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Makris Music Society

makris music society

London

Alexander Polyanichko, an internationally renowned conductor and educator regularly leads conducting masterclasses in cooperation with organizations such as Peter the Great Music Academy, Royal Baltic Festival, Hermitage Theatre, and St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic. A graduate of the Leningrad State Conservatory and the former student and assistant of the eminent conductor and pedagogue Ilya Musin (whose students were Yuri Temirkanov, Semyon Bychkov, and Valery Gergiev, among others), maestro Polyanichko has been one of Musin’s biggest proponents, carrying the great tradition of the St. Petersburg school of conducting. Maestro Polyanichko’s artistry, knowledge, his genuine willingness to share his experiences, his sense of humour, as well as his friendly and respectful manner of communication create a free exchange of ideas and a spirit of collaboration, while he and his students search for ways to resolve emerging issues related to the mastery of conducting, in a comfortable and productive masterclass atmosphere. Masterclasses traditionally consist of two parts: First Part, where the music conducted is being accompanied by two experienced pianists; and the Second Part where the students have the opportunity to work with a professional symphony orchestra. The dress rehearsal preceding the concert is where the conductors have a full assestment of their skills, as well as the final public concert (professionally recorded) as the culmination of the masterclass. During his twenty or so years of teaching at masterclasses, aestro MAlexander Polyanichko has worked with conductors from countries around the world including Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Oman, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Serbia, Turkey, United Kingdom and the United States of America. His students have consistently expressed their appreciation on his pedagogical skills and the masterclasses, and have gone to conduct many successful performances of their own in their respective countries and beyond. Formerly a violinist in the Leningrad (St. Petersburg) Philharmonic Orchestra under Evgeny Mravinsky, Alexander Polianichko studied conducting at the St. Petersburg Conservatoire with Prof. Iliya Musin. In December 1988, he was awarded first prize in the Sixth All-Union Conducting Competition. In February 1989, he was invited by Maestro V. Gergiev to join to the Mariinsky (Kirov) Theatre as a House Conductor. Alexander toured with the Company throughout Europe, Asia, and the United States. In 1994, Polianichko made his London debut conducting English National Opera’s production of Eugene Onegin. This led to him conducting two productions of Tchaikovsky’s operas with the Royal Opera Covent Garden: a revival of The Queen of Spades with Placido Domingo, and a new production of The Tsarina’s Slippers by Francesca Zambello of Cherevichki. As a guest conductor, Polianichko has appeared at many renowned opera houses, including the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Royal Opera House, La Scala, Deutsche Oper, San Francisco Opera, Australian Opera, English National Opera, Welsh National Opera, Danish Royal Opera, Stuttgart Oper, Colorado Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Norwegian Royal Opera, and Swedish Royal Opera. In 1996, he was invited to take the Opéra National de Paris to New York for their appearances at the Met. The symphonic orchestras he has conducted around the world include the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony, Hallé Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Danish National Radio Orchestra, English and Irish Chamber Orchestras - among many others. From 1986 to 1989, Polianichko was the Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the Belorussian State Chamber Orchestra in Minsk. He also taught conducting in Belorussian and Leningrad State Conservatoires. From 1996 to 1999, he was the Principal Conductor of the Bournemouth Sinfonietta. From 2012 to 2015, he was the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Rostov Academic Symphony Orchestra. He also served as the professor of the conducting department of the Rostov State Conservatoire. He was awarded the Honoured Artist of Russia title in 2009. Polianichko appears at many prestigious music festivals in Russia and abroad, including Edinburgh, Aldeburgh and Savonlinna, Golden Mask, White Nights and Chaliapin Opera Festivals, and had the privilege to work with many world-famous artists and singers, such as Anna Netrebko, Anne Sofie von Otter, Elena Obraztsova, Dawn Upshaw, Olga Borodina, Makvala Kasrashvili, Larissa Diadkova, Irina Bogacheva, as well as Placido Domingo, Jonas Kaufmann, Vladimir Galuzin, Ildar Abdrazakov, Sir Thomas Allen, Pata Burchuladze, Sergey Leiferkus, John Tomlinson and many others. He participated as the Jury member at the Rimsky-Korsakov Opera Singers’ Competition (1996), the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition (2011), and the Makris International Conducting Competition (2019). His featured recordings on DVD include Romeo & Juliet with Royal Sweden Ballet (2013); Cherevichki/Tsarina’s Slippers with Royal Opera House Covent Garden (2009); Beyond the Score with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (2008); as well as television recordings and live radio broadcasts worldwide. His is featured on various CD/audio recordings on the label Melodia in Russia. Since 2005, Polianichko gave orchestral masterclasses for the Swedish National Orchestra Academy, Symphony Orchestra of the Royal College of Music, London, Chamber Orchestra of the Cambridge University, and Britten-Pears Youth Orchestra. Since 2002, he has been holding annual conducting masterclasses in St. Petersburg organized by Peter the Great Music Academy, the Royal Baltic festival, and the Theatre of Hermitage Museum, to which students come from all over the world.

