Dmitri Kitajenko, Conductor
Biography
Dmitri Kitajenko ranks among the great conductors of our times. Born in Leningrad, he studied music at renowned institutions, such as the Glinka Music School and the Rimsky Korsakov Music Conservatory of his home town. He continued his studies in Moscow with Professor Leo Ginzburg and in Vienna at the Academy of Music with the professors Hans Swarowski and Karl Österreicher.
In 1969 Dmitri Kitajenko won the first International Herbert von Karajan Conducting Competition in Berlin. His artistic development was greatly influenced by the stage director Walter Felsenstein when working together on a new production of Bizet's "Carmen", which was first presented in Moscow and then in Berlin at the Komische Oper and is a milestone in the history of opera. Dmitri Kitajenko was only 29 years old when he was appointed Chief Conductor of the Stanislavsky Opera Theatre in Moscow.
During the 70's Dmitri Kitajenko successfully conducted a great number of operas in Moscow and abroad at important houses such as Vienna, Munich and Brussels. At the same time he had an equally busy concert schedule in his home country and abroad.
In 1976, Dmitri Kitajenko was nominated principal conductor of the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra. During his 14 years in this position, the Moscow Philharmonic grew to one of the best orchestras of the world. Together, they toured the major music centres in Europe, the USA and Japan, including such prestigious music Festivals as Salzburg, Edinburgh and Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival.
In 1990, Dmitri Kitajenko left the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra and moved to Western Europe. He simultaneously held the posts of principal conductor of the Radio Symphony Orchestra in Frankfurt (1990-1996), the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra in Norway (1990-1998) and the Berne Symphony Orchestra, Switzerland (1990-2004) and later on the KBS Symphony Orchestra in Seoul (1998-2004). In addition, Kitajenko was First Guest Conductor of the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1990 to 1996.
Dmitrij Kitajenko has appeared in concerts with some of the best symphony orchestras in the world, including the Philharmonic Orchestras of Vienna and Berlin, the Czech Philharmonic, the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony and the Philadelphia Orchestra. He is also a regular guest of orchestras such as the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Bayerischer Rundfunk, the Munich Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Santa Cecilia di Roma, Orchestra della Scala di Milano and many famous American Orchestras.
Aside from numerous recordings made in the former USSR, Dmitri Kitajenko has recorded a considerable number of acclaimed CDs, first and foremost his complete recordings of the symphonies by Skriabin, Rachmaninov, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Rimsky-Korsakov as well as orchestral works by Franz Liszt, Robert Schumann and Edvard Grieg. With the Cologne Gürzenich Orchestra Dmitri Kitajenko recently recorded for the Capriccio label the complete symphonies of Dmitri Shostakovich. Released in April 2005 the recordings received 19.1.2010 the Midem Classic award and an ECHO in 2006. In 2008 his new box with recordings of all Prokofiev symphonies, also this time with the Cologne Gürzenich Orchestra, was released.
In March 2009, the Cologne Gürzenich Orchestra nominated Dmitri Kitajenko as its Conductor Laureate. Kitajenko is the second conductor who was awarded this honour.
Copenhagen Artists represents Dmitri Kitajenko in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland.