Born in Moscow in 1957, Alexey Shmitov has had a distinguished career as an organist, pianist, and harpsichordist. He is a representative of “the Russian organ school in all its abundance.”
He began organ study at 13, dedicating himself to the instrument while also studying piano at the Moscow Conservatory Music School, and then at the Moscow Conservatory itself, under Tatiana Nikolaeva (piano) and Leonid Roizman (organ), graduating in 1982. Subsequently he studied in Master-Classes with Guy Bovet (Switzerland), Hans Fagius in Sweden, Harald Vogel, Ludger Lohmann and Leo Kremer(Germany).
He was a prizewinner in the 1987 International Organ Competition of Speyer, Germany, which was followed by invitations to perform for international festivals, concerts, radio, and recordings.
Alexey Shmitov is a great proponent of the music of J. S. Bach, and also includes compositions of Barocco and Romantic Times, XX Century. Frescobaldi, Couperin, Clerambaut, Buxtehude, Bruhns, Mendelssohn,
Schumann, Lizst, Reubke, Reger, Franck, Guilmant, Vierne and Messiaen are in his repertoire. Notably, he was the first organist to play the five organ symphonies and many other works of Charles-Marie Widor in Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow during two monographic recitals dedicated 150 years anniversary of composer (1994), and also the first to introduce Marcel Dupré’s Symphonie-Passion op. 23 to the Russian public.