On March 13, the Italian conductor of Russian ancestry Alexei Nikonov is going to conduct at the premiere performance of Un Ballo in Maschera opera by Verdi. This performance is a part of the Italian music festival Bel Canto in Siberia taking place at the Hvorostovsky Krasnoyarsk Opera and Ballet Theatre in February and March.

Besides, Alexei Nikonov will take part in closing the Bel Canto in Siberia project: he’ll take to the conductor’s stand at the final Grande Concerto on March 18. The gala concert’s programme includes melodies known and loved by theatre fans all over the world - arias and orchestral excerpts from the operas by Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini, Gioachino Rossini, Pietro Mascagni.

Young vocal stars are going to participate in the concert; they’re finalists of the 9th International Opera Singing Competition Golden Willow 2019 (Salice d’Oro) that was held last summer in Italy, in the city of Novara. Our theatre was one of the partners of the competition, and it established a prestigious award for the competition’s finalists - a concert in Krasnoyarsk. This award was received by young sopranos Larissa Alice Vissel and Caterina Meldolesi from Italy (these singers won as well the first and the second prizes of the competition), as well as Nina Solodovnikova (she was born in Russia, but now lives and studies in Italy). Alexei Nikonov entered the Salice d’Oro competition jury as the President of the Italian Mozart Association.

Alexei began his training at the Conducting and Choral Department of the Gnessin State Musical College, went onto further study at the Сhoral Сonducting Department at the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music, and completed the course as an opera and symphonic conductor at the Moscow Conservatory. Being a student, he works as a choirmaster at the Natalia Sats Musical Theatre where he puts the performance Eugene Onegin on. Music critics subsequently noted the impeccable performing of choral episodes. Nikonov collaborated with the ensemble of chamber music Novyie Imena, the Bolshoi Theatre, the Pokrovsky Opera House.

At the age of 27, the musician left for Italy, taking the world stage: as a conductor and piano accompanist, he worked with Ennio Morricone, Renata Scotto, Isaac Karabtchevsky, and other prominent figures of world music culture. He collaborated as well with orchestras from Italy, Brazil, Austria, Bulgaria. For several years he had been a member of the directorial council of the Verdi Theatre in Pisa. For the past three years, Alexei Nikonov has been an encourager and organizer of the Civita Sacra movement. It unites musical groups in concerts taking place in the province of Viterbo where they perform popular cantatas and oratorios.