KRIŠS RUSSMAN

Krišs Russman's first opera ‘Happy Birthday, Mr President’ was commissioned by the Rostock Volkstheater in Germany in 2013 and hailed by the German national newspaper Die Welt as ‘a celebrated world première.’ His completion of George Butterworth's Fantasia was premièred by Martyn Brabbins and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in Glasgow in November 2015. It was released by BIS Records in 2016 on the first CD of Butterworth's entire orchestral music with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and soloist James Rutherford conducted by Krišs Russman. The disc received a 5-star review in the BBC Music Magazine and reached No. 1 in the official British Classical Music Charts, remaining in the top ten for over four months and chosen as Classic FM’s Record of the Week. The CD has, so far, received 1.4 million plays on Spotify, a quarter of a million alone for the Fantasia recording.

In 2023, Krišs Russman was commissioned by the Filharmonia Dolnośląska in Jelenia Góra to compose Four Baczyński Songs, using texts by the prolific and distinguished Polish poet Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński who was killed in action during the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 at the age of 23. The world première was given on 22nd September by the Filharmonia Dolnośląska conducted by Krišs Russman with soloist Ewelina Jurga.

As a young violinist, pianist and horn player, Krišs Russman received his formative musical training from the Hungarian teacher and conductor Béla de Csilléry, a pupil of Bartók and Kodály, and the distinguished horn player Patrick Strevens. As a boy soprano he was a founding member of The Tudor Consort directed by the Butterworth scholar Anthony Murphy. He is a graduate of the Royal College of Music in London, where he won the Theodore Stier Prize for conducting, and Cambridge University, where he received a doctorate in music under the supervision of Alexander Goehr and Robin Holloway. He studied conducting with Jorma Panula in Helsinki, St, Petersburg, Florence, Nuremberg and London and with Norman Del Mar at the Royal College as well as composition with Alan Ridout, harmony and counterpoint with John Lambert, piano with John Barstow, horn with Julian Baker and singing with Lyndon van der Pump. He was appointed principal horn player of the BBC Concert Orchestra in London when he was 22, whilst still a student at the RCM, and he free-lanced with all the major London orchestras performing for Solti, Muti, Dorati, Ashkenazy, Dutoit, Giulini, Barenboim, Tennstedt and Rattle. 

Six years later, Krišs Russman trained to become a BBC Radio and TV producer and received worldwide recognition for his music programmes including an EMMY nomination and awards from Britain's Royal Television Society (RTS) and Royal Philharmonic Society.   

Whilst still working at the BBC, he made his operatic conducting debut performing La Traviata and I Pagliacci at the Latvian National Opera in Riga. This led to his making a best-selling CD of the orchestral music of the Latvian composer Pēteris Vasks with the Riga Philharmonic for the Sony/RCA Red Seal label. Conducting engagements soon followed with Tosca at Hungarian State Opera and Kraków National Theatre as well as Cosi fan tutte and Madama Butterfly at Prague State Opera. The latter created a sensation in the Czech capital. The international publication Opera enthused:

‘I could not believe I was hearing the same orchestra. Under the baton of Krišs Russman the musicians of the Prague State Opera played with deep concentration and achieved a wonderful sound. The combination of conductor and the Czech soprano Zora Jehlicková (Cio-Cio-San) made for a remarkable performance.’    

Krišs Russman has since conducted the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra and Augsburg Philharmonic Orchestra in Germany, Nordic Chamber Orchestra in Sweden, Danish Philharmonic Orchestra, Athens Symphony Orchestra, Karlsbad Symphony Orchestra in the Czech Republic, Biel Symphony Orchestra in Switzerland, Pori Sinfonietta in Finland, Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra in Norway and the St. Petersburg State Academic Symphony Orchestra. His debuts with the major symphony orchestras of South Africa, in Cape Town and Durban, received full house standing ovations and exceptional reviews. The Cape Times, under the heading ‘Outstanding performances led by a remarkable conductor’, enthused: 

‘Russman’s gestures communicate musical intention to the players in seemingly effortless fashion...The performance of Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings was simply outstanding and indeed I cannot recall hearing a better account of this work.’  

After his German debut in Augsburg, the Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung reported:

‘The conductor Krišs Russman gave wings to the [Augsburg] Philharmonic...All his musical antennae were fully alert and [in Sibelius’ 5th Symphony] he led the musicians to the highest of all heights.’

In the 2008/09 season, Krišs Russman made his debut with the London Symphony Orchestra and Orchestre Colonne in Paris conducting the music of the renowned Polish film composer Zbigniew Preisner. He was also the first British conductor to perform with Ulan Bator State Opera in a production of La Bohème. In the 2009/2010 season he made his debut with Kiev National Opera conducting Rigoletto. His debut in China followed in 2012 conducting the Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra. In January 2015, he conducted the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in recordings of George Butterworth's music to commemorate the centenary of the composer's death.  In the 2015/16 season, he made his debut with the Belgrade National Theatre conducting Rigoletto. The 2016/17 season included debuts with the Sarajevo National Theatre, the Bolshoi National Theatre of Minsk, Istanbul State Opera, the Macedonian National Opera and Philharmonic Orchestras, Armenia's Yerevan Opera Theatre and 25 performances at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London of the acclaimed production of Phantom of the Opera. The 2017/18 season included debuts with the Muscat Royal Philharmonic, Galați Opera and Tîrgu Mureș State Philharmonic orchestras. Future engagements include debuts with the Royal Oman Symphony Orchestra and the Filharmonia Dolnośląska in Jelenia Góra.

Krišs Russman‘s compositions include Rīta Gaisma (Morning Light): In Memoriam Andris Slapiņš (2002, commissioned by the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra); Musica Dolorosa (2005, commissioned by the Pori Sinfonietta in Finland). In 2012, the Rostock Volkstheater in Germany commissioned Krišs Russman's first opera, Happy Birthday, Mr President. Opernwelt enthused, ‘There is undeniable quality here’ and Das Opernglas described the work as ‘a tragic story that makes great opera’. In 2014, Krišs Russman completed George Butterworth’s Fantasia for orchestra which was left unfinished before the composer was killed in the First World War. The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, under Martyn Brabbins, gave the world premiere of the Fantasia at Glasgow City Halls on 19th November 2015.  London's The Telegraph applauded the completion as 'convincingly Butterworthian' and 'a considerable achievement.' Krišs Russman’s recording of the work for BIS Records has been unanimously praised in the British, German and French press with BBC Music Magazine applauding the whole CD as ‘powerful advocacy for one of British music’s most grievous losses.’ The August 2023 edition of the BBC Music Magazine included the world première broadcast of the Fantasia on its cover CD, with Erik Levi describing Krišs Russman’s completion as ‘brilliantly idiomatic’.