Biography
Born in the town of Khmelnitsky, in the Ukraine. In 1968, he completed his studies at the orchestra faculty of the Lvov State Conservatoire. From 1968-71, he taught at the Byelorussian State
Conservatoire. In 1974, he completed his studies with distinction at the opera-symphony conducting faculty of the Byelorussian Conservatoire. From 1974-76, he was probationer-conductor with the
Byelorussian State Symphony Orchestra and conductor of an Opera Studio attached to the Conservatoire. In 1977, he finished with distinction his postgraduate work at the Byelorussian Conservatoire,
conducting to great acclaim, a performance of Iolanta at the National Academic Bolshoi Theatre in Minsk. From 1976-78, he worked as music editor for Byelorusfilm Studios.
In 1978, Vladimir Andropov joined the Bolshoi Theatre as conductor and artistic director of the Theatre’s stage orchestra. His professional and organizational abilities, enabled him to create a
first-class stage orchestra and to prepare with it an extensive concert repertoire of classical and contemporary works by a variety of different composers, and belonging to different ages and genres.
In recent times, the Orchestra has performed with great success, giving independent concerts at the Bolshoi Theatre, as well as at many other concert venues in Russia and abroad.
From 2000-02, Vladimir Andropov was artistic director of the Bolshoi Theatre Opera Company.
He has a wide-ranging repertoire of operas and ballets which includes the operas: Oprichnik, Eugene Onegin and Iolanta by Tchaikovsky, Dargomyzhsky’s Rusalka, Rimsky-Korsakov’s
Mozart and Salieri and The Tsar’s Bride, Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, Paisello’s La Molinara, Verdi’s Nabucco and La Forza del Destino, Puccini’s
Tosca, Prokofiev’s The Love for Three Oranges; - and the ballets: The Hump-backed Horse by Rodion Shchedrin and Cipollino by Karen Khachaturyan.
At the Bolshoi Theatre he conducted the opera La Molinara and the ballets Sleeplessness by Sergei Zhukov and Roland Petit’s La Dame de Pique to music by Tchaikovsky and
Passacaille to music by Anton von Webern.
In 1988, Andropov conducted the first ever recording of Evstignei Fomin’s opera The Americans.
Since 2003, Vladimir Andropov has been artistic director of the Astrakhan State Music Theatre.
In 2001, he was a recipient of the Order of Friendship.
Art. Lebedev Studio