The Russian conductor Alexander Vedernikov has died aged 56, after having been diagnosed with COVID-19. It has been reported that he had been on a ventilator for several days.
Vedernikov was the current chief conductor of the Royal Danish Opera, music director of St Petersburg's Mikhailovsky Theatre and honorary conductor with the Odense Symphony Orchestra in Denmark. He had previously held the role of music director with the Bolshoi Theatre, which he left dramatically in 2009, stating the theatre was putting 'bureaucratic interests before artistic ones.'
Vedernikov was the son of bass Alexander Filipovich Vedernikov – who also performed at the Bolshoi Theatre – and Natalia Nikolaevna Gureeva, professor of organ at the Moscow Conservatory.
More information will be available in due course.