People’s Artist of Russia

In 1965 Alexander Skulsky graduated from the Nizhny-Novgorod State Glinka Conservatoire (class of Margarita Samorukova) and in 1971 from the Leningrad State Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatoire (class of Nikolai Rabinovich). Since 1967 he has been Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of the Nizhny Novgorod State Mstislav Rostropovich Philharmonic. Over the past decades he has conducted over two thousand programmes and there have been performances of every symphony by Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff and Scriabin, symphonies by Mahler, Bruckner, Hindemith and Honegger and other works by Bach, Mozart and Haydn. There have been the concert series The Cello in the 20th Century (featuring Natalia Gutman) and Great Revelations; there have been performances of every piano concerto by Beethoven with Eliso Virsaladze, by Beethoven and Prokofiev with Jean-Efflam Bavouzet and there have been over two hundred premieres of works by Bartók, Martinů, Bernstein, Lutosławski, Shchedrin, Schnittke, Silvestrov, Gubaidulina, Sidelnikov, Murov and Krivitsky among other composers of the 20th century.

Skulsky has appeared with Russia’s leading symphony orchestras and major choral ensembles as well as the finest Russian and international musicians. Has toured to many cities throughout Russia, the Baltic States and also to France, Austria, Spain, the USA, Belgium, Germany, The Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Norway. Since 1976 he has combined his conducting activities with his work at the Nizhny Novgorod State Conservatoire where he heads the faculty of opera and symphony conducting. Holds international master-classes. His students have included the conductors Renat Zhiganshin, Yevgeny Kirillov and Yevgeny Kleiner among others. Has written numerous academic works, articles and teaching aids. Honoured Artist of Russia (1990), People’s Artist of Russia (2004) and Honorary Citizen of Nizhny Novgorod (2014).