• People´s Artist of Russia.
• Order of Honour
Sergei Roldugin was born on 28 September 1951 on the island of Sakhalin. At the age of five he began to study the piano and, at the age of eight, he took up the cello. Graduated from the Riga School of Music (1970) and later from the Leningrad Conservatoire (1975, class of Anatoly Nikitin). There he also undertook a trainee assistantship.
As a student he joined the Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Philharmonic, Honoured Ensemble of Russia.
In 1984 he became first soloist and leader of the cello section in the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra. Prize-winner at the Prague Spring International Cello Competition (3rd prize and Bronze Medal, 1980).
In 2003-2004 he was rector of the St Petersburg State Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatoire.
Since 2006 Sergei Roldugin has been Artistic Director of the St Petersburg House of Music, which was founded on his initiative.
Since 2004 he has worked as a conductor. He appears in Moscow, St Petersburg and Novosibirsk in Russia as well as abroad in Germany, Finland and Japan. Guest Conductor of the Mariinsky Theatre.
He performs concerts throughout Russia, Germany, Switzerland, Finland, Italy, Great Britain, Norway and the Czech Republic. He has a successful working partnership with the conductors Arvīds Jansons, Mariss Jansons, Saulius Sondeckis, Juozas Domarkas, Alexander Lazarev, Valery Gergiev, Martyn Brabbins, Alain Paris, Roland Melia, Ravil Martynov and Gintaras Rinkevičius.
The musician’s expansive solo and orchestral repertoire includes works from various eras and styles. He has recorded extensively for radio and television.
Each year he runs series of master-classes in Russia, Europe, South Korea and Japan. He is actively involved in the work of the juries of various Russian and international competitions.
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