The Russian cellist Leonid Gorokhov (born in 1967, Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...

) studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatoire

Saint Petersburg Conservatory

The N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov Saint Petersburg State Conservatory is a music school in Saint Petersburg. In 2004, the conservatory had around 275 faculty members and 1,400 students.-History:...

 with Anatoli Nikitin and took part in masterclasses with Daniil Shafran

Daniil Shafran

-Early years:Daniil Shafran was born in Petrograd in 1923. Even from before his birth he was surrounded by music. His mother and father were music students when he was born. His father, Boris Shafran, went on to be principal cellist of the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra and his mother, Frida...

. Winner of Concertino Praga (First Prize) and Paris Chamber Music Competition (Premier Grand Prix), Leonid Gorokhov is the only Russian cellist to be awarded the Grand Prix and the First Prize of the Geneva Concours (1986). In 1995 the European Association for Encouragement of the Arts awarded the Cultural Achievement Prize to Leonid Gorokhov for exceptional talent and outstanding artistic accomplishment.

Performance and recording career

Leonid Gorokhov has a flourishing international career and, although based in London, often returns to his roots to perform in his home city of St. Petersburg.

In 1991, Leonid Gorokhov appeared as soloist with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic conducted by Lord Menuhin

Yehudi Menuhin

Yehudi Menuhin, Baron Menuhin, OM, KBE was a Russian Jewish American violinist and conductor who spent most of his performing career in the United Kingdom. He was born to Russian Jewish parents in the United States, but became a citizen of Switzerland in 1970, and of the United Kingdom in 1985...

; their strong musical rapport led to further concerto engagements with the Bergen

Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra

The Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra is one of the world's oldest orchestral institutions. It performs some 110 concerts a year, and is based at the 1,500-seat Grieg Hall in Bergen, Norway.-History:...

, Berlin & Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. It tours widely, and is sometimes referred to as "Britain's national orchestra"...

, English Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia and the Zurich Tonhalle

Tonhalle Orchester Zurich

Tonhalle Orchester Zürich is a symphony orchestra founded in 1868 in Zürich Switzerland, where it established its residence in the neue Tonhalle in 1895....

. In 1995, he made a triumphant return to Russia in performances of the Elgar Cello Concerto

Cello Concerto (Elgar)

Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85, his last notable work, is a cornerstone of the solo cello repertoire. Elgar composed it in the aftermath of the First World War, by which time his music had gone out of fashion with the concert-going public...

 with the Philharmonia Hungarica

Philharmonia Hungarica

The Philharmonia Hungarica was a symphony orchestra, based in Germany, which existed from 1956 to 2001.It was first established in Baden bei Wien near Vienna by Hungarian musicians who had fled their homeland after it was invaded by Soviet troops...

, again conducted by Lord Menuhin.

Apart from his work as a soloist, he is a founder member of the Hermitage String Trio (playing with Boris Garlitsky, violin, and Alexander Zemstov, viola) and plays regularly as a duo with the pianists Nikolai Demidenko

Nikolai Demidenko

Nikolai Demidenko is a Russian pianist.Demidenko studied at the Moscow Gnessin School with Anna Kantor and at the Moscow Conservatoire under Dmitri Bashkirov. Demidenko was a medallist at the 1976 Montreal International Piano Competition and the 1978 Tchaikovsky International Competition...

, Niklas Sivelov and Kathryn Stott

Kathryn Stott

Kathryn Stott is a British classical pianist who performs as a concerto soloist, recitalist and chamber musician. Her specialities include the English and French classical repertoire, contemporary classical music and the tango...

. Duo recitals have included the Båstad

Båstad

Båstad is a locality and the seat of Båstad Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden with 4,793 inhabitants in 2005.-Geography:The town of Båstad is located in a sheltered bay with the Hallandian ridge stretching behind it...

, Belfast

Belfast Festival at Queen's

The Ulster Bank Belfast Festival at Queen's is an annual arts festival held in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The 49th Festival will take place from 14 to 31 October 2011.-History:...

