Ailen Pritchin

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.

Yury Favorin was born in Moscow in 1986. At the age of five he began learning the piano and recorder. He was eight when he entered the Gnesin Specialized Musical Primary School in Moscow, where he learned the piano under Professor Lidiya Grigorieva, the clarinet under Professor Ivan Mozgovenko, and the composition under Professor Vladimir Dovgan. 

In 2004 Yury entered the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory to study the piano under Professor Mikhail Voskresensky. He also studied the composition with Karen Khachaturyan and chamber ensemble with Alexander Rudin. Yury graduated from the Conservatory summa cum laude in 2009. In 2013–2015 Yury was also studying at University Mozarteum in Salzburg (Austria) with Professor Jacques Rouvier.

Yury performed with Pierre Boulez, Kent Nagano, Vladimir Jurowsky, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Alexander Rudin, Marin Alsop, Eri Klas, Alexander Vedernikov, Andrew Grams, Paul Goodwin, Kazuhiro Koizumi, Dmitry Liss and other leading conductors. Boris Berezovsky, Alexander Rudin, Gérard Caussé, Marc Coppey, David Lively, François Salque, Romain Guyot, Alexander Ghindin are among his partners on the stage. Together with composer Alexey Sysoev (electronics) and Dmitry Schyolkin (percussion) Yury has built the ensemble of free improvisatory music ERROR 404. 

Yury have accomplished several first performances of works by contemporary composers. Among his recordings there are complete Annees de pelerinage (live recording, released on label Melodiya) and Harmonies Poetiques et religieuses by Liszt, pieces by Alkan, russian composers of XX and XXI century (Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Medtner, Myaskovsky, Roslavets, Feinberg, Popov and others). 

Yury gives recitals in many countries – Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States of America, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, France, Poland, United States, Japan, China, Russia, Belarus, Azerbaijan among them – achieving outstanding success everywhere. He also gives charity concerts for sick children (Moscow), war children (Vienna), and the disabled (Vienna). Yury is a member of the Freundes- und Förderkreises des Händel-Hauses zu Halle e.V. (Germany). 

He gives concerts at the most prestigious concert halls – Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Palais des beaux arts and Flagey Studio (Brussels), Cite de la musique (Paris), Tokyo International Forum (Japan), Beijing Concert Hall (China), Frideric Chopin University of Music Hall (Warsaw), Mendelssohn-Haus (Leipzig), Great, Small and Rachmaninoff's Halls of the Moscow Conservatory, the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall (Moscow), Saint-Petersburg Philarmonia Hall, Moscow International Performing Arts Center (House of Music), the House of Composers in Moscow and many others. 

Yury is the winner of the Prize of the Gyorgy Cziffra Foundation (Vienna, 2003), and is a laureate of many international competitions, among them: the International Olivier Messiaen Competition (piano), Fourth Prize (Yvonne Loriod Prize), and the Prize for the Young Soloist from the Musical Creativity Foundation (Paris, 2007), as well as the International Queen Elisabeth Competition (Piano), Fourth Prize (Brussels, 2010). 

He has taken an active part in numerous musical festivals, such as International Piano Festival in La Roque d'Antheron, Piano aux Jacobins, the Festival La Folle Journée in Nantes and in Tokyo, L'esprit du piano in Bordeaux, Guangzhou und Beijing, International Festival in Saint-Lizier, Musique en Vallée du Tarn, J. S. Bach Festival, Olivier Messiaen Festival, Steinway Parade, Magic of Piano, Art-November, Moscow Forum (International Festival for Contemporary Music), Moscow Autumn, and International Festival-School TERRITORIYA. 

Also he took part in the masterclasses with Paul Badura-Skoda, Stephen Kovacevich, Dmitry Bashkirov, Sergey Babayan, Boris Berman, Marios Papadapoulos, Ferenc Rados and Noel Flores. Yury was a participant of the International Summer Academy Praha – Vienna – Budapest (2003), the Academy of the Festival Verbier (Switzerland, 2011), the International Holland Music Sessions (TIHMS) (the Netherlands, 2011), the International Summer Academy in Oxford (2012), and the International Summer Academy Mozarteum in Salzburg (2012).