Alexander Vedernikov was principal conductor of The Royal Danish Orchestra from 2018 until his untimely death in October 2020. He received his music education at the Moscow Conservatory and had a growing international career prior to his death. Vedernikov was a much sought-after guest among the world’s largest orchestras and regularly worked with the Orchestre de Paris, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Staatskapelle Dresden, Montreal Symphony, Tokyo Philharmonic and the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, D.C. During his tenure at The Royal Danish Orchestra, he conducted several well-known operas, including Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Lohengrin, La fanciulla del West and Nixon in China. He also took The Royal Danish Orchestra on tour to Moscow where they played in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory and in the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall.

Vedernikov held the prestigious post of music director and principal conductor at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow from 2001 to 2009.

Between 2009 and 2016 Vedernikov was principal conductor of the Odense Symphony Orchestra becoming honorary conductor in 2018 after performances of Wagner’s Ring at Odense’s Odeon. During this period he conducted all of the Danish symphony orchestras.

In 1995 Alexander Vedernikov was one of the main forces in the establishment of the Russian Philharmonia Symphony Orchestra in which he functioned as both artistic director and principal conductor until 2004.

Music was always a part of Vedernikov’s life – his father, Alexander Filipovich Vedernikov, was a well-known bass-singer in the Soviet Union. The music of Prokofiev and Rachmaninov also played an influential role in Vedernikov’s work, as did the Russian traditions of theatre and music.