Dmitry Shishkin, Ivan Pochekin,
Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra,
Dimitris Botinis

Born in Ulan-Ude.  Studied at the Moscow Conservatory under Prof. Eliso Virsaladze (2010 to present).  In 2004 he won the 5th International Nutcracker Television Competition for Young Musicians.  In 2013 he took third prize in the 59th Busoni International Piano Competition in Bolzano (Italy) and third prize in the Friuli Venezia Giulia International Piano Competition (Italy). In 2014 he came in second in the 4th BNDES International Piano Competition in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil).  In 2010 he performed Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.1 with the Gnesin Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra at the concert on Red Square to celebrate Russia Day.  He has appeared with the Tchaikovsky Large Symphony Orchestra and the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra.  He has performed on tour in Europe and Asia.  In 2014 he became a recording artist for the KNS Classical label.

Ivan Pochekin is one of the most brilliant violinists of the Russian school in his generation. He rose to stardom in 2005 after winning the 3rd Niccolò Paganini International Violin Competition in Moscow. Ivan Pochekin has performed under the baton of such eminent conductors as Valery Gergiev, Mikhail Pletnev, Vladimir Spivakov, Vladimir Jurowski, Alexander Sladkovsky, Yuri Simonov, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Gintaras Rinkevičius, Mark Gorenstein, Friedrich Haider, Mladen Tarbuck, Sergei Skripka, Dmitry Liss, Ignat Solzhenitsyn, Jan Latham-Koenig, Fabio Mastrangelo, and Charles Olivieri-Munroe.

Ivan has participated in various festivals, among them “The Musical Kremlin,” the Moscow Easter Festival, "La Folle Journée" in Nantes, and "Pianoscope" in Beauvais. In 2008 and 2013, on Denis Matsuev’s invitation, he performed in the "Crescendo" Festival in Kaliningrad and Pskov and the “Stars on Lake Baikal” Festival in Irkutsk. In September 2014, the violinist was honored to play the legendary ex-Paganini violin by Carlo Bergonzi, provided courtesy of Maxim Viktorov’s family, during the Grand Festival of the Russian National Orchestra when he, the Russian National Orchestra and maestro Pletnev performed Niccolò Paganini’s Violin Concerto No. 2.

Over the years, Ivan Pochekin has collaborated with the Yevgeny Svetlanov State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia, the Mariinsky Theater Orchestra, the Moscow Philharmonic Academic Symphony Orchestra, the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia, the Tchaikovsky Great Symphony Orchestra, the Russian National Orchestra, the Republic of Tatarstan’s State Symphony Orchestra, the Urals Philharmonic Orchestra, the State Academic Chamber Orchestra of Russia, the Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, the Republic of Korea Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra, the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra, the Sofia Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Oviedo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Deutsches Kammerorchester, and the Basel Symphony Orchestra.

In 2006, the violinist recorded music by Niccolò Paganini and Ernest Chausson on a debut CD sponsored by the Violin Art Foundation. In the same year, "PhilArtis" Vienna in Austria released an album entitled “Chanson Russe” with Ivan’s recordings of works by Sergei Prokofiev, Karol Szymanowski, Peter Tchaikovsky, Igor Stravinsky and Aram Khachaturian.

In August 2011, Ivan Pochekin signed a contract with "Naxos" Records, an internationally famous classical music label, to record two albums of music by Niccolò Paganini, including his Violin Concertos No. 5 and 6 and several virtuoso violin pieces. The albums were released to receive highly enthusiastic critical acclaim.

Ivan Pochekin began to play the violin at the age of five under Galina Turchaninova. His subsequent violin teachers were Maya Glezarova, Viktor Tretyakov, and Rainer Schmidt. The violinist owes much of his early progress to his mother, who taught him for a decade.

In 2002, the musician debuted at the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, performing Sergei Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2.

The artist collaborates creatively with Boris Berezovsky, Henri Demarquette, Tatiana Grindenko, Rainer Schmidt, Alexander Knyazev, Alexander Gindin, Artyom Dervoed, Philipp Kopachevskiy, and Yuri Favorin.

Ivan Pochekin also plays the viola.

A special performing partner of Ivan Pochekin’s is his brother, violinist Mikhail Pochekin, with whom they play as a duo.

Throughout its history, the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra has ranked among the best national orchestras and has been a worthy representative of Russian musical culture abroad. 

