Marius Stravinsky


Marius Stravinsky is a British conductor and violinist of Russian descent, and the cousin five times removed of Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. He is also the Founder & Music Director of the St. Petersburg Festival Orchestra.

Studies

Marius Stravinsky began his violin studies at the age of four. Educated at the Moscow Central Music School, he later emigrated to London, where he continued his studies at the Yehudi Menuhin School and then Eton College. He then attended and graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in London in 2002. As a violinist, Marius Stravinsky has performed extensively, including Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival, Spoleto Music Festival, Melbourne International Arts Festival and many others. In 1998, he was invited to the Aix-en-Provence Festival as Claudio Abbado's assistant conductor in Peter Brook's new "Don Giovanni" production. Another one of his regular conducting mentors was Igor Golovchin, and Marius has also taken part in masterclasses with Kenneth Kiesler and Eri Klas. From 2002-2005, Stravinsky returned to Moscow to study conducting with Vladimir Ponkin, working as his Assistant Conductor in both the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra and the Helikon Opera.

Professional

Whilst resident at Helikon Opera, his performances included fully staged productions of Berg, Bizet, Giorgdano, Poulenc, Prokofiev, Rimsky-Korsakov, Shostakovich, and works by Igor Stravinsky. In 2007, Stravinsky was awarded the position of Chief Conductor & Artistic Director of the Karelia Philharmonic Orchestra, and following his five-year tenure in this role, he then – at the personal invitation of Vladimir Jurowski – took up the position of Assistant Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra for the 2013/2014 season. Since then he has gone on to work with top orchestras around the world, including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia, Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Staatskapelle Berlin, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, and Tokyo Opera Philharmonic.
He regularly conducts at the Mariinsky Theatre and enjoys a close collaboration with the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia ‘Evgeny Svetlanov’, Russian National Orchestra, Russian Philharmonic and St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra.
Stravinsky's discography includes world premiere recordings of Ignaz Brüll’s Violin Concerto and Symphony in E minor, Salomon Jadassohn’s Symphony No.1, and Pavel Pabst’s Piano Concerto, on the Cameo Classics Label. During his tenure as Chief Conductor & Artistic Director, Stravinsky also released recordings of major works by Maurice Blower, Dorothy Howell, Joseph Holbrooke and Sergey Zhukov with the Karelia Philharmonic Orchestra.