “Das Paradis und die Peri.” This rarely staged piece by Schumann will debut at the New York Society for Ethical Culture on April 26, 2008. When last performed in the United States under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra, Rattle described this obscure work as “so beautiful that the music becomes unbearable.”
In March 2009, Sirotkine is set to define his 35 years as a scholar, teacher and conductor on the world’s stage, performing a major work at Carnegie Hall.
Press Agent Contact
Frances Edwards
Launch SCS
frances@launchscs.com
201.445.4067 - 201.674.9468 cell
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