Roman Leontiev was born in 1963 in Ulyanovsk Region, Russia. He studied conducting at Moscow’s Gnessin State Musical Pedagogical Institute (class of Margarita Kolcheva), graduating in 1986. Made his conducting debut with the institute’s symphony orchestra in 1984. During 1985–1986 Leontiev honed his skills under the tutelage of Gennady Rozhdestvensky. In 1988 he began attending classes with Arnold Katz at the Glinka Novosibirsk State Conservatoire. In 1991 the conductor enrolled at both the Novosibirsk and Leningrad (St Petersburg) conservatories, ultimately graduating from the Rimsky-Korsakov St Petersburg State Conservatory (class of Ilya Musin) in 1997. He completed his postgraduate studies there under the same esteemed teacher in 1999.
Prize-winner at the World Festival of Youth and Students (Moscow, 1985), the All-Russian Competition of Folk Instrument Performers (Tula, 1986; 2nd prize and special prize) and the Vienna International Music Competition (1997; Prize of the Perrenoud Foundation).
In 1996 Roman Leontiev founded the Symphony Orchestra of the Association of St Petersburg Conservatory Graduates, with whom he performed a concert in Finland dedicated to Ilya Musin’s 95th birthday. In 1997 he made his debut at the Grand Hall of the St Petersburg Philharmonia with the St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, leading to numerous subsequent collaborations. Has also conducted other ensembles in the Northern Capital of Russia, including the St Petersburg State Capella Symphony Orchestra, the St Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra Classica, the St Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra, the St Petersburg State Governor’s Symphony Orchestra and the State Hermitage Orchestra.
During the 1999–2000 season he worked at the St Petersburg Chamber Opera. Has toured with St Petersburg ensembles to Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Costa Rica and Serbia. Has performed in Great Britain with the St Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra Classica and participated in a production of Alexander Zhurbin and Vyacheslav Verbin’s musical Vladimirskaya Square (based on Dostoyevsky’s novel Humiliated and Insulted), staged by Vladislav Pazi at the Lensoviet Theatre. In the 2000s he co-founded the Cultural Initiative Foundation with the British–St Petersburg composers and musicians Marcus Tristan Heathcote and Peter Dyson.
Leontiev has conducted the Moscow Symphony Orchestra Russian Philharmonic and orchestras of the Novosibirsk, Sverdlovsk (in Yekaterinburg), Tomsk regional, Volgograd, Ryazan and Sochi philharmonics, of the State Philharmonic of the Altai Krai (Barnaul), of the Krasnoyarsk and Saratov opera and ballet theatres and of the State Opera of Tatarstan (Kazan). In 2005 he performed in Belgrade with the renowned Serbian violinist Stefan Milenković. In 2011 Leontiev conducted the National Symphony Orchestra of the Republic of Bashkortostan (Ufa). In 2012 he served as the music director for the premiere of a new production of Christmas Eve at the Buryat Opera and Ballet Theatre (Ulan-Ude). That same year he toured the USA with the St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra Tchaikovsky, performing alongside the acclaimed French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet. Has also toured Mexico, conducting local ensembles.
Has collaborated with the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini (Parma) and the Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie Konstanz.
In 1999 he made his debut with the Mariinsky Orchestra. Since 2014 Leontiev has been assistant to the theatre’s Artistic and General Director, Valery Gergiev. In 2014 he conducted the Mariinsky Orchestra and soloists of the Mariinsky Academy of Young Opera Singers in a performance of Grayr Khanedanian’s opera Egyptian Nights. In 2015 he led the world premiere of Pyotr Gekker’s opera The Damned Apostle at the Mariinsky Theatre. Has also conducted Kabalevsky’s Colas Breugnon (2015), Rimsky-Korsakov’s May Night (since 2022), Dargomyzhsky’s Mermaid (since 2023; concert performance), Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots (2023; concert performance), Musorgsky’s Sorochintsy Fair (since 2024; concert performance), Rimsky-Korsakov’s Christmas Eve (since 2024) and numerous concerts at the Mariinsky Theatre.
Since 2019 he has also performed with the St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra Open Planet named after Ilya Musin.
Has participated in the Anton Rubinstein Music Festival (Peterhof), the All-Russian Symphony Music Festival in memory of Ilya Musin (Kostroma), the Christmas Festival at the Hermitage and many other festivals.
As an opera conductor, music director and assistant he has worked on various productions, among them La bohème, Ruslan and Lyudmila, Pagliacci, Così fan tutte, Acis and Galatea (after Handel), The Queen of Spades and Amneris contr Aida.
He performs works by contemporary composers (Boris Tchaikovsky, Peter Vincent Marlotti, Kjell Flem, Alexander Tchaikovsky, Igor Vorobyov, Yuri Povolotsky, Kirill Mikhalev), including conducting world premieres.
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