Alexander Anissimov is currently Conductor Emeritus of the RTE National Symphony Orchestra, Ireland, Principal Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Belarus and Principal Conductor of Opera Rostov-on-Don. He is an Honoured Artist of Russia. From 2005 he is Principal Conductor of Busan Philharmonic, Korea.

Alexander Anissimov studied in St Petersburg and later in Moscow under Gennady Roshdestvensky. He made his debut in Leningrad with the Marinsky Philharmonia Orchestra. In 1980 he became principal conductor of the Bolshoi Theatre of Belarus in Minsk. With an interval of five years when he went to Perm, Russia, to be Principal Conductor, he held this position until 2002. He is a regular guest conductor of Kirov Opera and St Petersburg Philharmonic. He toured with Kirov Opera in 1994 in Korea. From 1995-2001 he was Principal Guest Conductor and then Principal Conductor of the RTE National Symphony Orchestra, Ireland.

He is a regular guest conductor with the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland and in August 2002 Alexander Anissimov conducted them in two Wagner Ring Cycles in concert performance. These performances were acclaimed as the musical highlight of 2002 in Birmingham UK from Birmingham Post, and received the Allianz Business2Arts award in Ireland as the outstanding arts event of 2002. He works regularly for Opera Ireland and Wexford Festival Opera in Ireland and is Hon President of the Wagner Society of Ireland. He has made three appearances at Wexford Festival conducting Tcherevitchki, Fosca and The Demon. For Opera Ireland he has conducted Verdi’s Macbeth, Cavalleria Rusticana, I Pagliacci and Musorgsky’s Boris Godunov. He conducted the Irish première of Shostakovitch’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk for Opera Ireland and has made his debut at Houston Grand Opera with Prince Igor.

Alexander Anissimov has the world at his podium. His work has taken him to the Kirov Opera, Leningrad Philharmonic, Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow, Warsaw Philharmonic, Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, Hungarian National Symphony Orchestra, Houston Grand Opera, San Francisco Opera, Teatro Colon Argentina, State Opera of South Australia, Orchestra of St Cecilia, Roma, Opera Venezia at La Fenice, Opera Genoa, Hannover Staatsoper, Hamburg Staatsoper, Komische Oper Berlin, Opera Bastille, Opera Garnier in Paris, Monte Carlo Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and London Symphony Orchestra.

In addition to his work in Ireland, Russia, Korea and Belarus in the year ahead his programme has includes work with the Puccini Festival in Klagenfurt, Austria, Holland Sinfonia and Nuremberg Philharmonic, in Sydney conducting Shostakovitch’s Tenth Symphony with the Australian Youth Orchestra (the acclaimed recording by Melba) and a full Beethoven programme in Spain with Orquestra Simfònica de l'Academia del Gran Teatre del Liceu

Future engagements in addition to his work in Belarus, Korea and Russia include invitations from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London, the Czech Philharmonic, Evgeny Onegin with Tokyo Opera, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Tokyo Symphony Orchestra and Mazeppa for Opera Ireland.