Alexander V. Fiseisky

Alexander Vladimirovich Fiseisky is the founder and head of the organ class at the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music (1998). Since 2009 he has headed the Department of Organ and Harpsichord at the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music.

A. V. Fiseisky leads a diverse artistic life. He is known as a performer, teacher, organizer and researcher. In 1975 he graduated with distinction from the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory in piano (class of Professor V. V. Gornostayeva) and in organ (class of Professor L. I. Roizman). In 1981 he completed his assistant traineeship at the Moscow Conservatory under L. I. Roizman.

Since 1984 he has been an organ soloist of the Moscow State Academic Philharmonic Society.

A. V. Fiseisky has performed with many renowned orchestras, instrumentalists and singers. Among his partners have been V. Gergiev and V. Fedoseyev, M. Jansons and V. Minin, M. Fedotov and A. Knyazev, V. Tonkha and A. Utkin, E. Haupt and M. Höfs, H. Albrecht and M. Onimus, E. Obraztsova and V. Levko.[His artistry has been presented in more than thirty countries worldwide. His solo recitals have taken place in such renowned venues as the National Cathedral in Washington, Trinity Church in New York, Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, St Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, Cologne Cathedral, Westminster Abbey and St Paul’s Cathedral in London, King’s College in Cambridge and Queen’s College in Oxford.

A. Fiseisky has appeared at major music festivals, recorded more than forty LPs and CDs on historic and modern organs, and given premieres of works by contemporary composers B. Tchaikovsky, R. Shchedrin, O. Galakhov, M. Kollontay, V. Ryabov, E. Opitz, V. Erbacher, M. Weiss, M. Kreuz, A. Huber and others. In the 2021–2022 concert season his solo recitals were scheduled in music centres in Austria, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Denmark and Russia.

As a performer Alexander Fiseisky pays particular attention to Russian organ music and the works of J. S. Bach. A. V. Fiseisky is the only musician in the world who regularly performs a cycle of fifteen concert programmes covering the entire organ legacy of Bach. This cycle (in total about 350 compositions) was first presented by him in the 1980–1982 seasons in Minsk and since then has been performed throughout the territory of the former USSR and Russia, from Kaliningrad to Irkutsk.

In 2000, marking the 250th anniversary of Bach’s death, A. V. Fiseisky gave unique series of concerts, performing all of Bach’s organ works four times in Germany. In Düsseldorf he performed the entire cycle in a single day: beginning this «organ marathon» at 6:30 a.m., he concluded at 1:30 a.m. the next day, spending almost nineteen hours at the organ with only minimal breaks. CDs with recordings from the Düsseldorf «organ marathon» were released by the German label Griola.[2][7]

A. V. Fiseisky has been entered in the Russian Book of Records. In the 2017–2020 seasons he performed the cycle «All Organ Works by J. S. Bach» (fifteen programmes) at the Evangelical-Lutheran Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in Moscow, and in the 2021–2024 seasons he is performing a similar cycle at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Moscow.

His teaching career began in 1998 with the opening of the organ class at the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music. Thanks to his efforts this initially modest class has grown in a relatively short time into a major centre of Russian organ art, widely recognised both in Russia and abroad.

Under A. V. Fiseisky’s guidance, a comprehensive scientific and methodological system for training organists at the secondary and higher professional education levels was developed and implemented for the first time in Russia; it is based on ninety-two working curricula, most of which were created by him (2016–2020).

In his teaching A. V. Fiseisky applies innovative methods, drawing on the best Russian and international experience. In addition to traditional training he organizes annual study trips for his students to Western Europe, where they gain practical experience with historic and modern organs (more than twenty such trips took place between 1998 and 2020). Furthermore, with leading foreign specialists invited by A. V. Fiseisky, regular seminars and masterclasses are held at the Academy for organ students of the Academy and of the Gnesin Music College (over three hundred events have been held to date).

Among A. V. Fiseisky’s students are philharmonic soloists, university, college and music school teachers, and laureates and diploma winners of various Russian and international competitions, including:

