Alexey Shabalin has been serving as Music Director and Symphony Conductor of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Youth Orchestras since 2003 and has led the orchestra’s performances at Carnegie Hall in 2005 and 2017. Alexey Shabalin was the Artistic Director of the Thames Valley Youth Symphony from 2015-2017 and is happy to be returning this fall. Throughout his career he has been teaching at several institutions of higher education, such as Brown University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Providence College, and Rhode Island College.

Shabalin graduated from Moscow Conservatory in 1995, having studied with Professors Igor Besrodny and Alexander Melkinov. As a student he won third prize in the Soviet national string quartet competition in 1991. During the same year he was a semifinalist in the International Shostakovich Chamber Music Competition.

From 1992 to 1996, Shabalin toured with the world-renown Moscow Soloists Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Yuri Bashmet. The group played in 32 countries and most of the major concert halls of the world. In 1995 the group gave the second performance ever held of Mozart’s newly unearthed Triple Concerto, with Shabalin playing the solo violin part. In recognition of his talent, he was allowed to perform on a priceless Stradivarius violin owned by the Russian government. The orchestra recorded extensively on a variety of prestigious CD labels with the world’s top soloists. Moving to the US in 1996, Shabalin has played in many orchestras, at chamber groups, and festivals around New England and the US .