Lev Sundstrem

Lev Gennadyevich Sundstrem was born on 1 November 1941 in Kuybyshev, now Samara, during the Second World War. His family returned to Leningrad soon after the siege of the city was lifted, and his life was bound up with the city from then on.

As a child he attended a theatre circle at the Leningrad Palace of Pioneers and later an amateur theatre run by K. N. Chernozemov. He took a technical path at first, graduating from the Bonch-Bruevich Leningrad Electrotechnical Institute of Communications, and then served in the army. Afterwards he worked as a stagehand and electrician at the Bolshoi Drama Theatre, the BDT, while continuing to perform in amateur theatre.

Sundstrem began working at the Leningrad State Institute of Theatre, Music and Cinema, known as LGITMiK, in 1970, as an engineer in its laboratory for the economics and organisation of theatre. From 1982 he headed the department that became the chair of producing in the performing arts, and he remained its head for more than four decades. He earned the degree of candidate of arts and the title of professor, and he stood at the origins of the modern Russian school of performing arts producing, creating the specialisation of producer of performing arts.

In 1993 he succeeded Vladimir Yakovlev as rector of the institute, by then the St Petersburg State Academy of Theatre Arts. He led it until 2011, opening new studios, inviting prominent theatre practitioners to teach, completing the restoration of the Educational Theatre on Mokhovaya Street and overseeing the reconstruction of the Tenishev School building. Alexander Chepurov took over as acting rector in October 2011.

He was also a secretary of the Union of Theatre Workers of the Russian Federation and was named an Honoured Art Worker of Russia.

Sundstrem devoted 56 years of his working life to the theatre institute on Mokhovaya Street. Details of his family life were not widely published. He celebrated his 85th birthday on 1 November 2026, a little more than a week before his death.

Lev Sundstrem died in St Petersburg on 9 November 2026, aged 85. The Russian State Institute of Performing Arts announced his death on its VKontakte page on 10 November, writing that his heart had stopped on 9 November, and the staff offered condolences to his family, colleagues and students.

The press service of the Smolny, the St Petersburg city government, reported that Governor Alexander Beglov had sent condolences, saying that Petersburg and Russian culture had suffered a heavy loss. The cause of death was not made public. The institute said the date and place of the farewell would be announced later.

Sundstrem is remembered as the rector who steered St Petersburg's leading theatre school through the upheavals of the 1990s and 2000s while preserving its traditions. The city government described him as a key figure in Russian theatre education who trained several generations of professionals.

His most lasting contribution was the training of theatre producers and managers. Around 1,500 graduates passed through his department, and the profession of performing arts producer that he helped to define is now part of the fabric of Russian theatre.