Sergey Kondrashev

Born in Moscow, Sergey Kondrashev dreamed of steering a large ship or a car, but as a result, leads a large team of musicians.

He started learning to play the piano quite late and began fanatical studies already in adolescence, when a true passion for classical music and opera came. He graduated from Ippolitov-Ivanov School as a choral conductor. Later he entered Moscow Conservatory (Department of Choral Conducting, class of Professor Valery Goryunov). It was the training in choral conducting that allowed him to acquire a strong manual and technical base. Sergey Kondrashev sang in the chamber choir of Boris Tevlin, on whose recommendation he was auditioned for the class of opera and symphony conducting by the outstanding maestro, professor Mark Ermler.

The "key to the doors" of Ermler's class turned out to be the finale of Stravinsky's ballet Sacred Spring, eight minutes of mathematical and graphic music that you need to put in your head and learn as a sequence of formulas. On the instructions of the professor, Sergey learned this complex symphony score by heart and conducted so that Ermler immediately accepted the young musician as a student, despite the fact that he did not lack them — his class was more than full. The last years of his studies at Moscow Conservatory, Sergey Kondrashev practically lived in the Bolshoi Theater, where Ermler, the principal conductor of the main theater of the country, mostly gave lessons.

Thanks to the opportunity to visit the Bolshoi Theater, Sergey watched not only all the rehearsals and productions of his teacher, but also Gennady Rozhdestvensky in the Prokofiev's The Gambler and the last performance of Evgeny Svetlanov in The Maid of Pskov by Rimsky-Korsakov, which was the start of Svetlanov's creative career at the Bolshoi in 1955.

After the death of Mark Ermler Sergey continued to study in the class of another world-famous conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky.

Sergey began to hone his ballet conducting skills at the Kremlin Ballet Theater, where the musician was invited in 2008. Managing ballet performances is one of the most difficult aspects of conducting. This particular art is not taught anywhere in Russia. You can only learn in practice. A particular difficulty lies in the fact that the conductor requires not only musical control of the orchestra, but also regular visual coordination of what is happening on the stage with the musical and orchestral texture. This is a completely new and unusual skill for any musician. In addition, the ballet conductor must understand the language of dance. Sergey Kondrashev's collaboration with the Kremlin Ballet Theater, which plays at the State Kremlin Palace, continues to this day.

It was in the State Kremlin Palace that the conductor's landmark concert took place. Since that evening, Sergey Kondrashev has been working as the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Orpheus Radio Symphony Orchestra. The musical feast dedicated to the 15th anniversary of the Orpheus Radio brought together the opera stars on the main stage of the country. Elena Zaremba, Askar Abdrazakov, Vladislav Pyavko and many other famous singers performed with the Orpheus Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sergey Kondrashev.

Soon after the event, the conductor receives the prize of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) in the category Best Programme for the Anniversary of Claude Debussy. Under the guidance of Sergey Kondrashev, the Orchestra, commissioned by the European Broadcasting Union, prepared a series of programmes that went on the air on many foreign radio stations.

One of the most important Kondrashev's projects is Russian Composers's Heritage Reviving. Over the years, the team under the leadership of Sergey Kondrashev has recorded on discs and performed at concerts many wonderful but forgotten or rarely performed pieces of music: Anton Arensky's opera Raphael, symphonic compositions by the famous conductor and composer Nikolai Golovanov, music by 20th-century avant-gardists Alexander Mossolov and Leonid Polovinkin.

The Orpheus Radio Symphony Orchestra and Sergey Kondrashev helped a wide audience to rediscover the name of the forgotten composer Georgy Catoir. All these recordings are broadcasted by the Orpheus Radio.

"The most interesting thing is to do what no one else has done before, to make discoveries. You feel like Christopher Columbus. You are completely freed from the burden and oppression of previous interpretations and handlings. And then time itself will judge whether this music will live for many years, sounding at concerts and radio broadcasts, or return back to the dusty shelves where it waited to be performed for many decades. But now it sounds, so it lives!", Sergey Kondrashev says.

Under the guidance of Sergey Kondrashev, the Orpheus Radio Symphony Orchestra has grown quantitatively, strengthened and became more harmonious. A certain performing style was formed, bearing the imprint of the creative aspirations and views of the Artistic Director. Versatility is one of the characteristics of the Orchestra, which perfectly performs music of different styles, genres and epochs — from Bach suites to Ennio Moriccone's soundtracks.

Sergey Kondrashov is an active concert performer, and has successfully toured in the United States, China, Germany, the Netherlands, Syria, Oman and other countries.

However, his childhood dream to drive vehicles has not gone away- it has transformed over the years. Sergey is a passionate car enthusiast and an avid car traveller.