Kreizberg, Yakov

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Kreizberg, Yakov

Kreizberg, Yakov, Russian conductor; b. Leningrad, Oct. 24, 1959. He was the brother of Semyon Bychkov . For personal and professional reasons, he assumed the surname of his maternal great-grandfather. Following private training from Musin in Leningrad, he went to the U.S. in 1976 and studied with Bernstein, Ozawa, and Leinsdorf at the Berkshire Music Center in Tanglewood. He was an assistant to Michael Tilson Thomas at the Los Angeles Phil. Inst. From 1985 to 1988 he was music director of the Mannes Coll. of Music Orch. in N.Y. In 1986 he won the Stokowski conducting competition in N.Y. In 1988 he became Generalmusikdirektor of the Niederrheinsichen Sym. Orch. and the Krefeld-Mönchengladbach Opera. He made his debut at the Glyndebourne Festival conducting Jenûfa in 1992. In 1994 he conducted Der Rosenkavalier at his first appearance at London’s Covent Garden. During this period, he also made guest conducting appearances with major European and North American orchs. He was chief conductor of the Komische Oper in Berlin from 1994 to 2000, and principal conductor of the Bournemouth Sym. Orch. from 1995.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire

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