Maestro Edvard Tchivzhel
BIOGRAPHY
(Watch the about me video)
Born in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), Tchivzhel
graduated from the Leningrad Conservatoire with the highest
distinction in the areas of piano and conducting, and completed
three more years of postgraduate study at the Conservatoire’s Higher
Academy of Music in the prestigious conducting classes of Arvid
Jansons. While still a student, Tchivzhel scored a remarkable
success by winning the Third Soviet Conductor’s Competition in
Moscow. He worked as Assistant Conductor to the legendary conductor
Yevgeni Mravinsky with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra
from 1974 until 1977. By the late 1970s, Tchivzhel appeared as
permanent guest conductor with the Leningrad Philharmonic and
conducted the Moscow Philharmonic, the Moscow Radio Symphony
Orchestra, Leningrad’s Kirov Theatre of Opera and Ballet, as well as
many other orchestras throughout the former U.S.S.R. In 1973,
Tchivzhel became Music Director and Principal Conductor of the
Karelian Symphony Orchestra of National Television and Radio, a
position he held until 1991.
In the 1980s, Tchivzhel’s career achieved
international status with appearances in England, Germany, the Czech
Republic, Poland, Romania, Scandinavia, Australia and New Zealand,
where he served as Artistic Advisor for the Auckland Philharmonic.
In 1986, he became the chief conductor of the Umeå Sinfonietta,
Sweden, and frequently performed with the symphony orchestras of
Helsinborg, Malmö and Norrköpping. In 1998, he debuted with the
Stockholm Philharmonic.
As associate conductor of the U.S.S.R. State
Symphony Orchestra, Tchivzhel toured widely, scoring great success
during a tour in Japan in 1990. In February 1991, Tchivzhel was
enthusiastically received during a tour of the State Russian
Symphony Orchestra in the United States. Following this tour, he
defected to the U.S with the help of friends in Greenville, the city
he considers his “American cradle.” Tchivzhel returned to Russia in
April 2003 (for the first time since his defection) to once again
conduct the St. Petersburg Philharmonic in a performance of Mahler’s
Fifth Symphony.
Tchivzhel has conducted several American
orchestras, including the Baltimore Symphony and the Atlantic
Sinfonietta, a chamber orchestra based in New York, where he served
as the music director from 1992 until 1994. He made acclaimed debuts
with the Indianapolis Symphony in 1995 and the Grand Rapids Symphony
in 1998. Maestro’s debut with the Dayton Opera in 2008 in the
production of Verdi’s
Macbeth
was hailed by critics as “the triumph of the Dayton Opera.”
In 2002, Tchivzhel conducted in Venezuela, and in
2005, he performed Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7 with the Orquestra
Sinfonica del Estado in Mexico in commemoration of the victory in
World War II. After a spectacular premiere of Scriabin’s “Divine
Poem” with the Orquestra Sinfónica Brasileira in Rio de Janeiro in
2004, Maestro was invited back to conduct in February 2007. In 2006,
Maestro Tchivzhel conducted a Russian-Hungarian program in Spain
with the Extremadura Symphony Orchestra to high acclaim. He has an
invitation to perform again in Spain and also in Romania in November
2008. In may of 2009 Maestro Edvard Tchivzhel made a triumphal debut
with L'Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma, Italy. Tchivzhel's future
projects include an invitation to conduct in China in April 2010 and
in Australia in June 2010.
Tchivzhel has performed with many great artists
including Yo-Yo Ma, Gidon Kremer, Vladimir Spivakov, Nadja Salerno
Sonnenberg, Emmanuel Ax, Andre Watts, Janos Starker, Olga Kern,
Nicolai Demidenko, Gil Shaham, Joshua Bell, Bella Davidovich, Yuri
Bashmet, Doc Severinsen, and Pete Fountain. He has made numerous
recordings with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Moscow
Philharmonic, the Moscow Radio Orchestra, the State Russian
Orchestra, the Atlantic Sinfonietta, with several orchestras in
Sweden, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic, and the Greenville Symphony
Orchestra.
