He founded his own private symphony orchestra in 1882, and from 1898 organized public concerts in Saint Petersburg involving the orchestra and a choir he had inherited from his father, Dmitri Sheremetev.

He also founded the Musical Historical Society in 1910, which gave free lecture recitals involving his orchestra and choir.

[1] This was followed by Sheremetev conducting the opera's first Russian staging on 21 December 1913 (according to the Russian Old Style calendar; 3 January 1914 according to the standard Western calendar), performed at the Hermitage Theatre before the Imperial Family, the diplomatic corps, representative members of the State Duma and senior government officials.

[3] In 1917, Count Aleksandr and his wife fled to their estates in Finland and escaped the Red Terror.

They lost all their possessions in Russia, sold their Finnish estates and moved to Belgium and then to Paris.