Alexander Tseitlin - Guest Conductor, 2021-2022 Season
Alexander Michael Tseitlin was born and raised in San Diego where his earliest days were filled listening to his mother Irina Tseitlin (a world-renowned concert violinist), playing and studying the great works of violin literature. After coming home from school, he would practice for hours, waiting for his father (a renowned master teacher whose students have taken top prizes at almost every major violin competition) to finish teaching so that he could begin his own lesson late in the evening. Alexander lived and breathed music throughout his childhood, but his roots reach back to the Bolshoi Theater where his grandfather was the conductor, and to the Bolshoi Ballet Company where his grandmother was the prima ballerina.
During his college years, Alexander spent 3 years at the University of California in Los Angeles studying violin performance with Mark Kaplan, but spent his extra hours exploring music and conducting with the composers and conductors on faculty. He then spent time at UCLA’s rival university, the University of Southern California, studying violin performance with Alice Schoenfeld. Following his time in Los Angeles, Alexander Tseitlin toured the east coast studying with prominent performers and composers in New York, Boston, and Rochester with the aim of expanding his pedagogical and musical palette.
As a performer, Alexander made his orchestral debut at age 9 with Vivaldi’s “Spring” at the Lyceum Theater in San Diego and has since performed throught the United States as well as Germany, Italy, Austria, Russia, Belgium, South Africa, Mexico, and Portugal. He has and continues to perform much of the concerto and solo repertoire for violin and viola. His chamber music career has lead him to collaborate with prominent artists such as David Chan (concertmaster, Metropolitan Opera), Mark Kaplan, Paul Coletti, and Antonio Lysy, Martin Chalifour (concertmaster, LA Philharmonic), and Robert deMaine (principal cello, LA Philharmonic). He has recorded several albums with independent labels and regularly premiers the solo and chamber works of the composers of today. In his teenage years, Alexander fell in love with the viola and began his journey performing and recording the great repertoire for the instrument.
As a conductor and director, Alexander spent time on the podium with the flagship orchestras at the California Institute of Music in 1999, the International Music Festival in Viana Do Castello, Portugal from 2003 to 2004, and at the California Institute of Music from 2014 to 2016. He is currently the conductor and artistic director of the Fall of Ai Chamber Orchestra based in Los Angeles, CA. He is also currently serves as an associate conductor and associate director of the Conejo Valley Youth Orchestra. Alexander is also currently the artistic director of Fall of Ai Productions, an orchestral music studio which collaborates with prominent contemporary artists and producers, and works closely with many prominent music and film studios.