Yakov Kreizberg

Yakov Kreizberg (russian: Яков Крейцберг; born Yakov Mayevich Bychkov, 24 October 1959 – 15 March 2011) was a Russian-born American conductor.

Early years

In the Soviet Union

Yakov Bychkov was born in Leningrad into a family of Jewish ancestry. His father, May Bychkov, was a doctor and military scientist. His maternal great-grandfather, Yakov Kreizberg, was a conductor at the Odessa Opera.Roland De Beer, "Yakov Kreizberg" in ''Dirigenten''. Meulenhoff (Amsterdam), , pp. 137–143 (2003). His brother is Semyon Bychkov (born in 1952).

Yakov began studying piano at age 5. He attended the Glinka Choir School, where he began composing at age 13. He subsequently studied conducting with Ilya Musin, as did his brother. In later years, Kreizberg summarised his conducting education as follows:

What Musin taught was a foundation; everything else I learned from master classes of very good and bad conductors. From the bad, I learned what not to do.

Semyon had emigrated from the Soviet Union in 1975. Yakov had also hoped to emigrate, but his father's professional status and perceived security risk were barriers to emigration. His emigration became possible only when his father chose to divorce his mother, which permitted mother and son to leave the country. By that time, he had composed numerous works, all unpublished, in manuscript. The Soviet authorities, however, did not allow any handwritten material to be taken out of the country, so he had to leave his compositions behind. The experience was such that he gave up composition and decided to become a conductor, although he also stated later that he "realised I didn't have enough talent for it".

In the United States

Following his emigration to the United States with his mother in 1976, Yakov Bychkov attended the Mannes School of Music, as did his brother, who counted among his conducting teachers,Jörg Loskill, "Yakov Kreizberg," ''Opernwelt'', 30(4), (1988), p. 61. This is the only source which acknowledges that Bychkov was one of Kreizberg's teachers. and graduated in 1981. One of his first public appearances as conductor was on 30 March 1980 at the Marble Collegiate Church, leading Haydn's Symphony No. 88. For his graduation concert, he conducted the Mannes Orchestra on 6 March 1981. Around this time, he changed his surname to his mother's maiden name, Kreizberg, to distinguish himself from his older brother.Faubion Bowers, "Bournemouth Symphony: Debussy, Tchaikovsky," ''American Record Guide'', 60(4), July/August 1997.Roderick L. Sharpe and Jeanne Koekkoek Stierman, ''Maestros in America: Conductors in the 21st Century''. Scarecrow Press (Lanham, MD), , pp. 128–131 (2008).

On the advice of Seiji Ozawa, Kreizberg moved to the University of Michigan to do his graduate studies in conducting, where his teachers included Gustav Meier. He took US citizenship in 1982. He became the first student there to earn a doctorate in both orchestral and operatic conducting, and won the school's Eugene Ormandy Prize.Bruce Duffie, "Conversation Piece: Yakov Kreizberg," ''Opera Journal'', June 2002. While at the University of Michigan, Kreizberg conducted the Livonia Youth Symphony's senior orchestra from 1983 to 1984, with performances in Livonia, Michigan, as well as at Orchestra Hall in Detroit.

Kreizberg spent summers at Tanglewood continuing his conducting studies with Erich Leinsdorf, Ozawa, and Leonard Bernstein. He received a scholarship at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute, where he continued work with Bernstein and was invited back to be assistant to Michael Tilson Thomas. Later in his career, in 2006, Kreizberg acknowledged Bernstein as the conductor whom he most admired:

The conductor I most admire and respect is Leonard Bernstein. He had a phenomenal musical talent. Not only was he a great conductor but also a wonderful composer, fabulous pianist, and a powerful educator of young audiences. One could agree or disagree with his approach to a particular score but ultimately he was so unbelievably passionate about music, and so convincing in his reading of the piece, that one couldn't help but feel that his way of interpreting it was the only right way. He even made works that, generally speaking, were not considered the most important seem like masterpieces.

From 1985 to 1988, Kreizberg was director of the orchestra at Mannes, and also taught conducting to a select number of students. During this period, he also conducted concerts of the New York City Symphony. In 1986, Kreizberg won first prize in the American Symphony Orchestra's Stokowski Conducting Competition, which resulted in a 2 March 1986 concert at Carnegie Hall, subsequently repeated the following week (9 March) at Newark Symphony Hall.

Kreizberg also worked as an accompanist to vocal students and accompanied productions such as Theatre Opera Music Institute's 1981 production of Rimsky-Korsakov's '' Mozart and Salieri''. He accompanied and toured with Roberta Peters in the late 1980s.

Professional career

Opera

Kreizberg was General Music Director (GMD) of the United Municipal Theaters of Krefeld and Mönchengladbach from 1988 to 1994, where his work included a notable revival of Aribert Reimann's opera-oratorio ''Troades'', which the composer himself received enthusiastically. At the time of his 1986 appointment to the post, he was age 27, the youngest GMD ever appointed in Germany up to that time.

Kreizberg later was GMD of the Komische Oper Berlin from 1994 to 2001. During his tenure there, he conducted 10 new opera productions and 38 orchestral concerts, as well as 2 ballets. In particular, in 1994, Kreizberg conducted Berthold Goldschmidt's ''Der gewaltige Hanrei'' in its first staging since 1932. Other work there in contemporary opera included a production of Hans Werner Henze's ''König Hirsch''.Jochen Breiholz, "In Review: From Around the World—Berlin," ''Opera News'', ''63(9)'', pp. 93–96 (March 1999). For his work at the Komische Oper, he received the ''Kritikerpreis für Musik'' in 1997 by the ''Verband der deutschen Kritiker e.V.'', the German music critics association. Kreizberg noted difficulties with funding, job cuts, and inability to fill vacancies as factors in his departure from the Komische Oper Berlin.

Kreizberg first conducted at Glyndebourne Opera in 1992, the Nikolaus Lehnhoff production of Leoš Janáček's ''Jenůfa''. He returned in 1995 for Deborah Warner's production of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's ''Don Giovanni'' (1995, documented on DVD), and Lehnhoff's production of Janáček's ''Káťa Kabanová'' (1998). He spoke of opera conducting generally as follows:

Working in opera is the single best experience a conductor can get. Without it, he will never develop into what he could be. Singers, good and bad, teach you to be more flexible and to learn things a symphony orchestra will never teach you.

Orchestral posts

Kreizberg's duties as GMD in Krefeld-Mönchengladbach included the chief conductorship of the Niederrheinsche Sinfoniker. During his tenure, Kreizberg instituted special annual concerts devoted to an individual composer, which the orchestra continued after his tenure. In 1993, Kreizberg began his affiliation with the Jeunesses Musicales World Orchestra as its Music Director and Chief Conductor.

In the UK, Kreizberg made his debut at The Proms conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra on 3 August 1993, and returned each year from 1994 to 2000. He served as principal conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra from 1995 to 2000. During his Bournemouth tenure, he led the orchestra in its Carnegie Hall debut on 17 April 1997. With the Bournemouth SO, he conducted the UK premiere of Berthold Goldschmidt's ''Passacaglia'', op. 4, on 25 July 1996 in the presence of the composer, just months before Goldschmidt died. He also conducted the premiere of Peteris Vasks's Symphony No. 2 on 30 July 1999 at The Proms.

From 2003 to 2011, Kreizberg was Chief Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra. With his Netherlands ensembles, he recorded regularly for Pentatone, which included several concerto recordings with Julia Fischer

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