Alexander Alexeyev was a Soviet and Russian conductor. He was born on March 10, 1938, in Belkovo. From 1957 to 1966, he studied choral and symphonic conducting at the Leningrad Conservatory with Konstantin Olkhov and Eduard Grikurov.
In 1971–72, cultural institutions in Moscow and Leningrad selected Alexeyev to study at the Vienna Academy of Music with Hans Swarowsky, alongside conductors Mariss Jansons and Dmitri Kitaenko. He worked with the Ulyanovsk State Symphony Orchestra, the Leningrad State Academic Maly Opera Theater, now the Mikhailovsky Theater, and the Chelyabinsk State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater. He later became musical director of the Ulyanovsk State Symphony Orchestra. After two years at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, from 1982 to 1984, he received an invitation to become chief conductor of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Helsinki. He served as chief conductor of the Kharkiv Philharmonic Orchestra through 1992.
Alexeyev made numerous recordings for Melodiya with Russian orchestras, including the All-Union Radio Symphony Orchestra. He performed regularly with Gidon Kremer, Oleg Kagan, Vadim Repin, Yuri Bashmet, David Geringas, Natalia Gutman, Dmitri Alexeev, Mikhail Pletnev, Grigory Sokolov, and Dmitri Bashkirov. In 1966, he conducted Dmitri Shostakovich’s opera Katerina Izmailova at the Leningrad State Academic Maly Opera Theater, with Larisa Avdeyeva in the title role; Shostakovich attended rehearsals.
In 1978, Alexeyev received the honorary title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR. From 1992, he was a professor of symphonic conducting at the St. Petersburg Conservatory and served as dean of its conducting faculty from 2000 to 2008. He died in St. Petersburg on October 7, 2020.