The Bulgarian conductor Alex Smirnov, born 1951, studied conductorship at the Academy of Music in Sofia under professor K. Iliev. After that he graduated master degree at Hochschule fur Music in Munchen under Hermann Michael. He specialised with Sergiu Celibidache in Trier and with Franco Ferrara in Accademia Musicale Chingiana in Siena. He won the third place in the competition for conductors "Vittorio Gui" in Florence in 1980.

He made his debut in Sofia with the National Philharmonic Orchestra and since then he has been a guest of all most popular symphony and chamber orchestras and opera in Bulgaria. Alex Smirnov was a conductor of the Philharmonic orchestras in Varna and Rousse, the Festival Symphony orchestra and New Symphony orchestra in Sofia.Since 1995 he is also a conductor of the Chamber Orchestra "Bulgarian Soloists".

He had conducted the National Philharmonic Orchestra in Latvia, The Hungarian radio symphony orchestra, The Orchestra of Teatro Comunale in Florence and numerous tours of almost all famous Bulgarian orchestras abroad. He won a great reputation as a symphony and opera conductor, conducting at the stages in Spain, France, Italy, Czech republic, Switzerland, Romania, Lithia, Russia, Hungary, India, Filipinos, Singapore, China, etc. He was greatly successful and received very good reviews conducting at Auditorio nacional and Teatro Monumental in Madrid, Auditorio Mozart in Zaragoza, Teatro Eudenia in San Sebastian, Auditorio Manuel de Falla in Granada.

He works with great artists like Alberto Lisi and Hans Verner Henze, Luciano Berio and Ianis Xenakis. He discovered and represented Vasko Vasilev and Vanessa Mae for the first time in Bulgaria with the concerto by Tchaikovsky. Nowadays Vasko Vasilev is the first violinist in Covent Garden.

In fact his repertoire includes everything from Bach and Vivaldi up to the most modern music.