Russian conductor Rozhdestvensky passes away at 87

Russian conductor Gennadi Rozhdestvensky has died at the age of 87, Moscow’s prestigious Bolshoi Theatre announced yesterday.“The Bolshoi is in mourning,” the theatre announced on Twitter. “Today, June 16, Gennady Rozhdestvensky passed away at the age of 87.”Born in Moscow in 1931, Rozhdestvensky – who was also a pianist and a composer – was general artistic director of the Bolshoi between 2000 and 2001.During a career that spanned more than 50 years, he was chief conductor of a number of orchestras both inside and outside Russia, including the Bolshoi orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic.He was awarded the title, “People’s Artist of the USSR”, in 1976, the highest cultural distinction in the former Soviet Union.