Alexander Boldachev is a virtuoso harpist, composer, teacher, exclusive artist of the Italian Harp house Salvi Harps, guest soloist of the Bolshoi Theater. He received a Master’s degree in harp, composition and conducting from the Zurich Academy of Arts, becoming the best graduate of Professor Catherine Michel.
Laureate of more than a dozen prestigious international competitions, including composing competitions; awarded by the “Britain’s Brilliant Prodigies”, “Aoyama Music Award” in Kyoto, “Pro Europa” in Austria, presented by Heinz Fischer for high achievements in the field of culture; Fellow of the international foundations Vontobel in Switzerland and Banque Populaire in France, as well as the Russian foundations for the development of young musicians Spivakov, Temirkanov, the Rotary Club and Houses of Music that gave a start to his career. Laureate of the Prix Walo television award in Switzerland.
In 2021, he was awarded a letter of thanks from the Minister of the Government of Moscow.
Over 25 years of active work, Alexander has established himself as a performer with a huge repertoire, a creative producer and organizer of concerts and events, an interesting speaker and presenter, a music researcher and arranger of more than 200 works of classical and pop music for harp, a bold composer looking for new forms of material distribution, an active user of
social networks, a multi-format musician and conductor. He represents Russia on all continents, actively participates in the development of the modern image of the artist, transmits his knowledge in numerous master classes.
The activity of the Russian harpist is devoted to the popularization of the harp, Russian music, creating a balance between “culture” and “art”, educational actions, and the fight against stereotypes.
In 2019, Alexander organized the first Harp Festival in Zurich, where many Russian artists, including Spivakov Foundation laureates, performed in creative collaboration with their
Swiss colleagues. On October 20, 2020, Alexander initiated World Harp Day, which brought together more than 100 harpists from 50 countries on one online platform. For seven hours, musicians from all over the world performed national music.
Alexander plays the harp, piano and writes music from the age of five. He began his musical education in his native St.Petersburg, from the age of twelve in France, and at the age of fifteen he continued his studies in Switzerland. He travels with solo concerts around the world, leads master classes at such educational institutions as the Royal Conservatory in Toronto, Juilliard School in New York, Royal Academy in London, Ferenc Liszt Academy in Budapest. In 2018, he wrote and performed an electronic harp solo at the FIFA World Cup Opening Ceremony, sharing the stage with Robbie Williams and Aida Garifullina. He performs in such world halls as Carnegie Hall in New York, the Hall of Gaveau in Paris, the Musikverein in Vienna, the Great Hall of the Philharmonic in St. Petersburg, and others, both with solo concerts and in collaboration with many European and Russian orchestras.
Alexander was awarded the “Best Rock Cover Song” award from The Akademia Music Awards in Los Angeles for a unique performance of the song “Californication” by the American band Red Hot Chili Peppers. His extensive compositional activity concentrates on expanding the harp repertoire through transcriptions of classical music (“Scheherazade”, “Petrushka”, “Demon”), interpretation of popular hits (The Beatles, Nautilus Pompilius, ABBA, KINO, Deep Purple, Nirvana, Scorpions, Ray Charles, Michael Jackson, Adele) and movie music (“Pirates of the Caribbean”, “Spirited Away”,
“Circus”, “My gentle and tender beast”).
In 2017, the chief conductor of the Bolshoi Theater, Tugan Sohiev, invited Alexander to perform on the premieres of “Carmen”, “The Condemnation of Faust” and the acclaimed “Nureyev”, where he edited and played the unique solo for the Harp on Stage. Some time later, the premiere of his opus “Verbum” based on a story by Nabokov for choir, harp, organ and reciter took place on the historical stage. Moreover, since 2017, Alexander has been working as a music director, composer and one of the actors of the play by Alla Demidova and Kirill Serebrennikov “Akhmatova. Poem without a hero” in the Gogol Center. One of the last theatrical works was the mono-play “Orpheus” together with Chulpan Khamatova.
Alexander Boldachev is a participant of the festivals Burning Man, Musical Olympus, New Names, Mozart+, Davos and Gstaad in Switzerland, Big Russian Ball in Rome, Bravo Award, SKIF Sergey Kuroyokhin, Burberry and D&G shows, projects of The Moscow and St. Petersburg Houses of Music.
The highlight of the year 2018 was the first World Tour: concerts and masterclasses in the USA, England, France, Japan, Brazil, Canada, Switzerland, China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Germany, Turkey, Argentina, Italy, Serbia, and Russia.
Among his Albums are the “Frédéric” with Chopin’s music, “Harp as an Orchestra” with favorite Opera tunes, “From Russia with Harp” with 15 Russian Composers, and several joint projects with violin, flute, piano, and voice.