Valeriy Petrovich Leonov (Trubin-Leonov; born 20 October 1945, Michurinsk) is a Ukrainian and Russian conductor and music educator; Honoured Artist of the Ukrainian SSR since 1986.
Leonov was born on 20 October 1945 in the city of Michurynsk (now Tambov region, Russia). In 1970, he graduated from the Leningrad Music School at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatoire (piano and choral conducting class of Vadym Otrezov). In 1974 he graduated from the Conducting and Choral Department of the Leningrad Conservatoire under Professor Alexander Anisimov; in 1977 he graduated from the Opera and Symphony Conducting Department of the same conservatoire under Professor Ilya Musin; in 1981 he completed postgraduate studies at the conservatoire under Yuri Temirkanov.
From 1977 to 1981 he worked as a conductor of the Novosibirsk State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre and a lecturer at the Novosibirsk Conservatoire. In 1981-1988, he worked as artistic director and chief conductor of the Voroshilovgrad Regional Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra.
In 1988-1994 he worked as artistic director and chief conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Radio and Television of Belarus in Minsk; at the same time, in 1989-1992 he was conductor of the Bolshoi Theatre of Belarus and in 1988-1992 he taught at the Belarusian State Conservatory at the Department of Opera and Symphony Conducting.
In 1994-2002, he served as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Southfield Symphony Orchestra (USA); in 1995-2006, he was the Principal Guest Conductor of the Detroit Chamber Choir and Symphony Orchestra (USA).
He was one of the founders of the Luhansk State Academy of Culture and Arts, where in 2007-2013 he worked as a professor of the Department of Solo Singing and Choral Conducting, and at the same time headed the opera studio there.
Since 2014, he has worked as a choirmaster and conductor at the Primorsky Opera and Ballet Theatre in Vladivostok. Since 2016, he has been working at the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg.
Artistic background.
During his first period in Luhansk in the 1980s, the city hosted the first performances of Igor Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms, Gustav Mahler's First Symphony, and Sergei Taneyev's cantata John of Damascus. He was the initiator and organiser of the Music Premieres of Ukraine festival in Voroshylovhrad in 1982. Under his patronage, the city hosted original concerts by Vitaliy Hubarenko, Vitaliy Kyreiko, Lev Kolodub, Myroslav Skoryk, and Andriy Shtoharenko.
While working at the opera studio in Luhansk, he staged operas such as Montecchi and Capulet by Oleksandr Khorutchenko, Eugene Onegin by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, The Mermaid by Oleksandr Dargomyzhsky, Sister Angelica by Giacomo Puccini, and The Key to the Bridge by Jacques Offenbach.
The conductor's repertoire also includes symphonies by Anton Bruckner, works by Dmitri Shostakovich, Béla Bartók and Richard Strauss.
He has performed with the symphony orchestras of Ukraine and Russia. He toured Russia, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the USA. He has recorded on the Ukrainian Radio.