• Natalia Letyuk, teacher at the Children’s School of Arts in Vidnoye, Moscow Region – laureate of the All-Russian Competition «Best Teacher of a Children’s School of Arts» held by the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation (2018) and recipient of the special prize «For the Development of Children’s Organ Performance» of the All-Russian award «Organist of the Year» (2020);
• Olga Kemova – 1st prize laureate of the 2nd International Organ Competition named after V. F. Odoyevsky (Moscow, 2017), 1st prize laureate and Grand Prix winner of the 2nd International Organ Competition named after L. I. Roizman (Moscow, 2021);
• Nadezhda Vostokova (undergraduate student at the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music, 4th year) – 1st prize laureate of the 2nd All-Russian Open Competition for Young Organists named after J. S. Bach (Vidnoye, Moscow Region, 2018) and recipient of a Presidential grant of the Russian Federation (2018);
• Anton Ivanov (student of the Gnesin Music College, 4th year) – 1st prize laureate of the 3rd All-Russian Open Competition for Young Organists named after J. S. Bach (Vidnoye, 2019), 1st prize laureate of the 1st and 2nd International Organ Competitions named after L. I. Roizman (Moscow, 2020, 2021);
• Ksenia Podlipchuk (student of the Gnesin Music College, 3rd year) – 2nd prize laureate of the 1st International Organ Competition named after L. I. Roizman (Moscow, 2020) and 3rd prize laureate of the 4th All-Russian Open Competition for Young Organists named after J. S. Bach (Vidnoye, 2021);
• Masha Kirillova (student of the Gnesin Music College, 3rd year) – diploma winner of the 1st and 2nd International Organ Competitions named after L. I. Roizman (Moscow, 2020, 2021) and 2nd prize laureate of the 4th All-Russian Open Competition for Young Organists named after J. S. Bach (Vidnoye, 2021);
• Elizaveta Andreeva (Master’s student at the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music, 2nd year) – diploma winner of the 1st International Organ Competition named after L. I. Roizman (Moscow, 2020), 2nd prize laureate of the 2nd International Organ Competition named after L. I. Roizman (Moscow, 2021) and recipient of a Presidential grant of the Russian Federation (2020);
• Stefanida Ermolaeva (undergraduate student at the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music, 2nd year) – diploma winner of the 2nd International Organ Competition named after L. I. Roizman (Moscow, 2021).

A. V. Fiseisky has played a major role in the development of Russian organology and in the scholarly and educational fields of organ art. Since 2006 the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music has annually hosted, at his initiative, the International Symposium «The Organ in the 21st Century», the International Conference «Gnesin Organ Readings», the International Festival «Musical Offering to J. S. Bach» and the International Organ Competitions named after V. F. Odoyevsky and L. I. Roizman, which bring together leading Russian and foreign specialists.

On A. V. Fiseisky’s initiative the Academy regularly holds «Young Organist Days» involving students of organ classes at children’s music schools in Moscow and the Moscow Region. He has also overseen the creation of Russia’s only specialised Organ Research Library at the Department of Organ and Harpsichord, which now holds more than four thousand items.

A. V. Fiseisky enjoys high international standing. In the music world he is regarded not only as an outstanding specialist in Bach’s organ works but also as a leading expert on the organ culture of Russia. He regularly gives masterclasses, lectures and seminars at foreign universities (in Vienna, Hamburg, Baltimore and elsewhere) and serves on the juries of organ competitions in Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Poland and Russia.[3][2]

He is the only Russian organist ever invited to the convention of the American Guild of Organists (Chicago, 2006), where he gave a seminar on Russian organ music for more than two thousand American colleagues, and to the «London Organ Day» (London, 1999), where he gave a similar seminar for over four hundred British organists.

His recordings include the CD set «200 Years of Russian Organ Music» (Etcetera, Netherlands) and the five-volume anthology «Organ Music in Russia and the Baltic States» (Bärenreiter, Germany). In 2018 Bärenreiter published the complete organ works of A. K. Glazunov edited by A. V. Fiseisky.

A. V. Fiseisky’s work thus spans two key directions in world organ art that are vital for Russian musical culture: he is a leading expert and interpreter of the organ works of J. S. Bach and other Western European composers, while also actively promoting Russian organ music abroad.

He is the initiator and driving force behind international organ festivals in Russia and a recognised authority on organ installation and maintenance. From 2005 to 2020, under his artistic direction, the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow hosted the international festival «Nine Centuries of the Organ» featuring leading foreign soloists. In 2018, again under his guidance, a new organ by the German firm «Fleugels» was installed in the Rachmaninoff Concert Hall of Moscow Philharmonic–2.

In 2019, on A. V. Fiseisky’s initiative, the annual national music forum «All-Russian Organ Day» was established.

A. V. Fiseisky is the author and host of the radio series «Almanac: The Art of the Organ» on All-Union Radio (1990–1991) and «Organs of the World» on Radio Russia (1992–2000). He has published numerous articles in Russian and international journals on the history of the organ.

In 2009 his monograph «The Organ in the History of World Musical Culture (3rd Century BC – 1800)» was published, and in 2010, 2012 and 2021 three volumes of scholarly articles entitled «Organ Art» appeared under his editorship. The collections «Topical Issues of Piano Pedagogy» include his articles «Leonid Isaakovich Roizman – Founder of the Moscow Organ School» (2017) and «German Organ Building in Russia» (2018), while the 2021 volume of «Organ Art» contains his study «Toccata and Fugue in D minor by J. S. Bach: Original or Apocryphon?».

A. V. Fiseisky enjoys immense respect among Russian and foreign organists. He has served as Vice President of the USSR Association of Organists (1987–1991) and President of the Association of Organists and Organ Builders of Moscow (1988–1994). He is President of the V. F. Odoyevsky Centre for Organ Art in Moscow, founded at his initiative in 1990.