Lazarev, Alexander
Lazarev, Alexander
Lazarev, Alexander, Russian conductor; b. Moscow, July 5, 1945. He was trained in Moscow at the Central Music School and at the Cons., and at the Leningrad Cons. In 1971 he took first prize in the Moscow Young Conductors Competition, and then was a prizewinner at the Herbert von Karajan competition in Berlin in 1972. In 1973 he became a conductor at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, where he founded the Ensemble of Soloists in 1978 to further the performance of contemporary music. He appeared as both an opera and sym. conductor throughout Europe. From 1987 to 1995 he was chief conductor of the Bolshoi Theater. From 1988 to 1993 he was Generalmusikdirektor of the Duisburg Sym. Orch. From 1992 he was also principal guest conductor of the BBC Sym. Orch. in London.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire