ALEVTINA IOFFE APPOINTED MUSIC DIRECTOR OF MIKHAILOVSKY THEATRE
Ioffe Becomes First Female Music Director of the Legendary St. Petersburg Theatre
Appointment is with Immediate Effect
Moscow - February 19, 2021 – The legendary Mikhailovsky Theatre of St. Petersburg. Russia has appointed conductor Alevtina Ioffe, 41, as its Music Director effective immediately. The appointment was announced today at a meeting with Olga Lyubimova, the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation, and Vladimir Kekhman, Artistic Director of the Mikhailovsky Theatre.
Alevtina Ioffe becomes the first woman to hold the position of Music Director at the fabled Mikhailovsky Theatre.
Olga Lyubimova, Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation on the appontment of Alevtina Ioffe:
«Ms Ioffe will keep her professional relations with the Natalia Sats Children’s Musical Theatre [in Moscow], and at the same time she will become a part of another major theatrical project in the very heart of our cultural capital [St. Petersburg]. We do hope that this collaboration will bring new creative ideas to life. Her rich experience in creating children’s repertoire will be particularly useful. Nowadays, theatres pay special attention to this sphere, and I am sure that the Mikhailovsky Theatre is acquiring an excellent conductor, moreover a woman – a rare case for the profession – capable of both preserving traditions and unlocking the high potential of the company.»
Vladimir Kekhman, Artistic Director of the Mikhailovsky Theatre:
«For the first time in the history of our theatre we will have a female conductor as our Music Director. We count on this young, energetic, inventive musician. Alevtina Ioffe’s career is a breakthrough in the Russian “male” world of music. Today the Mikhailovsky Theatre faces an important task of preserving both the classical repertoire and creating experimental productions. A bright and original conductor like Alevtina Ioffe is a perfect fit for us. Her prior experience in the same position at Russia’s preeminent children’s musical theatre (Natalia Sats Children’s Musical Theatre in Moscow) is highly relevant, as raising the children’s audience that will cherish our cultural traditions is an important task for me.»
Alevtina Ioffe, Music Director of the Mikhailovsky Theatre:
«It is challenging for a woman to pursue a career as a conductor in Russia. Therefore, it is a great honor and responsibility for me to accept the invitation to become Music Director of the Mikhailovsky Theatre with its rich traditions. The theatre’s position in St. Petersburg with its storied history, extraordinary architecture and mystic characters has always appealed to me – it induces nostalgia and makes me proud of our cultural legacy. Another reason why I agreed to accept this position is Vladimir Kekhman’s willingness to experiment, as it is very important for me to be able to realize my creative ideas, of which there are a lot.»
About Alevtina Ioffe:
Since 2011, Alevtina Ioffe has been Music Director of The Moscow State Opera and Ballet Theatre for Young Audience “Natalia Sats” and Principal Guest Conductor of the Theatre of Opera and Ballet of Saha, Republic of Yakutia, Russia. In 2018, she made her debut at the Deutsche Oper Berlin conducting Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky and was immediately re-invited. In April 2019 she made her debut at the Bayerische Staatsoper with double bill of Tchaikovsky’s Yolanta and Stravinsky’s Mavra directed by Axel Rainisch that was filmed and released on DVD. The success of this production has propelled Alevtina’s international activities, starting with Germany: during the season 2020/21 she conducted a new production of Die Grossherzogin von Gerolstein by Offenbach staged by Barrie Kosky at the Komische Oper Berlin, where she will be back with Les contes d’Hoffmann. Alevtina has also been invited to make her debut at the Staatstheater Stuttgart in the season 2021/22 with a new production of Hänsel und Gretel by Humperdink, staged by Axel Rainisch. During the 2021/22 season she will also start a collaboration with the Seattle Opera conducting Le nozze di Figaro, thus marking her debut in the United States.
Born in Moscow, Alevtina Ioffe studied choral conducting, classical vocal and piano at the State Musical Pedagogical Institute “Ippolitov-Ivanov” and graduated from the Faculty of Opera and Symphony Conducting of the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory under Vladimir Ponkin. Following her experiences as an assistant conductor at the San Francisco Opera with Donald Runnicles, in 2009 Ioffe won third prize at the Victor de Sabata Conducting Competition in Trieste, Italy with special mention from the orchestra.
Between 2008 and 2011, Ioffe conducted at the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Music Theatre and was frequently invited to conduct at the Teatro Massimo Bellini, Catania and at the Teatro Verdi, Trieste in Italy as well as at the Oldenburgische Staatstheater in Germany.
As Music Director of the Natalia Sats Theatre she has led a number of new productions in wide-ranging repertoire including Alcina by Händel, Madama Butterfly by Puccini, La forza del destino by Verdi, Carmen by Bizet, Iolanta and Eugene Onegin by Tchaikovsky, The Magic Flute by Mozart, L’enfant et les sortilèges by Ravel as well as The Tale of Tsar Saltan and The Golden Cockerel by Rimsky-Korsakov. As music director and conductor of the project “Russian Seasons of the XXI Century», initiated by Andris Liepa, Ioffe conducted the ballets The Firebird and Petrushka by Stravinsky, both presented in Paris at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and in London at the Coliseum. She also created a program entitled “Portraits of Composers” where she introduced the audience to rarely performed works by Britten, Stravinsky, Honegger and Schoenberg. Contemporary works for the stage, such as the ballet The Little Mermaid by Lera Auerbach, are also an important part of her repertoire.
Ioffe has conducted some of the most important Russian orchestras including the Novaya Rossiya Orchestra, the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra and the Krasnodar Symphony Orchestra. In 2016 she appeared at the Perm Festival with Denis Matsuev and the winners of the Tchaikovsky Competition leading the Russian National Orchestra. In September 2021 Alevtina Ioffe made her debut with the Orchestre National de Lille.
In December 2020 Alevtina Ioffe made a successful debut at the Mikhailovsky Theatre conducting Die Zauberflöte and was immediately reinvited for Il barbiere di Siviglia in January 2021.