Aleksandr Lavrenyuk

Biography

Aleksandr Lavrenyuk was born on June 5, 1939, in Moscow. Honoured Artist of the RSFSR (May 25, 1976). A ballet dancer, and conductor. After graduating from the Moscow Art Theatre School (class of Asaf Messerer), he performed as a soloist at the Bolshoi Theatre from 1959–1979 and served as a conductor at the Bolshoi Theatre from 1980–1988. Member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) since 1966. In 1971, he graduated from the choreography department of the A.V. Lunacharsky State Institute of Theatre Arts (RATI) as a choreographer-teacher and taught there from 1976–1977. As a dancer and later as a conductor, he toured with the Bolshoi Ballet company in Europe, Asia, Australia, and the US. From 1970 to 1974, he taught at the Moscow Choreographic School. During this period, he also studied at the conducting department of the Moscow Institute of Culture, before undertaking a training placement at the Moscow State Conservatoire as a symphony conductor under Yuri Simonov. He made his conducting debut at the Odessa Opera and Ballet Theatre, wherein he held this position from 1978–1980. He was the stage director for the ballets: ‘Timur and His Team’ by V.G. Agafonnikov (May 9,1986) and ‘Anyuta’ by V.A. Gavrilin (May 31, 1986). In 1988, he took up the post of principal conductor at the ‘New Ballet of Moscow’ theatre-studio; in 1990 he became a conductor and rehearsal director with the ‘Bolshoi Theatre – Yuri Grigorovich Studio’ company, and from 1996, he served as principal conductor of the Yuri Grigorovich Ballet Theatre in Krasnodar. In this capacity, he staged 15 full-length productions. Between 1996 & 2003, he toured with the Krasnodar company in the UK, Greece, Germany, Turkey, US, Austria, Norway, Spain, Portugal and Italy; as well as in cities across Russia: St Petersburg, Sochi, Volgograd, Yaroslavl, Kislovodsk, and Nalchik. As musical director and conductor, he took part in productions of the ballets ‘Cinderella’ and ‘Spartacus’ in Seoul, ‘The Nutcracker’ in Istanbul and Chișinău, and ‘Le Corsaire’ at the Kremlin Ballet Theatre (all choreographed by Yury N. Grigorovich). He played over 30 roles in various theatre productions from 1956–1979.