Teodor Currentzis
Encyclopedia
Teodor Currentzis is a Greek conductor
, musician and actor, who works in Russia
.
, and at the age of 4 began to take piano
lessons, after which, at the age 7, he began violin
lessons. He entered the National Conservatory, Athens
at the age of 12, in the violin department. In 1987, aged 25, he commenced studies of composition under Professor George Hadjinikos
, and then in 1989 under Professor B. Shreck, From 1994 till 1999 Currentzis studied conducting in the St. Petersburg State Conservatory
under the legendary professor Ilya Musin - the teacher of conductors Gergiev
, Temirkanov
, Bychkov and many others
, the largest opera theatre in the northern part of Russia, where he has founded the Musica Aeterna Ensemble and the New Siberian Singers Chamber Choir. Since February 2011 Currentzis is music director of the Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre
.
In 2006, he conducted young opera stars, including Alexey Kudrya
, in concert performances in Moscow
and Novosibirsk
to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth.
In 2009 he acted in the Ilya Khrzhanovsky
's movie Dau ( ) based on the biography of Lev Landau
, who was a winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics
.
three times:
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
, musician and actor, who works in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
.
Biography
Currentzis was born in AthensAthens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
, and at the age of 4 began to take piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
lessons, after which, at the age 7, he began violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
lessons. He entered the National Conservatory, Athens
National Conservatoire (Greece)
The Greek National Conservatoire was founded in Athens in 1926 by the composer Manolis Kalomiris and a number of other notable artists like Charikleia Kalomoiri, Marika Kotopouli, Dionysios Lavrangas, and Sophia Spanoudi...
at the age of 12, in the violin department. In 1987, aged 25, he commenced studies of composition under Professor George Hadjinikos
George Hadjinikos
George Hadjinikos . Distinguished piano soloist, conductor, teacher and author with an international career , having been given kudos from some of the greatest musical personalities in 20th-century music such as Dimitris Mitropoulos, Edwin Fischer, Carl Orff, Jean Françaix, Heinrich...
, and then in 1989 under Professor B. Shreck, From 1994 till 1999 Currentzis studied conducting in the St. Petersburg State Conservatory
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:...
under the legendary professor Ilya Musin - the teacher of conductors Gergiev
Valery Gergiev
Valery Abisalovich Gergiev is a Russian conductor and opera company director. He is general director and artistic director of the Mariinsky Theatre, principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, and artistic director of the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg.- Early life :Gergiev,...
, Temirkanov
Yuri Temirkanov
Yuri Khatuevich Temirkanov is a Russian conductor of Circassian origin.Yuri Temirkanov has been the Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic since 1988.-Early life:...
, Bychkov and many others
Career
From 2004 to 2010 Currentzis served as a principal conductor of the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet TheatreNovosibirsk opera and ballet theatre
Novosibirsk opera and ballet theatre is the most important theatre of Novosibirsk and Siberia. It was completed in February 1944, the first performance being held on May 12, 1945....
, the largest opera theatre in the northern part of Russia, where he has founded the Musica Aeterna Ensemble and the New Siberian Singers Chamber Choir. Since February 2011 Currentzis is music director of the Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre
Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre
The Perm Tchaikovsky Opera and Ballet Theatre is an opera and ballet theatre in the city of Perm in Russia. It is one of the oldest theatres in the country, and it has remained a major musical centre during its history, in which many significant art events have taken place...
.
In 2006, he conducted young opera stars, including Alexey Kudrya
Alexey Kudrya
Alexey Kudrya is a rising operatic lyric tenor star from Russia. According to Neue Stimmen, Alexey Kudrya grew up in a very musical family: His father, Vladimir Leonidovich Kudrya, is professor for music and his mother teaches the flute...
, in concert performances in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
and Novosibirsk
Novosibirsk
Novosibirsk is the third-largest city in Russia, after Moscow and Saint Petersburg, and the largest city of Siberia, with a population of 1,473,737 . It is the administrative center of Novosibirsk Oblast as well as of the Siberian Federal District...
to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth.
