Biography
Vladislav Lavrik is internationally recognized as a virtuoso trumpeter and as a music director and conductor. “A wonderful musician,” in the words of Vladimir Fedoseyev, his conducting teacher at Moscow’s Gnesin Academy. Paavo Järvi describes Vladislav Lavrik as “one of the most talented musicians I have collaborated with.” Kent Nagano praises him as “an exceptional talent … an excellent musician whose talent extends to all musical genres – symphony, opera, classical and jazz.”
Born in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine to a family of musicians, Vladislav studied piano and trumpet, receiving a master’s degree in trumpet performance from the Moscow State Conservatory. Excelling in both classical and jazz idioms, he has appeared as a soloist in all the leading Russian concert halls and was just 22 years old when he made his US debut as a trumpet soloist, performing an arrangement of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the Russian National Orchestra at Seattle’s Paramount Theater. Around the world as a soloist he has played at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Berlin Philharmonie, Köln Philharmonie, Elb Philharmonie, Casino Bern, Salle Pleyel (Paris), Palais des Beaux Arts (Brussels), Lincoln Theater (Napa Valley), Theatro Municipal (Rio de Janeiro), and numerous other venues in France, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, UK, USA, Canada, Israel, Brazil, Uruguay, UAE, Japan, China, South Korea and North Korea. His festival appearances have taken him to Europalia (Belgium), Cap Ferret (France), Festival del Sole (USA), Beethoven Festival (USA), WCU Trumpet Festival (USA) and the Bermuda Festival. Lavrik toured in the USA and Russia with the Brubeck Brothers Quartet, and in 2020 he conducted the Dave Brubeck Centennial concerts in Russia.
Formerly artistic director and chief conductor of two Russian orchestras – the Tula Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra and the Orenburg Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra – Lavrik has appeared as a guest conductor and soloist with the Russian National Orchestra (touring in the USA and Asia), L’Ensemble Orchestral de Bordeaux, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Philharmonia Frankfurt, Rachmaninoff International Orchestra, State Symphony Orchestra of Russia, and numerous other orchestras in the Russian Federation. He has also been active in the field of opera, interpreting works by Mozart, Rossini, Verdi, Puccini, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Borodin and Rimsky-Korsakov. In 2014 Kent Nagano invited him to assist in preparing performances of Saint-Saëns’ Symphony No 3 with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. Since moving to Berlin in 2022 his engagements have included a round of Concerts for Peace and, attesting to his intense affinity with Russian symphonic repertoire, Prokofiev’s 6th, Tchaikovsky’s 3rd Symphonies with the Jena Philharmonic Orchestra.
In 2025, Lavrik’s highlights include a new conducting release with the Rachmaninoff International Orchestra, appearances at the Bragança Festival (Portugal), where Spanish magazine Scherzo praised him as “one of today’s best trumpeters” for his performances of Hora Staccato and Carnival of Venice. For over ten years, Lavrik has appeared as principal trumpet of the Estonian Festival Orchestra, touring internationally with Paavo Järvi. For the 90th anniversary of Arvo Pärt, in 2025 they performed in Tallinn, Vienna, Zurich, Hamburg, and a final performance at Carnegie Hall in New York. Vladislav also has been a guest artist in Utopia Orchestra with Teodor Currentzis playing at the Berlin Philharmonie, Salzburg Festival, Bremen Music Festival, Santa Cecilia Hall, Isar Philharmonic (Munich) and many more.
Lavrik’s relationship with the Russian National Orchestra was cemented in 1999, when, at the age of just 19, he was appointed its principal trumpet. Following his conducting debut with the orchestra in Moscow in 2009, he conducted RNO on a regular basis. In 2012, when founder of the Russian National Orchestra Mikhail Pletnev returned to playing piano concertos, he chose Lavrik to take charge on the podium. The concerto partnership of Pletnev, Lavrik and the RNO was renewed in 2015 for a tour of South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan. Once again with the RNO, in 2013 Vladislav Lavrik made his US conducting debut – Beethoven’s Symphony No 6 – at the Minnesota Beethoven Festival.
Vladislav Lavrik has conducted the Nizhny Novgorod Opera and Ballet Theatre, where his repertoire included the ballets The Nutcracker, The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Don Quixote, Le Corsaire, as well as operas by Glinka, Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Bellini, Verdi, and Poulenc, in addition to various symphonic programs.
His guest conducting appearances with major orchestras in the Russian Federation have included the Svetlanov State Symphony Orchestra, State Symphony Orchestra New Russia, Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Moscow Chamber Orchestra Musica Viva, Volgograd Symphony Orchestra, Soloists of Nizhny Novgorod, Krasnoyarsk Academic Orchestra, State Wind Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra of Urdmurtia, Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra, and National Symphony Orchestra of the Republic of Bashkortostan.
For 14 years Lavrik was Professor of Trumpet at the Moscow State Conservatory. He received the Russian Presidential Prize for Young Artists, and was named a Merited Artist of Russian Federation. For 8 years he served on the board of the International Trumpet Guild and established the International Brass Days Festival, leading wind-instrument festival and a showcase for new music.
During his studies at the Gnesin Academy, Lavrik’s technical and interpretative skills were shaped not only by Vladimir Fedoseyev, but by such leading figures as Neeme Järvi, Paavo Järvi, Mark Elder, Vladimir Jurowski, Gianandrea Noseda, Alexander Vedernikov and Teodor Currentzis. His teachers in Russia were Yury Usov, Lev Volodin, Yury Vlassenko and such legents as Veneamin Margolin and Timofei Dokshitzer. Durung his concert tours he collaborated with world renown teachers and soloists Fritz Damrow, Matthias Höfs, Uwe Köller, Jens Lindemann, Barbara Butler, Charlie Geyer, Sergey Nakariakov, Andrea Tofanelli, Marco Pierbon.
Lavrik has been actively involved in music projects for children, including music therapy programs for children with disabilities in the USA and Russia. He collaborated with Chris Brubeck on the children’s musical Hermitage Cats Save the Day, performed in New York City, Washington, D.C., Tuscaloosa, Alabama and Saint Petersburg.
