New Appointment

Vladimir Kekhman is stepping down from the position of Artistic Director of the Mikhailovsky Theatre after nearly 19 years of service at the theatre. He was appointed General Director of the theatre in May 2007 and assumed the role of Artistic Director in 2015. In 2024, Vladimir Kekhman made his directorial debut on the theatre’s stage with the opera “The Lady of the Camellias”, followed by productions of “La Bohème” and “The Queen of Spades” in 2025.
“Vladimir Kekhman has become a symbol of the Mikhailovsky Theatre’s current standing. The theatre was, in a way, reborn thanks to Kekhman,” the famous conductor Yury Temirkanov claimed in 2013.
Thanks to Vladimir Kekhman’s profound, systematic work over these years, the Mikhailovsky Theatre has become one of Russia’s leading musical theatres, a significant feature of the cultural life not only of St Petersburg but of the entire country. Since 2007, the Mikhailovsky Theatre has staged over 60 premieres, undertaken dozens of large-scale tours across Russia and abroad, and initiated collaborations with leading contemporary performers, directors, conductors, and designers.
As of 16 January, the Theatre’s Musical Director — Principal Conductor, Alexander Soloviev, has been appointed Acting Artistic Director of the Mikhailovsky Theatre. In December 2020, he took up the post of Principal Conductor of the Mikhailovsky Theatre, and in July 2022 also became its Musical Director. Today, Alexander Soloviev works on the majority of productions in the current repertoire and also serves as Musical Director for premieres.
As a conductor, Alexander Soloviev has cooperated with the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia, the Galina Vishnevskaya Opera Centre, and a number of orchestras, including the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, the Russian National Orchestra, the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia, the Svetlanov State Academic Symphony Orchestra, and others. He continues an active concert career, collaborating closely as a guest conductor with the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra and the Academic Symphony Orchestra. Since 2021, he has taught at the Rimsky-Korsakov St Petersburg State Conservatory (becoming a professor in 2023). In November 2025, he was awarded the “Onegin” Prize in the special nomination “Musical Director”.