Dmitry Sitkovetsky

A renaissance man and a magnetic creative force, Dmitry Sitkovetsky has made a considerable impact on every aspect of musical life and has been successful as a performer, creator and facilitator for over four decades. His enviable career as a violin soloist is documented in several dozen recordings of all major concertos and a wide selection of chamber repertoire. Among the recent releases are the complete Mozart Violin Sonatas with Antonio Pappano and Konstantin Lifschitz (Hänssler Classic) and Dutilleux’s L’Arbre des Songes with the Concertgebouw Orchestra and Mariss Jansons (Concertgebouw Live).

The 2017 summer festival season includes collaborations with Evgeny Kissin, Mischa Maisky and others at Verbier, Barry Douglas at Clandeboye (Ireland), and two chamber orchestra programs in Ljubljana. In September 2017, Sitkovetsky returns to the Enescu Festival with a program of works by the living legends: Arvo Pärt, Rodion Shchedrin, as well as Iain Bell and George Balint. Maestro’s commitment to contemporary repertoire also takes him to a very special stage in the old coal mine of Zabrze (Poland) for a performance of the Penderecki String Trio at the Penderecki Festival.

Throughout the 2017-2018 season, Dmitry Sitkovetsky celebrates his life-long love for Italy and its culture with performances of his own legendary arrangement of the Goldberg Variations in Verona, Siena, Florence and throughout Tuscany, in an exciting collaboration with Orchestra della Toscana. His guest conducting engagements also include the Sacramento Philharmonic and Taipei Symphony Orchestra, among others.

Maestro Sitkovetsky’s 15th anniversary season as the Music Director of the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra opens with a world premiere of Not So Classical, which blends film and live orchestral performance in a new concert format designed to engage audiences in a digital storytelling experience. Working closely with filmmaker David Donnelly, whose documentary Maestro about Paavo Järvi has been distributed in 14 countries worldwide, Mr. Sitkovetsky has created a program that tells the story of Greensboro, North Carolina and the positive impact the orchestra has had on its people and their quality of life. This event underscores the beginning of construction for the eagerly awaited Tanger Arts Center, GSO’s new home, for which Maestro has served as an artistic catalyst.

Highlights of the previous season include the inauguration a new chamber music series in New York City, presented at Columbia University by the Aspect Foundation for Music and Arts; a month-long tour of Japan; the debut TED talk on the power of curiosity; the launch of his first book “Dmitry Sitkovetsky. Dialogues”; a collaboration with musicians of the Staatskapelle Dresden at the Shostakovich Festival at Gohrisch; and the sold-out world premiere of his multimedia performance inspired by Stravinsky’s A Soldier’s Tale at the Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, featuring live music, street dance, physical theater, poetry and animation. 

Dmitry Sitkovetsky’s name has become synonymous with the art of transcription. His iconic orchestra and string trio versions of the Goldberg Variations have taken on a life of their own, enjoying regular performances and acclaimed recordings by the world’s top musicians. Inspired by its unqualified success, Maestro went on to arrange over 50 works by Haydn, Beethoven, Brahms, Bartók, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, Stravinsky and Schnittke. Since 2013, thousands have enjoyed the Medici broadcast of his arrangement of the Chopin Preludes, commissioned by the Verbier Festival for its 20th anniversary and performed by Yuri Bashmet, Leonidas Kavakos, Gauthier Capuçon, and other stars. In December 2015, Dmitry Sitkovetsky unveiled his transcription of Stravinsky’s Le baiser de la fée, commissioned by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and premiered by Augustin Hadelich at Carnegie Hall, effectively adding a new concertante piece for violin and orchestra to Stravinsky’s legacy.

Driven by desire to share the fascination of music with the widest possible audience, Mr. Sitkovetsky created a compelling series of 11 episodes for Russian national television profiling the world’s most extraordinary musicians: Evgeny Kissin, Barbara Hendricks, Mischa Maisky, Bella Davidovich, Sir Neville Marriner, Yefim Bronfman, Gary Graffman, Sir Antonio Pappano and others. Addressing them as a life-long friend and a musical collaborator, Mr. Sitkovetsky achieved unprecedented candor and intimacy in these conversations. The series are available worldwide on Medici.tv. The same agenda of returning classical music into the realm of cultural relevance is at the heart of Mr. Sitkovetsky’s collaborations with star dancers, writers, and actors, including his work with the multiple Emmy winner Peter Coyote on Copland’s Lincoln Portrait, Britten’s Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra and Grieg’s Peer Gynt.

As a conductor, Mr. Sitkovetsky has held artistic leadership positions with the Ulster Orchestra, the Russian State Orchestra, and Orquesta Sinfonica de Castilla y Leon. In 1990, he founded the New European Strings orchestra (NES), bringing together the most distinguished string players from the top European ensembles for special touring and recording projects, most recently at the Enescu Festival. As a guest conductor, Mr. Sitkovetsky recently collaborated with San Francisco Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, London and Royal philharmonic orchestras, NDR Hannover, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Moscow Philharmonic, Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra, China Philharmonic, and the Shanghai Symphony, among others.

Given his ability to turn any project into a highly anticipated artistic event, Mr. Sitkovetsky has been invited to create, develop and lead a number of festivals throughout his career, most notably the Korsholm Music Festival in Finland in the 1980s, the Seattle International Music Festival and the Silk Route of Music Festival in Baku in the 1990s, as well as the Festival del Sole in Tuscany, where his NES orchestra was in residence from 2003 to 2006.