Her Next Chapter

her next chapter

Leamington Spa

Tenacious. Terrific. Trustworthy. Truthful. And sometimes Trouble. When you ask my family, friends and coworkers about me, they will probably list these attributes. Or qualities. For good and for bad. I am the only child to my mother Grace and my father Ken who met in Blackpool, England during the Second World War, which means much of my family resides in England. Including my daughter who met my son-in-law during her junior year abroad at Oxford University. I grew up not knowing that my mother had an accent, never understanding the difference between English and American terminology so that even today I will say a word and people will look perplexed, and I realize I am using the English word and not the American one. I’m an only child because my parents decided traveling back to England would be very difficult with more children. My father made a point to keep me from being spoiled which was a double-edged sword because his lack of praise left me with a feeling that I had to try twice as hard as anyone else just to keep up. The end result is one very motivated woman, and I constantly seek continued learning and new challenges. My first words were undoubtedly “When are you going to give me a horse?” and thus Patience Prize and I became a team when I was 14. My father once again made sure I knew the horse was not to be taken for granted when he said, “Now you’ve got a horse, you’d better get a job. And you won’t be paid for mowing the lawn anymore.” My love of animals produced my first job at the local veterinarians cleaning up cages and feeding animals. One small dog had broken her two front legs, was terribly vicious, and no one could touch her. After her surgery she was crammed up in a corner while still asleep, and I moved her into a more comfortable position and, of course, petted her and spoke to her. After that I was the only one who could open her cage and touch her without getting bitten. She must have known my smell. Years passed and I became both a photojournalist and regular journalist with local Berkshire County Massachusetts newspapers. When I returned to college to complete my bachelor’s degree, my journalism provided me with life experience credits and thus I completed my BA in English. What to do next? I had student loans, so I needed either grad school or a second job. My daughter waitressed at a local restaurant open only on weekends and they said they needed a dishwasher, so she said, “My brother needs a job.” Then they asked, “So who else do you have at home?” and she said, “My mom.” Thus, I tried the second job routine as a waitress. We served wine in long-stemmed glasses and carried them on a tray. During one shift I was at a table of two women and the tray started to tilt, and I couldn’t stop it! So, I stood there and watched the wine glasses crash down on the table and splash everywhere. It was not a happy time for all involved. So, I said, “That’s it, I’m going to grad school.” I took my daughter and son to see Phantom of the Opera on Broadway, we ate at the Russian Tea Room, and I told them they couldn’t bug me for two years. The non-traditional program at Vermont College of Norwich University was a full-time program so I had a full-time job, a full-time grad school program, a son in high school and a daughter in college. During my internship I worked 7:00 a.m. to noon, drove to Albany, New York (a one-hour drive one way), worked at a public relations firm from 1:00 to 6:00 and stopped at the restaurant where my two offspring worked about 7:00 for a glass of wine and a light dinner. Then I realized I didn’t have time to clean the bathroom, so I hired a cleaning lady (very inexpensive in a small town back then) and decided that was an expense associated with grad school. That was a valuable decision. The downside of a small town is that a master’s degree doesn’t allow for many jobs at a living wage. I decided I would move. After networking for several years and finding a church in Washington, DC I moved to northern Virginia on October 2, 1999, never having lived more than 6 miles from where I was born. I got a job the second day. I bought a house that January and a horse, Sonny Madison, in January 2001 and have never regretted my choice or looked back. At some point in 2018 I found Her Nexx Chapter and started writing for them. It provides me with a chance to get in touch with my creative style since my most prevalent job has been a technical writer. Now I’m also the Editorial Project Director and a member of the Advisory Board. It’s a tremendous value to women everywhere, and I always enjoying learning something new and sharing my blogs with the community. So here I am. I’m still horseback riding and trying to keep fit. I try to look for the positive side of life even in times of turmoil – notice I said “try” because sometimes life gets to be a tad difficult. But that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!