, Eilat Winter, Oslo Chamber Music and Petworth Festivals, Munich and Wigmore Hall

Wigmore Hall

Wigmore Hall is a leading international recital venue that specialises in hosting performances of chamber music and is best known for classical recitals of piano, song and instrumental music. It is located at 36 Wigmore Street, London, UK and was built to provide London with a venue that was both...

.

Recent engagements have included the Elgar concerto with the Enescu Philharmonic in Bucharest and the Walton Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra

Philharmonia Orchestra

The Philharmonia Orchestra is one of the leading orchestras in Great Britain, based in London. Since 1995, it has been based in the Royal Festival Hall. In Britain it is also the resident orchestra at De Montfort Hall, Leicester and the Corn Exchange, Bedford, as well as The Anvil, Basingstoke...

 in the UK. In Australia, his residence at the Townsville Festival found him playing a wide variety of chamber music; in Russia he has performed the rarely played Davidoff Concerto No 2 with the St. Petersburg Capella as well as concertos with the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra. He has appeared at the Athens Megaron and Bargemusic

Bargemusic

Bargemusic, formally known as Bargemusic, Ltd. is a classical music venue and cultural icon in Brooklyn, New York. Founded in 1977, it is housed on a converted coffee barge moored at Fulton Ferry Landing on the East River near the Brooklyn Bridge....

 New York as well as at many prestigious festivals such as Budapest Spring, Corinthian Summer, Davos

Davos

Davos is a municipality in the district of Prättigau/Davos in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland. It has a permanent population of 11,248 . Davos is located on the Landwasser River, in the Swiss Alps, between the Plessur and Albula Range...

, Evian, Gstaad, Harrogate, Interlaken, Kuhmo, Ljubljana, Munich, Perth (Scotland), Schleswig-Holstein

Schleswig-Holstein

Schleswig-Holstein is the northernmost of the sixteen states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Schleswig...

 and Spoleto.

He undertakes regular recital tours of Japan and has played concertos with the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra

Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra

The Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra is an orchestra in Thailand which was founded in 2004. It's under patronage of Royal Thai Government and Mahidol University. TPO's principal conductor is Gudni A. Emilsson and the music director is Associate Professor Sugree Charoensook, director of college of...

 and the Macau Chamber Orchestra. In Europe he has been invited to play with the Basel, BBC Scottish

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra is a broadcasting symphony orchestra based in Glasgow, Scotland. One of five full-time orchestras maintained by the British Broadcasting Corporation , it is the oldest full-time professional orchestra in Scotland...

, Berlin Radio, Biel-Bienne and Norrkoping

Norrköping Symphony Orchestra

Norrköping Symphony Orchestra is a Swedish professional symphony orchestra, based at the concert hall De Geerhallen, in the middle of Norrköping.-History:...

 Symphony Orchestras

Orchestra

An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...

; the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, Promusica Salzburg and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande

Orchestre de la Suisse Romande

The Orchestre de la Suisse Romande is a Swiss symphony orchestra, based in Geneva at the Victoria Hall...

.

Future engagements include the Brahms Double Concerto in Germany and Spain, a further tour of Japan, duo recitals in the UK with Kathryn Stott, and concerts with the Hermitage String Trio, including a concert at the Wigmore Hall.

Teaching

Leonid Gorokhov became a British Citizen

British nationality law

British nationality law is the law of the United Kingdom that concerns citizenship and other categories of British nationality. The law is complex because of the United Kingdom's former status as an imperial power.-History:...

 in 1998. He is a professor at the Guildhall School of Music

Guildhall School of Music and Drama

Guildhall School of Music and Drama is an independent music and dramatic arts school which was founded in 1880 in London, England. Students can pursue courses in Music, Opera, Drama and Technical Theatre Arts.-History:...

 and at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater, Hannover, Germany

Hanover

Hanover or Hannover, on the river Leine, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony , Germany and was once by personal union the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of Great Britain, under their title as the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg...

