Sergei Pronin

Sergei Pronin, known by his stage alias Seppo Kantervo, graduated from the Russian State Institute of Performing Arts in Saint-Petersburg (former Leningrad State Institute of Theatre, Music and Cinematography). From 1989 to 2010 he was the actor, producer and director at the National Theatre of the Republic of Karelia, from 2010 to 2015 - the artistic director of the Theatre ”Plody Prosvescheniya” in Saint-Petersburg, from 2015 to 2019 - the artistic director of the National Theatre of the Republic of Karelia, from 2015 and until present - the Head of Drama at the Petrozavodsk State Glazunov Conservatoire.

Seppo Kantervo is the author and the director of many plays including the Finno-Ugric rock opera “Bjarmia” and the historic trilogy “Korobeyniki - Lembi - Pesni Sinego Neba” appreciated by both general public and theatre critics. He is well-known by his screen plays and poems for many theatre performances in Russia. He has also succeeded in creating religious hymns being the author of the texts for the official hymn of St. Alexander Nevsky Lavra of the Holy Trinity in Saint-Petersburg.

Seppo Kantervo is the laureate of many literature and theatre awards such as the “Related Peoples of Estonia” literature award and the “Onego Mask” theatre prize. In 2010 the Finnish Theatre Centre/ Suomen teatterijärjestöjen keskusliitto awarded the Golden medal for Outstanding Contribution to the Development of the Theatre to Sergei Pronin.

In 1997 Sergei Pronin together with Karelian actors and theatre directors Arvid Zeland and Alexander Poberezhny-Beregovsky initiated the Drama course at the Petrozavodsk State Glazunov Conservatoire. He has been the Head of Drama for almost twenty years. The final plays of each drama course held on the stage of the National Theatre of the Republic of Karelia always received positive reviews and theatre prizes. Many of the alumni became winners of theatre competitions and participants of theatre festivals and got their jobs in the theatres of Petrozavodsk, Saint-Petersburg, Moscow and abroad.