Ailen Pritchin, Arseny Tarasevich-Nikolayev,
Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra, Andrey Rubtsov

Russian violinist Aylen Pritchin has, in recent years, firmly established himself as one of the most interesting and versatile young rising stars of the international concert stage. 

Born in Saint Petersburg, Aylen studied with Pr. Elena Zaitseva in his hometown and at the prestigious Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, where he studied with Pr. Eduard Grach. In 2014, Aylen was awarded First Prize at the Long-Thibaud International Violin Competition. He was a former major prize winner at the Wieniawski, Tchaikovsky, Sion-Valais, Kreisler and Oistrakh International Violin Competitions.

His career has led him to perform in Russia and abroad, including Switzerland, Netherlands, Italy, Israel, Poland, Belgium, Bulgaria, Sweden, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Vietnam and Japan; In such prestigious venues as the Vienna Konzerthaus, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Stockholm Musikaliska, Salzburg Mozarteum, Tchaikovsky Conservatory Hall in Moscow and the Champs-Elysées Theatre in Paris. 

His recent orchestral solo performances included the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, MusicAeterna Orchestra, Orchestre National de Lille, Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, Russian National Philharmonic Orchestra, Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra, the Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra, Tatarstan National Orchestra or I Pomeriggi Orchestra among others. 

He performs under the baton of prestigious conductors such as Teodor Currentzis, Maxim Emelyanychev, Cornelius Meister, Mikhail Gerts, Valentin Uryupin, Yuri Simonov, Dorian Wilson, Shlomo Mintz and Roberto Benzi. Aylen also enjoys playing chamber music regularly with such artists as: Maxim Emelyanychev, Lukas Geniusas, Yury Favorin, Alexander Melnikov, Maxim Rysanov, Vladimir Mendelssohn or David Geringas. 

Highlights of the 2020/21 season featured him with Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra/Vladimir Fedosseiev (Elgar), Orquesta Filarmonica de Gran Canaria /Maxim Emelyanychev (Schnittke 2), Toulouse Orchestre National du Capitole/Maxim Emelyanychev (Prokofiev 2), Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra / M.Bakauskas, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra/Y.Simonov (Mendelssohn), Scottish Chamber Orchestra/Maxim Emelyanychev (Brahms). 

The 2019/20 season included his return to the Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra with the Dvorak violin concerto, a collaboration with the Omsk Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Dmitry Vasilyev as part of the Siberian Symphony Orchestra Festival, a tour in Germany with the Russian State Chamber Orchestra and conductor Alexei Utkin (Cologne and Wablingen) and a Japan’s tour in which he plays with the Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra under Christian Arming and the Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra under Michiyoshi Inoue. Among Aylen’s major recital dates in the 2019/20 season is La Folle Journée in Nantes. 

The 2018/19 season saw Aylen touring with Teodor Currentzis and the MusicAeterna Orchestra with the Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto, in Russia and Japan, as well as being a guest soloist of the Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra performing the Korngold’s violin concerto in Moscow. The concert was broadcasted live on Internet. He made his debut with the Transilvania Philharmonic Orchestra in Cluj (Romania) and with the Cannes Orchestra in France under the baton of maestro Roberto Forés-Veses. In April 2019 Aylen Pritchin made his recital debut in Vancouver and Toronto (Canada) together with his duo partner pianist Lukas Geniusas. In chamber music, Aylen performs at the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie and collaborates with his music partners Lukas Geniusas and Yuri Favorin, as well as conductor and pianist Maxim Emelyanychev. 

In December 2017 the Russian label Melodiya published Aylen Pritchin’s third album with Prokofiev´s works for violin and piano with Yury Favorin. Two other albums include Russian music for violin (Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, Desyatnikov) and works for piano trio with Lukas Geniušas and Alexander Buzlov. In August 2019, the label Ad Vitam Records released his latest cd dedicated to solo violin music with some of the most important and significant of the 20th century, including the first edition ever of Tema con 8 variazioni by the composer Jean Françaix. 

Aylen Pritchin and Maxim Emelyanychev’s latest album, dedicated to Brahms Violin Sonatas was released by Aparté in 2021.

State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia (Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra) is one of the oldest symphony ensembles in the country: in 2021 it celebrates its 85th anniversary. The first performance of the orchestra conducted by Alexander Gauk and Erich Kleiber, took place on October 5th, 1936 in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. 

Over the years, the State Orchestra was directed by outstanding musicians: Alexander Gauk (1936–1941), Natan Rakhlin (1941–1945), Konstantin Ivanov (1946–1965) and Yevgeny Svetlanov (1965–2000). In 2005, the ensemble was named after Yevgeny Svetlanov. In 2000–2002, the orchestra was headed by Vasily Sinaisky, in 2002–2011 – by Mark Gorenstein, in 2011–2021 – by Vladimir Jurowski. In 2021 Vasily Petrenko was appointed as the Artistic Director of the orchestra.

The orchestra’s concerts were held at the most famous concert venues in the world including the Great Hall of the Conservatory, the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, the Bolshoi Theater of Russia, the Column Hall of the House of Unions, the State Kremlin Palace in Moscow, Carnegie Hall in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington, the Musikverein in Vienna, the Royal Albert Hall in London, the Pleyel in Paris, the Colon National Opera in Buenos Aires, the Suntory Hall in Tokyo. In 2013, the orchestra for the first time performed in the Red Square in Moscow. 