.

Discography

Leonid Gorokhov's discography includes recordings of Boccherini

Luigi Boccherini

Luigi Rodolfo Boccherini was an Italian classical era composer and cellist whose music retained a courtly and galante style while he matured somewhat apart from the major European musical centers. Boccherini is most widely known for one particular minuet from his String Quintet in E, Op. 11, No...

, Debussy

Claude Debussy

Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...

, Haydn

Joseph Haydn

Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...

, Kodaly

Zoltán Kodály

Zoltán Kodály was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. He is best known internationally as the creator of the Kodály Method.-Life:Born in Kecskemét, Kodály learned to play the violin as a child....

, Martinu

Bohuslav Martinu

Bohuslav Martinů was a prolific Czech composer of modern classical music. He was of Czech and Rumanian ancestry. Martinů wrote six symphonies, 15 operas, 14 ballet scores and a large body of orchestral, chamber, vocal and instrumental works. Martinů became a violinist in the Czech Philharmonic...

, Shostakovich

Dmitri Shostakovich

Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet Russian composer and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century....

, Tchaikovsky

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...

 and Tortelier

Paul Tortelier

Paul Tortelier was a French cellist and composer.Tortelier was born in Paris, the son of a cabinet maker with Breton roots. He was encouraged to play the cello by his father Joseph and mother Marguerite , and at 12 he entered the Paris Conservatoire. He studied the cello there with Gérard Hekking...

 for Melodiya

Melodiya

Melodiya is a Russian record label. It was the state-owned major record company/label of the Soviet Union.-History:It was established in 1964 as the "All-Union Gramophone Record Firm of the USSR Ministry of Culture Melodiya"...

. For Supraphon

Supraphon

Supraphon Music Publishing is a Czech record label, it is oriented mainly towards publishing classical music, with an emphasis on Czech and Slovak composers.- History :...

 he has recorded concertos by Martinu and Saint-Saens

Camille Saint-Saëns

Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns was a French Late-Romantic composer, organist, conductor, and pianist. He is known especially for The Carnival of the Animals, Danse macabre, Samson and Delilah, Piano Concerto No. 2, Cello Concerto No. 1, Havanaise, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, and his Symphony...

 with the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra

Brno Philharmonic Orchestra

Brno Philharmonic Orchestra is an orchestra based in Brno, the Czech Republic. Its predecessor was the Czech Symphony Orchestra, dating from the 1870's. The current Brno Philharmonic was formed in 1956 with the merger of the Radio Orchestra and the Brno Region Symphony Orchestra, with Břetislav...

 conducted by Lord Menuhin and an album of works by Prokofiev

Sergei Prokofiev

Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century...

, Shostakovich, and Stravinsky

Igor Stravinsky

Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....

. Rarely performed gems feature on "Russian Discoveries" on the Olympia label and "Virtuoso Cello Transcriptions" on Cello Classics. Leonid Gorokhov's first recording with Nikolai Demidenko was an all-Schubert

Franz Schubert

Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...

 album for the Munich-based AGPL label. This was followed by a recording of Schnittke

Alfred Schnittke

Alfred Schnittke ; November 24, 1934 – August 3, 1998) was a Russian and Soviet composer. Schnittke's early music shows the strong influence of Dmitri Shostakovich. He developed a polystylistic technique in works such as the epic First Symphony and First Concerto Grosso...

, Rachmaninov

Sergei Rachmaninoff

Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music...

 and Shostakovich Sonatas on ASV Gold

ASV Records

ASV Records is a London-based record label set up by Harley Usill, founder of Argo Records, Decca producer and former Argo General Manager, Kevin Daly, and producer Jack Boyce, after Argo's parent company Decca was bought by Polygram in 1980. ASV stands for "Academy Sound and Vision"...

.

External links

General Management: Aminah Domloge, Pro Artist