In 2009 he acted in the Ilya Khrzhanovsky
Ilya Khrzhanovsky
Ilya Andreevich Khrzhanovsky is a Russian film director. He is the son of Andrei Khrzhanovsky , one of the top Russian animation directors, and grandson of actor Yury Khrzhanovsky ....
's movie Dau ( ) based on the biography of Lev Landau
Lev Landau
Lev Davidovich Landau was a prominent Soviet physicist who made fundamental contributions to many areas of theoretical physics...
, who was a winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics
Nobel Prize in Physics
The Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded once a year by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895 and awarded since 1901; the others are the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Peace Prize, and...
.
Awards
Currentzis has won the National Theatre Award Golden MaskGolden Mask
The Golden Mask is a Russian theatre festival and the National Theatre Award established in 1994 by the Theatre Union of Russia. The award is given to productions in all genres of theatre art: drama, opera, ballet, operetta and musical, and puppet theatre. It presents the most significant...
three times:
- 2007: Special Awards of the Musical Theatre Jury for Sergei ProkofievSergei ProkofievSergei 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...
's CinderellaCinderella (Prokofiev)Cinderella is a ballet, Op. 87, composed by Sergei Prokofiev to a scenario by Nikolai Volkov. It is one of his most popular and melodious compositions, and has inspired a great many choreographers since its inception. The piece was composed between 1940 and 1944. Part way through writing it he...
. - 2008: Special Awards of the Musical Theatre Jury For Impressive Achievements in Musical Authenticity in Wolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
's Le Nozze di FigaroThe Marriage of FigaroLe nozze di Figaro, ossia la folle giornata , K. 492, is an opera buffa composed in 1786 in four acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, based on a stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro .Although the play by...
. - 2011: Best Director of an Opera for Alban BergAlban BergAlban Maria Johannes Berg was an Austrian composer. He was a member of the Second Viennese School with Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern, and produced compositions that combined Mahlerian Romanticism with a personal adaptation of Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique.-Early life:Berg was born in...
's WozzeckWozzeckWozzeck is the first opera by the Austrian composer Alban Berg. It was composed between 1914 and 1922 and first performed in 1925. The opera is based on the drama Woyzeck left incomplete by the German playwright Georg Büchner at his death. Berg attended the first production in Vienna of Büchner's...
at the Bolshoi Theater.
Works
- 2004/05 – Giuseppe VerdiGiuseppe VerdiGiuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
's AidaAidaAida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...
directed by Dmitry ChernyakovDmitry ChernyakovDmitry Chernyakov born May 11, 1970 in Moscow is Russian Theatre director, winner of multiple national Golden Mask theatre awards, is currently in great demand at the best European opera houses.-Biography:...
. - 2005/06 – concert performance and CD record of Henry PurcellHenry PurcellHenry Purcell – 21 November 1695), was an English organist and Baroque composer of secular and sacred music. Although Purcell incorporated Italian and French stylistic elements into his compositions, his legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music...
's Dido and AeneasDido and AeneasDido and Aeneas is an opera in a prologue and three acts by the English Baroque composer Henry Purcell to a libretto by Nahum Tate. The first known performance was at Josias Priest's girls' school in London no later than the summer of 1688. The story is based on Book IV of Virgil's Aeneid...
. - 2006/07 – MozartWolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
's Le Nozze di FigaroThe Marriage of FigaroLe nozze di Figaro, ossia la folle giornata , K. 492, is an opera buffa composed in 1786 in four acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, based on a stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro .Although the play by...
directed by Tatjana Gurbatch. - 2006/07 – Dmitri ShostakovichDmitri ShostakovichDmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet Russian composer and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century....
's Lady Macbeth of MtsenskLady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (opera)Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District is an opera in four acts by Dmitri Shostakovich, his Op.29. The libretto was written by Alexander Preis and the composer, and is based on the story Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District by Nikolai Leskov. The opera is sometimes referred to informally as Lady Macbeth...
directed by Henrich Baranovsky. - 2007 – Sergei ProkofievSergei ProkofievSergei 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...
