Sergey Levitin
(United Kingdom)

Born in Russia, Sergey Levitin studied in St. Petersburg and Vienna where his teachers were
Aaron Knaifel, Mark Komissarov, Mikhail Gantwarg and Igor Ozim. In 1996 he was
appointed Concert Master of the Mariinsky Theatre (Kirov) Orchestra conducted by Valery
Gergiev. With that orchestra, Levitin toured worldwide and took part in many recording
projects for Philips Classics and Decca including Shostakovich’s symphonies and Rimsky-
Korsakov’s Sheherazade.
Sergey Levitin performed as a soloist with Valery Gergiev and Gianandrea Noseda in the USA,
Switzerland, Italy, Finland, at the Edinburgh Festival and particularly the White Nights
Festival in St. Petersburg where he has also appeared with the Wiener Streichersolisten.
In 2003 Sergey Levitin joined the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden where
he is currently Concertmaster.
Sergey Levitin won different awards including prize for the best performance of Paganini
capriccios at the prestigious Paganini International violin competition in Genova. Recent
seasons were marked both by appearances with orchestras and recitals in the UK, France,
Italy, Russia, Norway, Spain, at the Wigmore Hall, at the Royal Opera House (both with the
Royal Ballet and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House).
Sergey Levitin has been in high demand as a chamber musician throughout his career. Aged
fourteen he won “Concertino-Praha” radio competition as a member of a piano trio. In 2004
Sergey Levitin, together with violist Alexander Zemtsov and cellist Leonid Gorokhov
founded the Hermitage String Trio of London where he served the violin position until 2007.
He collaborated with a number of highly acclaimed artists including Sir Antonio Pappano,
Alison Balsom, Piers Lane, Alexei Volodin and Nikolai Demidenko.
Sergey Levitin records for Dutton Epoch. World premiere recordings of violin concertos by
Charles-Marie Widor, Sergei Bortkiewicz, Maximilian Steinberg and Charles Villiers
Stanford with Sergey Levitin as a soloist and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and
Royal Northern Sinfonia, conducted by Martin Yates were released in 2015,2016,2017 and
2018 respectively.
As a guest-leader, Sergey Levitin appeared with numerous leading European orchestras
including Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra,
London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, WDR Symphony Orchestra,
Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre National du
Capitole de Toulouse amongst others. At the request of Valery Gergiev he led “World
Orchestra for Peace” in 2000 and 2003.