Alexei Ogrintchouk - About

I am really delighted to have received the BBT award and all the support from the Trust which comes with it. The award has enabled me to commission a new oboe concerto with full symphony orchestra. This is well into the planning stages now and I’m looking forward to performing the work in the UK in a future season. BBT has also smoothed the way for me to release a series of concerto discs with orchestra. There’s no doubt that this will provide an additional platform to further my international career and attain greater public recognition.

Born in Moscow, Alexei Ogrintchouk is one of today’s most outstanding oboists and has been performing worldwide since the age of 13. Charismatic, technically brilliant, and apparently the possessor of record-breaking lungs, Alexei combines his ever-increasing solo engagements with guest appearances with the world’s greatest orchestras, distinguished instrumentalists and chamber ensembles. In addition to his longstanding association with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra since 2005, he was appointed Chief Conductor of Dutch orchestra Phion in 2023. Alexei has premiered several new concertos written for him and holds a variety of longstanding teaching posts in Europe’s top conservatoires.

Already the possessor of a recording portfolio of half a dozen albums at the time of his BBT Award, the Trust introduced Alexei to the Swedish label BIS, with whom he has since made six more recordings, three of them supported by BBT: Bach and Mozart concertos for the first two, followed by A 20th-Century Recital – recorded with his pianist father Leonid – featuring works by Ben-Haim, Britten, Doráti, Haas and Hindemith. BBT also paved the way for his commissioning of a new oboe concerto from ‘spectralist’ French composer, Marc-André Dalbavie, which he premiered with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jiří Bělohlávek in 2010 to great acclaim. Alexei talked about the importance of all these projects and the way he balances the various aspects of his professional career in a short BBT film. He also joined other BBT artists for BBT’s 10th anniversary weekend of concerts and events in 2013, both in concert with Mitsuko Uchida and also leading a lively and entertaining public masterclass.

Alexei was supported with a BBT Award between 2007 and 2016.

For a current biography please visit ogrintchouk.com

Photographs by Marco Borggreve