Dmitry Sinkovsky

Violinist Dmitry Sinkovsky delved into Baroque music after graduating from the Moscow Conservatory and now also conducts and sometimes sings. Active in both Russia and the West, Sinkovsky has recorded for the Naïve, Berlin Classics, and PentaTone Classics labels, among others. Sinkovsky was born in Moscow in 1980. He took up the violin at age five and quickly attracted the attention of top Russian teachers, studying at the Moscow Conservatory with Alexander Kirov. He went on for further studies at the Zagreb Music Academy in Croatia, where he studied conducting with Tomislav Facini and countertenor vocals with Michael Chance, Maria Daveluy, and Jana Ivanilova. He joined Russia's Musica Petropolitana as a violinist. There, he met the pioneering historical-performance violinist Marie Leonhardt (wife of keyboardist Gustav Leonhardt), who suggested that he emphasize early music. He had various instrumental and vocal teachers in the field, including keyboardist Alexei Lubimov, countertenor Andreas Scholl, conductor Teodor Currentzis, and viola da gamba player and conductor Christophe Coin. In 2011, Sinkovsky formed the Moscow ensemble La Voce Strumentale. He also worked with various Western European groups, including Switzerland's Il Pomo d'Oro, making his recording debut with that group on the album Vivaldi: Concerti per Violino, Vol. V, in the Naxos label's large series of newly discovered Vivaldi concertos. Sinkovsky went on to appear on another volume in that series, Concerti per due violini e archi, Vol. 1, the following year. Sinkovsky served as guest conductor of the Italian historical-instrument group Il Complesso Barocco in 2012 and 2013, and he has also conducted both traditional orchestral ensembles, including the Seattle Symphony and Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra, and historical-instrument groups such as the B'Rock Orchestra in Belgium and the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra. As a violinist, he has collaborated with Kremerata Baltica, Currentzis' MusicAeterna Orchestra in Russia, and Il Giardino Armonico in Italy, among other groups. He is quite active as a countertenor in Baroque opera, with a repertory that includes various Handel operas and vocal works, as well as vocal pieces by Bach, Vivaldi, and Gluck. He released the album Sinkovsky Plays & Sings Vivaldi on Naïve in 2015, possibly the first album of its type, and followed that up with Bach in Black in 2017. Sinkovsky went on to record for Berlin Classics, Naxos, and Glossa, in traditional repertory as well as early music, before moving to PentaTone Classics for an innovative recording of Handel's Water Music and Royal Fireworks Music with the B'Rock Orchestra in 2023. ~ James Manheim, Rovi