Born in Leningrad (today St. Petersburg).
The Russian conductor, Alexander Titov, studied at the Leningrad Conservatory, where he concentrated on three distinct fields: choral conducting and piano graduating in 1976, and operatic-symphonic conducting (in the class of Professor Ilya Musin) graduating in 1981. In 1988, he was a prize-winner of the International Min-On Competition in Tokyo.
In 1976, he began his conducting career as assistant to Gennadi Rozhdestvensky and Mstislav Rostropovich, and has since become one of Russia’s leading conductors. From 1989 to present he is conductor of Maryinsky (former Kirov) Opera and Ballet Theatre. He is a regular Guest Conductor with the Maryinsky Theater Orchestra (since 1991), the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra (since 2002), and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (since 1993). In addition, he has worked with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and all the leading St Petersburg symphony orchestras, including the Symphony Orchestra of Saint Petersburg Philharmonia, the St. Petersburg Festival Orchestra, the St. Petersburg New Classical Orchestra, the St. Petersburg Chamber Orchestra Canon, and the St. Petersburg Conservatory Chamber Orchestra.
In 1981, Alexander Titov assumed the post of lecturer in opera and symphonic conducting at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. In July-August 1990 he participated in Tanglewood International Conductors' Seminar (USA).
Alexander Titov has toured widely, with visits to the USA, UK, Germany, Italy, Holland, Finland, Austria, Portugal, Spain, Japan, China - Hong-Kong, Columbia, Brazil, Latvia, and other countries, and has made appearances in the world's leading opera theatres, such as La Scala, La Fenice, Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, and San Francisco Opera. He works regularly with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, notably on the orchestra's ground-breaking tour of China in November 2000.
He has recorded over 70 CD's, with a huge and diverse canon drawn from the classical, romantic, and contemporary periods. He has placed particular emphasis on the symphonic, operatic, and ballet repertoires of Russian composers - including Mikhail Glinka, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Dmitry Shostakovich, Sergei Prokofiev, Alfred Schnittke. This interest extends to works of contemporary Russian composers.
Alexander Titov is the recipient of the Golden Masque Prize (2001), St. Petersburg's highest prize in theatrical arts Golden Soffit for the best conductor's work (2002), and the Fortissimo Prize initiated by the St. Petersburg Conservatory (2003).
He was also awarded the title of Merited Artist of the Russian Federation.
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