Elena Sharkova

Elena Sharkova, Artistic Director of the Symphony Silicon Valley Chorale, is recognized nationally and internationally as an inspirational and effective conductor, choral clinician and music educator. She has conducted professional, university, children's and community choirs and orchestras in North America, Eastern and Western Europe, Russia, and the Middle East, and has served as an adjudicator at numerous national and international music festivals and competitions. An expert on Russian choral music, Ms. Sharkova has lectured extensively on its repertoire and performance practices and conducted several U.S. premiers of Russian contemporary compositions.

In her eleventh year as Artistic Director of Symphony Silicon Valley Chorale (formerly San Jose State University Chorale), Maestra Sharkova has prepared and conducted the chorus in over 30 major choral-orchestral works such as Handel's Messiah, Mozart's Requiem, Poulenc's Gloria, Bruckner's Te Deum, Brahms's Nanie, Orff's Carmina Burana, and many others. Regarded for her passion for non-Western, cross-genre and multi-cultural music, Ms. Sharkova and Chorale delighted South Bay audiences with performances of such folk-inspired compositions as Navidad Nuestra and Missa Criolla by Argentinean composer Ariel Ramirez, Caribbean Mass by contemporary American composer Glen McClure, and jazz-inspired Mass in Blue by English composer Will Todd.

Artistic Director of the 180-voice strong Cantabile Youth Singers since 2004, Maestra Sharkova conducts CYS's top choirs, Vocalise and Ensemble, and oversees all educational and performance aspects of the program. Under her direction, Cantabile made its Carnegie Hall debut in 2005 and will be returning to its legendary stage in June 2010.

Elena Sharkova was born and raised in St. Petersburg, Russia, where she received an undergraduate degree in music education and piano, and a graduate degree in conducting from St. Petersburg State Rimski-Korsakov Conservatory. From 1988 to 1993, Ms. Sharkova served Chair of the Choral Department of the Preparatory Music School at the Conservatory where she conducted four children's choruses and taught the innovative Ogorodnov Method to graduate students. Before moving to the U.S in 1993, she toured extensively for five years with one of the finest Russian professional choirs, Lege Artis. Besides concertizing throughout Russia, Europe and the United States, the ensemble also recorded five CDs for the SONY Classical label and won numerous prizes at European choral festivals and competitions.

In 1996 Ms. Sharkova received her second graduate degree in conducting from Western Michigan University where she studied with Dr. Craig Arnold.

Ms. Sharkova has had a privilege to serve as guest conductor of all-state, divisional and national honor choirs for American Choral Directors Association, Music Educators National Conference, Organization of American Kodàly Educators, Association for Music in International Schools and Manhattan Concert Productions.