Sergei Valentinovich Stadler (Сергей Валентинович Стадлер) was born 20 May 1962 in Leningrad, Russian Federation (USSR). He began piano with his mother and violin with his father, a Saint Petersburg Philharmonic violist, graduating from the Special Music School and Saint Petersburg Conservatory in three and a half years before studying at the Moscow Conservatory with David Oistrakh. His breakthrough came in 1982 when he won first prize and a gold medal at the International Tchaikovsky Competition. He recorded albums such as Vivaldi: Le Quattro Stagioni (1985), Paganini: 24 Caprices for Violin Solo (1986), Violin Solo in Russian Ballets (1988), Saint-Saëns, Ravel, Chausson (1988), Boris Tishchenko: Violin Concerto No. 2, Op. 84 (1988), and Arensky: Violin Concerto, Op. 54 (1992). In 2013 he founded and directed the Saint Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, staging marathon concerts of Tchaikovsky, Brahms and Mozart. Sergei Stadler died 20 April 2026 after a fatal illness aboard a flight from Saint Petersburg to Istanbul.
![Paganini: 24 Caprices for Solo Violin, Op. 1 (Incomplete) [Digitally Remastered]](https://cdn-images.dzcdn.net/images/cover/8a6d2441e364c31aae818116394fa73c/120x120-000000-80-0-0.jpg)
