Alexander Kantorov was born in 1947 in Leningrad. He graduated from the Leningrad State Conservatory - both as a violinist (Prof.: Mikhail Vaiman) and as an opera and symphonic conductor (Prof.: I.Mussin); completed postgraduate education (Prof: Maestro Temirkanov). Alexander Kantorov began his career as conductor of the Sverdlovsk Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra. He was the founder and Principal conductor of two symphony orchestras (Sverdlovsk and St.-Petersburg). The second one was named later the KLASSIKA Orchestra.

His repertoire embraced a wide range of musical classics from different epochs and different styles, including masterpieces by Tchaikovsky, Taneyev, Rachmaninov, Rimsky-Korsakov, Prokofiev, Shostakovich as well as Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Berlioz, Dvorak, Mahler, Bruckner, etc.