Alexander Semyonov was born in St.-Petersburg in 1975. From 1982 to 1993, he studied at the Glinka Boy Choir School. After that, from 1993 to 1998, he studied at the St.Petersburg Conservatory at the Choral Conducting Faculty in the class of Valery Borisov, and he also studied symphony conducting in the class of Eduard Serov and ancient Russian notations under the guidance of Albina Kruchinina and Zivar Guseynova. While studying at the Conservatory he worked with such artists as G.Sviridov, Y.Temirkanov, G.Solti, M.Jansons, N.Kornev.

In 1996, Alexander Semyonov founded the Optina Pustyn male choir, and he has worked to develop and advance the choir ever since. As the Choir Master, Alexander Semyonov promotes historical performance by rediscovering many forgotten masterpieces of the ancient Russian singing culture. At the same time, he is an author of contemporary transcriptions and arrangements of secular and Church hymns, interpreter, and first performer of works by contemporary Russian and foreign composers.