Yakov Kreizberg was a naturalized American conductor and pianist, born in Russia with the name Yakov Bychkov. A piano prodigy at age 5, he began composing by 13 and took up conducting lessons with Ilya Musin around the same time. When he emigrated to the United States in 1976, he was unable to bring his compositions with him, so out of frustration with Soviet policies, he gave up composing entirely and dedicated himself to conducting full-time.
Once settled in the United States,
Kreizberg entered the Mannes College The New School for Music, where he studied with his brother, conductor
Semyon Bychkov. (
Kreizberg adopted his mother's maiden name shortly after graduation, to differentiate himself from his brother). Following graduate work at the University of Michigan with Gustav Meier,
Kreizberg studied with
Erich Leinsdorf,
Seiji Ozawa,
Leonard Bernstein, and
Michael Tilson Thomas, becoming the latter's assistant at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute. In 1985, he returned to Mannes College to direct the school's orchestra and also conducted the New York City Symphony's concerts.
Having dual careers in conducting orchestral concerts and opera,
Kreizberg served as general music director of the United Municipal Theaters of Krefeld-Mönchengladbach and as conductor of the Niederrheinische Sinfoniker. At the Berlin Comic Opera, he oversaw productions of standard repertoire as well as revivals of forgotten operas, and conducted many heavily attended concerts. He went on to conduct operas at Glyndebourne, the Canadian Opera Company, the
English National Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, and the
Royal Opera House. His concert activities included performances with the
BBC Symphony Orchestra, the
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, the
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and the
London Symphony Orchestra, where he conducted
Mahler's Symphony No. 2, "Resurrection," to critical acclaim. Additionally,
Kreizberg appeared in the United States with the
Boston Symphony Orchestra, the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the
Los Angeles Philharmonic, the
San Francisco Symphony, the
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and the
New York Philharmonic.
After 2003,
Kreizberg was chief conductor and artistic adviser of the
Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and the
Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, as well as principal guest conductor of the
Vienna Symphony Orchestra. He recorded for Decca and PentaTone Classics.
Yakov Kreizberg died on March 15, 2011, in Monaco at age 51, following a long illness.