Herman Abendroth, Ernest Ansermet, Leo Blech, Nikolai Golovanov, Kurt Sanderling, Otto Klemperer, Kirill Kondrashin, Lorin Maazel, Kurt Mazur, Nikolai Malko, Igor Markevich, Yevgeny Mravinsky, Charles Munch, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Mstislav Rostropovich, Saulus Sondeckis, Igor Stravinsky, Mariss Jansons, Andrey Boreyko, Alexander Vedernikov, Valery Gergiev, Charles Dutoit, Alexander Lazarev, Alexander Sladkovsky, Leonard Slatkin, Yuri Temirkanov, Thomas Zehetmair, Mikhail Jurowski, Neeme Jarvi and other outstanding conductors directed at the conductor's desk of the orchestra. 

Famous musicians and ensembles performed with the orchestra including singers Irina Arkhipova, Galina Vishnevskaya, Montserrat Caballé, Sergei Lemeshev, Elena Obraztsova, Dmitry Hvorostovsky, Maria Guleghina, Placido Domingo, Jonas Kaufmann, Sergei Leiferkus, pianists Emil Gilels, Van Cliburn, Heinrich Neuhaus, Nikolai Petrov, Sviatoslav Richter, Maria Yudina, Valery Afanassiev, Boris Berezovsky, Elisso Virsaladze, Yevgeny Kissin, Nikolai Lugansky, Denis Matsuev and Grigory Sokolov, violinists LeonidKogan, Yehudi Menuhin, David Oistrakh, Boris Belkin, Maxim Vengerov, Gidon Kremer, Victor Pikaysen, Vadim Repin, Vladimir Spivakov and Victor Tretyakov, violist Yuri Bashmet , cellists Mstislav Rostropovich, Natalia Gutman, Alexander Knyazev and Alexander Rudin, as well as Sveshnikov State Academic Russian Choir and Yurlov State Academic Choir Capella of Russia. 

In recent years, the list of soloists collaborating with the ensemble has been recruited with the names of such singers as Ildar Abdrazakov, Dinara Alieva, Aida Garifullina, Khibla Gerzmava, Dmitry Korchak, Elisabeth Kulman, Jose Kura, Vasily Ladyuk, Julia Lezhneva, Waltraud Meier, Anna Netrebko and Rene Pape, pianists Marc-Andre Hamelin, Leif Ove Andsnes, Rudolf Buchbinder, Simon Trpceski, Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Mitsuko Uchida, violinists Kristof Barati, Ilya Gringolts, Alina Ibragimova, Leonidas Kavakos, Patricia Kopatchinskaya, Sergei Krylov, Julian Rakhlin, Julia Fischer, Thomas Zehetmair, Nikolai Znaider and Pinchas Zuckerman, violist Maxim Rysanov. Considerable attention is also paid to joint work with young musicians, including conductors Maxim Emelyanychev, Dmitry Matvienko, Marius Stravinsky, Valentin Uryupin and Philipp Chizhevsky, pianists Andrei Gugnin, Lucas Debargue, Philipp Kopachevsky and Dmitry Masleyev, violinists Alena Baeva, Pavel Milyukov and Aylen Pritchin, cellist Alexander Ramm. 

Having visited abroad for the first time in 1956, the orchestra has since represented Russian art in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Denmark, Italy, Canada, China, Lebanon, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, USA, Thailand, France, Czechoslovakia, Switzerland, South Korea, Japan and many other countries. 

The discography of the ensemble includes hundreds of LP records and CDs released by leading recording companies in Russia and abroad (Melodiya, Bomba-Peter, Delos, Deutsche Grammophon, EMI Classics, BMG, Naxos, Chandos, Musikproduktion Dabringhaus und Grimm, BelAir, ICA Classics, Pentatone, Toccata Classics, Fancymusic and others). A special place in this collection belongs to the Anthology of Russian Symphonic Music, which includes audio recordings of works by Russian composers from Glinka to Stravinsky (conducted by Yevgeny Svetlanov). The TV channels such as Mezzo, medici.tv, Russia-1 and Kultura, radio Orpheus made recordings of the orchestra’s concerts. 

Recently, the State Orchestra performed at the G. Enescu Festival in Bucharest, Another Space, Universe is Svetlanov! festivals and the XIV Guitar Virtuosos Moscow International Festival, Summer. Music. Museum Festival Festival in Istra; performed world premieres of works by Alexander Vustin, Victor Yekimovsky, Efrem Podgaits, Sergei Slonimsky, Vladimir Nikolaev, Alexei Retinsky, as well as Russian premieres of works by John Adams, Brett Dean, Gerard Grisey, Victor Kissin, Gyorgy Kurtag, Valentin Silvestrov, Olivier Messiaen, Rodion Shchedrin, Carl Orff, Vladimir Tarnopolsky and Karlheinz Stockhausen; took part in the International Tchaikovsky Competition, the Grand Piano Competition for young pianists; presented the annual cycle of Stories with Orchestra educational concerts eight times; visited the cities of Russia, Austria, Argentina, Brazil, Greece, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Peru, Uruguay, Chile, Germany, Spain, Romania, Turkey, China, Japan. Chamber evenings with the participation of soloists of the orchestra are also regularly held. 

Since 2016, the State Orchestra has been implementing a special project to support professional composer creativity involving close cooperation of the ensemble with contemporary Russian authors. The first in the history composer in residence was Alexander Vustin. For outstanding creative achievements, the collective has been bearing the honorary title of “academic” since 1972; in 1986 it was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, in 2006, 2011 and 2017 it dignified the gratitude of the President of the Russian Federation.