Alexei Raev was born in Moscow in 1982. From 1998 he studied horn with Ruben Matikyan at the Academic Music College of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory.
Between 2001 and 2006 he studied at the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music with Professor Vladimir Shish, Honoured Artist of Russia, completing his postgraduate performance training in 2008. In 2013 he graduated with distinction from the academy’s master’s programme in producing.
He received a scholarship from the International Foundation headed by pianist and professor Nikolai Petrov. He was a prizewinner at the Second International Competition for Young Wind Players (1997) and at the Rimsky-Korsakov All-Russian Open Competition for Wind and Percussion Players in St Petersburg (2000).
He joined the Bolshoi Theatre stage band in 1998 and has been principal horn of the Bolshoi Theatre Symphony Orchestra since 2002. He was also a soloist of the Russian National Orchestra under Mikhail Pletnev from 2000 to 2004, and of the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia under Vladimir Spivakov from 2004 to 2007.
He received a Yamaha Scholarship in 2003 and the Bolshoi Theatre Board of Trustees Award in 2012.