's CinderellaCinderella (Prokofiev)Cinderella is a ballet, Op. 87, composed by Sergei Prokofiev to a scenario by Nikolai Volkov. It is one of his most popular and melodious compositions, and has inspired a great many choreographers since its inception. The piece was composed between 1940 and 1944. Part way through writing it he...
. - 2008/09 – Giuseppe VerdiGiuseppe VerdiGiuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
's MacbethMacbeth (opera)Macbeth is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi, with an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave and additions by Andrea Maffei, based on Shakespeare's play of the same name...
directed by Dmitry ChernyakovDmitry ChernyakovDmitry Chernyakov born May 11, 1970 in Moscow is Russian Theatre director, winner of multiple national Golden Mask theatre awards, is currently in great demand at the best European opera houses.-Biography:...
in Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet TheatreNovosibirsk opera and ballet theatreNovosibirsk opera and ballet theatre is the most important theatre of Novosibirsk and Siberia. It was completed in February 1944, the first performance being held on May 12, 1945....
and Opéra BastilleOpéra BastilleL'Opéra Bastille ' is a modern opera house in Paris, France. It is the home base of the Opéra national de Paris and was designed to replace the Palais Garnier, which is nowadays mainly used for ballet performances....
. - 2009/10 – Alban BergAlban BergAlban Maria Johannes Berg was an Austrian composer. He was a member of the Second Viennese School with Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern, and produced compositions that combined Mahlerian Romanticism with a personal adaptation of Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique.-Early life:Berg was born in...
's WozzeckWozzeckWozzeck is the first opera by the Austrian composer Alban Berg. It was composed between 1914 and 1922 and first performed in 1925. The opera is based on the drama Woyzeck left incomplete by the German playwright Georg Büchner at his death. Berg attended the first production in Vienna of Büchner's...
directed by Dmitry ChernyakovDmitry ChernyakovDmitry Chernyakov born May 11, 1970 in Moscow is Russian Theatre director, winner of multiple national Golden Mask theatre awards, is currently in great demand at the best European opera houses.-Biography:...
in Bolshoi TheatreBolshoi TheatreThe Bolshoi Theatre is a historic theatre in Moscow, Russia, designed by architect Joseph Bové, which holds performances of ballet and opera. The Bolshoi Ballet and Bolshoi Opera are amongst the oldest and most renowned ballet and opera companies in the world...
. - 2009/10 – MozartWolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
's Don GiovanniDon GiovanniDon Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
directed by Dmitry ChernyakovDmitry ChernyakovDmitry Chernyakov born May 11, 1970 in Moscow is Russian Theatre director, winner of multiple national Golden Mask theatre awards, is currently in great demand at the best European opera houses.-Biography:...
in Bolshoi TheatreBolshoi TheatreThe Bolshoi Theatre is a historic theatre in Moscow, Russia, designed by architect Joseph Bové, which holds performances of ballet and opera. The Bolshoi Ballet and Bolshoi Opera are amongst the oldest and most renowned ballet and opera companies in the world...
and Aix-en-Provence FestivalAix-en-Provence FestivalThe festival international d'art lyrique is an annual international music festival which takes place each summer in Aix-en-Provence, principally in the month of July. Devoted mainly to opera, it also includes concerts of orchestral, chamber, vocal and solo instrumental music.-Establishment:The...
. - 2010 – Alexei Siumak's The Requiem in the Moscow Art TheatreMoscow Art TheatreThe Moscow Art Theatre is a theatre company in Moscow that the seminal Russian theatre practitioner Constantin Stanislavski, together with the playwright and director Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, founded in 1898. It was conceived as a venue for naturalistic theatre, in contrast to the melodramas...
. - 2011 - MozartWolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
's Così fan tutteCosì fan tutteCosì fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti K. 588, is an opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first performed in 1790. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte....
in the Perm Opera and Ballet TheatrePerm Opera and Ballet TheatreThe Perm Tchaikovsky Opera and Ballet Theatre is an opera and ballet theatre in the city of Perm in Russia. It is one of the oldest theatres in the country, and it has remained a major musical centre during its history, in which many significant art events have taken place...
.