Vladimir Governor's Symphony Orchestra Appoints New Principal Guest Conductor

Vladimir Altshuler will step into the role

Vladimir Altshuler, who is presently the conductor of the Academic Symphony Orchestra in St Petersburg, has been appointed as the principal guest conductor of the Vladimir Governor's Symphony Orchestra. He takes over from Artem Markin, who died earlier this year — and will continue with some of the programs Markin had planned.

Altshuler's first outing with the orchestra will be at the First Symphonic Expedition Festival, which is set to take place from June 6 to June 14 in the Vladimir region.

Originally a violist, Vladimir Altschuler studied the instrument at the Leningrad Conservatory with Yuri Kramarov. Later, he studied conducting with Aleksandr Dmitriyev and was soon appointed Chief Conductor of the St Petersburg Academic Symphony Orchestra.

Altshuler has given the Russian premieres of several works, including the nine symphonies of Bruckner and Michael Tippett's secular oratorio, A Child of Our Time.

He also holds a PhD in the history of art.

"They play very cleanly together, with wonderful discipline — this doesn't happen everywhere," Altshuler said of the orchestra. "The strings are also very good. The only thing I think is that there are not enough strings. Maybe it makes sense, if there is such an opportunity, to expand the number of strings in this orchestra; then the balance will be more correct."