After graduating from the Specialised Secondary School of Music of the St Petersburg Conservatoire in 1991 (trombone class of Georgy Strautman) he continued his studies at the St Petersburg State Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatoire (trombone class of senior lecturer Boris Vinogradov and Professor Viktor Sumerkin). In 2009 he took a training course specialising in symphony conducting (class of Alexander Polishchuk).
In autumn 1991 he joined the Mariinsky Theatre as a Stage Band musician, entering the Symphony Orchestra in 1996 (trombone section). Conductor of the Mariinsky Theatre Stage Band since 2007. He made his debut with the Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra with the ballets Le Sacre du printemps and The Magic Nut (2007). Since then he has regularly conducted ballets. Alexei Repnikov’s repertoire includes the ballets Anna Karenina, Apollo, Ballet No 2, The Young Lady and the Hooligan, The Fountain of Bakhchisarai, La Bayadère, Prodigal Son, Le Sacre du printemps, Le Spectre de la rose, The Magic Nut, La Rose malade (Adagietto from Gustav Mahler’s Fifth Symphony), Don Quixote, Jewels, The Firebird, Giselle, Bolero Factory, Cinderella, Infra, Carmen-Suite, Carnaval, The Little Humpbacked Horse, Le Corsaire, Swan Lake, The Legend of Love, Leningrad Symphony, Marguerite and Armand, Le Parc, Pétrouchka, Polovtsian Dances, Le Réveil de Flore, Raymonda, Romeo and Juliet, Sylvia, La Sylphide, Symphony in C, The Sleeping Beauty, Tarantella, Theme and Variations, The Dying Swan, Piano Concerto No 2, Schéhérazade, Chopiniana, Scotch Symphony, Shurale, The Nutcracker, Études, Le Jeune Homme et la mort, Concerto DSCH, “Paquita” Grand Pas, Inside the Lines and Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux.
As a conductor he has toured with the Mariinsky Ballet Compant to Covent Garden (Great Britain), the Festspielhaus (Germany) and the Metropolitan Opera and the Kennedy Center (USA), as well as touring to Tokyo, Bangkok, Singapore, Barcelona, Valencia and Hong Kong.
Alexei Repnikov conceived the idea of establishing the Grand Brass Ensemble. He founded the Brass Evenings at the Mariinsky international festival, first run at the Mariinsky Theatre Concert Hall in March 2008. As leader of the Grand Brass Ensemble he has taken part in the Summer Festival in Mikkeli (Finland, 2009) and toured to Great Britain, Japan and Switzerland.