AM RHEIN Chief conductor
Bellini Principal guest conductor
official biography
Vitali Alekseenok fascinates with his pervading musicality and well-rounded interpretations, as well as his open and at the same time profound personality as one of the most exciting talents of
the young generation of conductors.
Since August 2024, Alekseenok has been Chief Conductor of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, where he started as Kapellmeister in Autumn 2022 and has been working as the 1st Kapellmeister and Deputy GMD in 2023/24. Here he led the new productions of Sacre (works by Igor Stravinsky / Richard Strauss) and Eugene Onegin, the world premiere of Manfred Trojahn's Septembersonate, as well as the ballet production Surrogate Cities by Demis Volpi to music by Heiner Goebbels. He has also conducted revivals and performances of Turandot, Tosca, Hänsel und Gretel, Die Jungfrau von Orleans and Die Zauberflöte.
In the 2024/25 season, Alekseenok will lead the new production of Nabucco and Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, as well as the revivals of Traviata, Cenerentola, The Rhine Gold and Eugene Onegin at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, as well as concerts with the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker and Duisburger Philharmoniker.
Additionally, numerous debuts await him in the 2024/25 season: at the Staatsoper in Hamburg – premiering a ballet by Demis Volpi and at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, as well as in concerts with the Robert Schumann Philharmonie Chemnitz, Tiroler Symphonieorchester Innsbruck, Mecklenburgische Staatskapelle, and with the Sønderjyllands Symfoniorkester. Alekseenok will also return to the Teatro Massimo Bellini, where he has been the Principal Guest Conductor since 2022, with the Trilogia dell’estasi production as well as Mahler’s 3rd Symphony.
As a guest conductor, in 2023/24 Vitali Alekseenok was at the Barbican Centre London, where he conducted the world premiere of King Stakh's Wild Hunt, which was nominated for the Olivier Awards. In concerts he could be heard with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra (Dublin), Klangforum Wien, Orchestra e Coro di Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Filarmonica A. Toscanini in Parma, Münchner Kammerorchester and the Sofia Philharmonic, among others. In June 2024, Alekseenok made his highly acclaimed debut with the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden following a last-minute jump-in for a concert of Shostakovich's 7th Symphony.
In past seasons Vitali Alekseenok has conducted the MDR Symphony Orchestra Leipzig, Orchestra of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Staatskapelle Weimar, Festival Strings Lucerne, and the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra, among others. As assistant and conductor, he has worked at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Graz Opera, Odessa National Opera and the Varna Opera. In 2021 he conducted the first Ukrainian performance of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde at the National Opera of Ukraine.
In 2022/23 Alekseenok gave his debut at the Teatro alla Scala with the world premiere of the opera The Little Prince, along with concerts at the Beethoven Festival in Bonn, Ludwigsburg Festival and the Salzburg Festival.
Vitali Alekseenok studied trombone in Minsk, as well as conducting in St. Petersburg and Weimar. In 2021, he won first place at the Arturo Toscanini Conducting Competition in Parma, where he also received the Audience Award and the prize for the best performance of a Verdi opera.
He is the author of the book The White Days of Minsk (S. Fischer Frankfurt, 2021) and has been artistic director of the KharkivMusicFest in Ukraine since June 2021.
