Photo: St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra
Sergei Stadler, the chief conductor and artistic director of the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra and a People's Artist of Russia, has died, the St. Petersburg government said. According to Fontanka, the musician died aboard a plane flying from St. Petersburg to Istanbul that landed in Romania.
A Pegasus Airlines plane departed from St. Petersburg for Istanbul today at 15:00. It later made an emergency landing at Bucharest International Airport. TASS and REN TV reported that the decision to land was made because one of the passengers had fallen ill.
Fontanka claims that passenger was Stadler. Doctors on the ground tried to resuscitate the artist, but were unable to save him.
Mash wrote that the passenger was seated in the rear of the plane. He suffered clinical death during the flight. There were no doctors on board, so Pegasus employees provided first aid. After the landing in Bucharest, passengers were kept on board for about two hours, then were given drinks and food and escorted to the airport.
Sergei Stadler was 63. He served as chief conductor and artistic director of the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra. Earlier, he had been chief conductor of the Russian Symphony Orchestra, the Opera and Ballet Theater of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, and the Yekaterinburg Opera and Ballet Theater.