Alexei Ogrintchouk is one of the most outstanding oboists today. A graduate of the Gnessin School of Music and the Paris Conservatory, where he studied with Maurice Bourgue, Jacques Tys, and Jean-Louis Capezzali, he combines a surprising technique with virtuosity and lyricism.
Originally from Moscow, Alexei was already performing throughout Russia, Europe, and Japan from the age of 13. He is a winner of several international competitions, including the prestigious CIEM International Competition in Geneva at the age of 19. He was also awarded the European Juventus Prize in 1999, two “Victoires de la Musique Classique” awards in France in 2002, the Triumph Prize in Russia in 2005, and the Borletti Buitini Trust Award in 2007. He has been part of the prestigious Rising Stars and BBC New Generation Artists programs.
Since August 2005, Alexei Ogrintchouk has been the principal solo oboist of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam with Mariss Jansons and later with Daniele Gatti. Until then, he had held the same position in the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra with Valery Gergiev, a position he secured at the age of 20.
Alexei Ogrintchouk combines orchestral performance with his growing engagements as a soloist and conductor. As a charismatic and brilliant technical soloist, he has performed concerts under the direction of conductors such as Mariss Jansons, Valery Gergiev, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Seiji Ozawa, Fabio Luisi, Kent Nagano, Michel Plasson, Sir Andrew Davis, Roman Kofman, Daniel Harding, Jiri Belohlavek, Stephan Deneve, Tugan Sokhiev, Lothar Zagrosek, Jaap van Zweden, John Neschling, Andris Nelsons, Susanna Malkki, Walter Weller, Ion Marin, Paul Goodwin, Lu Jia, Gianandrea Noseda, Hubert Soudant, Martyn Brabbins, Thomas Sanderling, Kees Bakels, Enrique Mazzola, Ed Spanjaard, Michael Sanderling, Jan Willem de Vriend, and with the best orchestras in the world, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Orchestras of the Bolshoi and Mariinsky Theaters, the Orchestra of the National Academy of Santa Cecilia, all the BBC Orchestras, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the National Orchestra of Russia, the Kontzerthausorchester Berlin, the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Capitole de Toulouse, the Sao Paolo State Symphony Orchestra, the National Orchestra of Belgium, the Beethovenhalle Orchestra Bonn, the National Orchestra of Lille, the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra, the Basel Symphony Orchestra, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, the National Orchestra of the Pays de la Loire, the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, the Norrkoping Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, the Navarra Symphony Orchestra, the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, the MAV Orchestra of Budapest, the Dutch Radio Kamer Philharmonie, the Sinfonia Varsovia group, the West German Philharmonic, the Moscow Virtuosi, the KREMERata Baltica, Moscow Soloists, the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, the Auvergne Orchestra, Europa Galante, the Cologne Sinfonietta, New European Strings, the Seville Baroque Orchestra, as well as the chamber orchestras of Concertgebouw, Munich, Stuttgart, Mito, Prague, Verbier Festival, Lithuania, Sweden and Geneva and the Camerata RCO.
As a conductor, he has led the Mariinsky Orchestra, the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Camerata RCO (Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra), the Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra, the Geneva Chamber Orchestra, the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, the Macedonian Philharmonic Orchestra, the Besançon Orchestra, the Picardie Orchestra, the Amsterdam and Riga Sinfoniettas, the KREMERata Baltica, the Geneva International Orchestra, the Seville Baroque Orchestra, and the Chamber Orchestras of Sweden, Lithuania, and the Verbier Festival.
As a recitalist and chamber musician, he is highly sought after and has performed all over the world, including at the Theatre du Chatelet, Theatre des Champs-Elysees, Cite de la Musique, Auditorium du Louvre in Paris, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Musikverein in Vienna, Royal Albert Hall, Wigmore Hall in London, Carnegie Hall in New York, Auditorium in Tel Aviv, Suntory Hall in Tokyo… He is also a frequent guest at festivals such as the BBC PROMS, MIDEM, Colmar, Lockenhaus, Verbier, Luzern, Berliner Festspiele, Santa Cecilia, Cortona, Edinburgh International Festival, City of London Festival and the White Nights, Crescendo, Svyatoslav Richter December Nights and the Easter Festival in Russia. His chamber music partners have included Gidon Kremer, Radu Lupu, Thomas Quasthoff, Misha Maisky, Vladimir Spivakov, Yuri Bashmet, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Maurice Bourgue, Sarah Chang, Tabea Zimmermann, Nikolai Znaider, Valery Affanasiev, Julian Rachlin, Leif Ove Andsnes, Fabio Biondi, Alexander Lonquich, Dmitri Sitkovetsky and Sergio Azzolini, as well as the Belcea, Eben, Sine Nomine and Tokyo string quartets.
Alexei Ogrintchouk was appointed successor to Maurice Bourgue as professor of oboe at the Geneva University of Music from September 2011. He was also a visiting professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London (2001-2011), professor at Musikene in San Sebastián (2009-2011) and at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague since 2010. He has given numerous master classes, such as at the Pablo Casals Chamber Music Academy in Prades, the Mahler Academy in Ferrara, the Summer Courses in Bilbao, the Académie Musicale de Villecroze, the Aurora Academy in Sweden, and the Weimar International Master Class.
His first CD with works by Schumann was released in the “Nouveau Musiciens” series by Harmonia Mundi to exceptional reviews. His discography includes the world premiere of the slow movement of Beethoven’s Oboe Concerto (Raptus Classics), music by Britten (Record One), Skalkotas (Bis Records), Mozart’s Oboe Concerto with the Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra (PentaTone Classics). His three most recent CDs include Oboe Concertos by Bach, Concerto and Quartet by Mozart, a 20th-century recital, and Strauss’s Oboe Concerto (all on BIS Records).