The orchestra was founded in September 1951 under the Soviet Radio Committee and joined the Moscow Philharmonic Society in 1953. Its artistic image and performing style were built under the guidance of renowned Russian conductors. The ensemble's first Artistic Director and Principal Conductor was Samuil Samosud (1951–1957). In 1957–1959, the orchestra, led by Nathan Rachlin, was considered as one of the best in the USSR. In 1958, at the 1st International Tchaikovsky Competition, the orchestra, conducted by Kirill Kondrashin, accompanied a triumphant performance by Van Cliburn, and in 1960 it was the first Russian symphony orchestra to tour the USA.

Kirill Kondrashin led the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra for 16 years (1960–1976). Those years were important milestones in the ensemble's history: the maestro conducted the premieres of Shostakovich's 4th and 13th Symphonies, his poem The Execution of Stepan Razin, Prokofiev's Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of the October Revolution, performed and recorded many Mahler symphonies. In 1973 the orchestra was awarded the title of Academic. Under Dmitry Kitaenko (1976–1990) the orchestra extended its 20th century repertoire, premiering works by Khrennikov, Denisov, Schnittke, Butsko, and Tishchenko. Messiaen's Turangalîla-Symphonie, Stravinsky's King of the Stars (Zvezdoliki) and Requiem Canticles were performed for the first time in the USSR. The ensemble was subsequently led by Vasily Sinaisky (1991–1996) and Mark Ermler (1996–1998). 

The orchestra has collaborated with leading Russian and international conductors including André Cluytens, Igor Markevitch, Charles Munch, Zubin Mehta, George Enescu, Neeme Järvi, Mariss Jansons, Dzhansug Kakhidze, Kurt Mazur, Evgeny Svetlanov and composers Benjamin Britten, Igor Stravinsky, and Krzysztof Penderecki. It is with this orchestra that Sviatoslav Richter made his sole appearance as a conductor. Virtually all major soloists of the second half of the 20th century have appeared with the orchestra, including Isaac Stern, Yehudi Menuhin, Glenn Gould, Emil Gilels, David Oistrakh, Leonid Kogan, Daniil Shafran, Yakov Flier, Nikolai Petrov, Mstislav Rostropovich, Vladimir Krainev, Maurizio Pollini, Eliso Virsaladze, and Natalia Gutman. The orchestra has recorded over 350 LPs and CDs, many of which have received the highest international recording awards and are still in demand today. 

A new stage in the history of the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra began in 1998, when it was taken over by People's Artist of the USSR Yuri Simonov. Under his leadership, the ensemble has achieved tremendous success. Today the orchestra is one of the mainstays of Russian philharmonic life, frequently performing in cities across Russia (over the last ten years they have appeared in more than 40 cities) and successfully touring Great Britain, Germany, Spain, Japan, Hong Kong, China, and Korea. 

In recent decades, the orchestra has played with such outstanding musicians as: Marc-André Hamelin, Valery Afanassiev, Yuri Bashmet, Boris Berezovsky, Yuja Wang, Maxim Vengerov, Stefan Vladar, Hibla Gerzmava, David Geringas, Barry Douglas, Lilya Zilberstein, Sumi Jo, Laura Kleikomb, Alexander Kniazev, Sergey Krylov, John Lill, Nikolai Lugansky, Konstantin Lifshitz, Oleg Maisenberg, Denis Matsuev, Ekaterina Mechetina, Viktoria Mullova, Daniel Pollak, Vadim Repin, Sergey Roldugin, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Viktor Tretyakov; Conductors Luciano Acocella, Semyon Bychkov, Alexander Vedernikov, Michael Güttler, Alexander Dmitriev, Marco Zambelli, Thomas Sanderling, Alexander Lazarev, Andres Mustonen, Vasily Petrenko, Benjamin Pionnier, 

Gintaras Rinkevičius, Alexander Sladkovsky, Leonard Slatkin, Saulius Sondeckis, Antonino Fogliani, Mariss Jansons and many others. 

One of the orchestra's priorities is working with the new generation of musicians: as part of the Stars of the 21st Century series, the orchestra plays with gifted soloists entering the big stage and invites young performers to join its philharmonic subscription programmes. The orchestra is a regular participant of international and Russian master courses for young conductors by Yuri Simonov, organized by the Moscow Philharmonic society. 

