Musical Journeys

As a guest conductor he worked with the Beijing Symphony Orchestra (2014-2015), the Bruckner Orchestra in Linz,  Austria (2013-2014), the Orchestre symphonique et lyrique de Nancy, France. 

The newly built opera house in Vladivostok was inaugurated under his direction. There, it has been his task to create a new symphony orchestra, choir, ballet and ensemble of opera singers. During his three-year tenure as General  Director, Artistic Director and Chief Conductor Anton Lubchenko staged 15 opera and ballet productions. Thanks to  his initiative no less than 9 international festivals were held at the State Primorsky Theatre and he was invited,  together with his orchestra and ensemble, to perform at the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, the Mariinsky  Theatre in St. Petersburg, and the Brucknerhaus in Linz, Austria. 

The list of his other engagements is impressive, and includes the following: 

• In 2019 his string sextet op.106 Souvenir de Leonardo accompanied the exhibition “Mona Lisa - a smile for Europe”  in the Red City Hall in Berlin. The work was written especially for this exhibition on the occasion of the elections to  the European Parliament. 
• In 2018 his very own 9th Symphony (Linzer Symphony) had its world premiere in Austria at the Brucknerhaus in Linz  under the baton of Vladimir Fedoseyev. Together with Mozart’s Linzer Symphony it was later recorded and released in the album “Two Linzer Symphonies”.
• During the 2015/16 season, following an invitation of Valery Gergiev, he conducted several operas (Iolanta,  Mazeppa, May Night, The Tale of Tsar Saltan, and The Story of a Real Man) as a guest for the Mariinsky Theatre, St.  Petersburg. He also recorded the soundtrack he had written for the film Three Days Before Spring with the Mariinsky  Symphony Orchestra. 
• In 2015, his opera Doctor Zhivago, based on the novel by Boris Pasternak, had its world premiere under the  composer’s baton at the Theater Regensburg, Germany, to much critical acclaim. Later, that year, the opera was also  performed at the State Primorsky Theatre, Vladivostok. 
• In 2009 he premiered and conducted his ballet, In Colors, in Toronto with the National Ballet of Canada.  

Anton Lubchenko graduated from the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in St. Petersburg in 2008 in the composition  class of Aleksander Mnatsakanyan (a student of Dmitri Shostakovich) and in the piano class of Natalya Brovermann.  

His compositions currently include 9 symphonies, 4 operas, several ballets, chamber music and numerous other  works for orchestra, choirs and pianoforte, and the music for 5 feature movies. His works have been performed  under the batons of, for instance, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Dmitry Yurovsky, Kristjan Järvi, Fabio Mastrangelo, David  Briskin, Tom Woods and Massimo Zanetti, and by renowned orchestras such as the ones of the Mariinsky and the  Mikhailovsky Theater, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the MDR Radio Symphony Orchestra in Leipzig, the Beijing  Symphony Orchestra, Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, Moscow Radio Symphony, Academic Symphony Orchestra  of the St.-Petersburg Philharmonic. 

Future plans include the world premiere of his opera WIR (WE), based on the futuristic novel of the same name by  Yevgeny Zamyatin. This work has been commissioned by the Regensburg Theater and will be premiered on January  29, 2022.

Most recent career highlights include Freddy’s debut at the BBC Proms, an extensive Asian tour including the Seoul Arts Centre and PyeongChang Chamber Music Festival in South Korea; the Esplanade Concert Hall in Singapore; and concerto appearances with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Taiwan National Symphony, RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra and Bergen Philharmonic. A favourite touring artist, Freddy’s recent tours include a play/conducting tour across New Zealand with New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and an extensive twelve-date tour with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra across the UK for which he received critical acclaim: Kempf is a pianist in a million… the incredible definition of Rachmaninov's inner filigree which emerges all the clearer for a refusal to use the sustaining pedal to blur the sound… his colossal but perfect weight simply stuns. (The Arts Desk)

The 19/20 season begins with a return to Japan where Freddy gives major recitals in Kanagawa, Tokyo and Osaka, and plays Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No 2 with Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra. Later in the season, Freddy joins the Armenian National Philharmonic performing Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F and tours the UK with Siberian Symphony Orchestra performing Rachmaninov Piano Concerto Nos 2 &3.

A committed recitalist, Freddy has appeared in many of the world’s most important concert halls including the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire, the Berlin Konzerthaus, Milan’s Sala Verdi, the Concertgebouw, London’s Cadogan and Barbican, Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall, the Sydney Opera House and Tokyo’s Suntory Hall. This season’s recital highlights include appearances at the Birmingham International Piano Series, Moscow’s House of Music, and the Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory.

A prolific recording artist, Freddy records exclusively for BIS Records. His latest Prokofiev CD, featuring a selection of Prokofiev Sonatas, was released earlier in October 2019. Previously his Tchaikovsky recital CD released in Autumn 2015 was received to great acclaim. In 2013, Freddy released a Schumann recital disc which was warmly received by the critics and, in 2010, his recording of Prokofiev’s Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 3 with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Andrew Litton was nominated for the prestigious Gramophone Concerto Award, with the associated magazine describing the collaborative duo as “a masterful Prokofievian pair”. This highly successful collaboration was followed by a recording of Gershwin’s works for piano and orchestra, released in 2012 and described in the press as “beautiful, stylish, light, and elegant… magnificent”. Meanwhile, Freddy’s solo recital disc of Rachmaninov, Bach/Busoni, Ravel and Stravinsky, released in 2011, was praised by BBC Music Magazine for its wonderful delicate playing and fine sense of style.

Born in London in 1977, Freddy made his concerto debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of 8 and further came to national prominence in 1992 when he won the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition. In 1998, his award of third, rather than first, prize in the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow provoked protests from the audience and an outcry in the Russian press, which proclaimed him “the hero of the competition”.