The activities of Maestro Simonov and the orchestra also aim at educating young listeners. The subscription series Tales with an Orchestra, taking place in Moscow and many Russian cities and featuring theatre and film stars, has become hugely popular. Guest stars have included Marina Alexandrova, Maria Aronova, Alyona Babenko, Valery Barinov, Sergei Bezrukov, Anna Bolshova, Olga Budina, Valery Garkalin, Sergei Garmash, Nonna Grishaeva, Ekaterina Guseva, Evgenia Dobrovolskaya, Mikhail Yefremov, Evgeny Knyazev, Avangard Leontiev, Pavel Lyubimtsev, Dmitry Nazarov, Alexander Oleshko, Irina Pegova, Yulia Peresild, Mikhail Porechenkov, Evgeniya Simonova, Grigory Siyatvinda, Daniil Spivakovsky, Yuri Stoyanov, Evgeny Stychkin, Victoria Tolstoganova, Mikhail Trukhin, Gennady Khazanov, Chulpan Khamatova, Sergey Shakurov. This project brought Maestro Simonov the Moscow Mayor's Arts Award in 2008, while in 2010, Yuri Simonov and the orchestra received the National Newspaper Musical Review Award in the Conductor and Orchestra category. 

In recent years, the ensemble has presented several Moscow, Russian and world premieres of works by Andrei Eshpai, Boris Tishchenko, Krzysztof Penderecki, Philip Glass, Alexander Tchaikovsky, Sergei Slonimsky, Valentin Silvestrov, Eduard Artemyev, Gennady Gladkov, Sofia Gubaidulina, Alexei Rybnikov, Efrem Podgaits, Kuzma Bodrov and other composers.

Dimitris Botinis was born in Moscow into the family of the famous Greek conductor Dimitris Botinis Senior, who gave the his son his first conducting lessons. He graduated from the Municipal Conservatoire in Patras as a violinist. He studied conducting under Professor Yuri Simonov at his master courses in Hungary and subsequently at the St. Petersburg Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory, from which he graduated with distinction in 2011.

Dimitris was a winner of the Antonio Pedrotti International Conducting Competition (Italy, 2006), where he was collected all the special prizes, and of the first Russian Competition of Opera and Symphony Conducting (Moscow, 2011).

Since March 2021, he has been a conductor with the Moscow Philharmonic that previously employed him as an assistant to Yuri Simonov (then Artistic Director and Chief Conductor). Since 2015, he has also been Chief Conductor of the V. I. Safonov Academic Symphony Orchestra of the North Caucasus Philharmonic Society, where, besides symphonic programmes, he has also been involved in concert performances of operas. Since 2022, he has also been Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra.

Mr. Botinis collaborates with leading Russian ensembles including Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra, Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia, Russian National Orchestra, Novaya RossiyaState Symphony Orchestra, Academic Symphony Orchestra of the St Petersburg Philharmonic, Ural Academic Philharmonic Orchestra, State Symphony Orchestra of Tatarstan, State Philharmonic Orchestra of the Russian Federation, and Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra.

In 2012, he made his debut with the Mariinsky Orchestra and began collaborating with the St Petersburg House of Music. He took part in Musical Olympus Festival in 2011-2016.

In November 2014, he conducted the first (“test”) symphony concert at the Rachmaninoff Concert Hall (Philharmonia-2), while in January 2017 he conducted the orchestra at the hall’s official grand opening, performing Rachmaninoff’s 2nd Piano Concerto with Denis Matsuev at the piano.

Dimitris has toured to Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland, Estonia, South Korea and Cyprus. In 2017, he recorded works by Russian composers with the Bamberger Symphoniker.

Highlights of his career include appearances with renowned orchestras of Greece, such as National Symphony Orchestra of Radio and Television and State Symphony Orchestras of Athens and Thessaloniki. He participated at the International Festival of Patras in 2010 and 2011, made his debut at the Athens Concert Hall in 2013, and appeared at the National Opera and Ballet Theatre of Greece in 2019.

In autumn 2018, he became the first conductor to stand at the console of the Russian National Youth Symphony Orchestra, with which he gave several concerts in Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod and cities in Siberia. In September 2019, he performed at the Stars on Baikal Festival in Irkutsk. The 2021/22 season sees his debut with the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse (France).

In 2021, he was awarded the Presidential Prize for Young Culture Professionals of the Russian Federation for his contribution to the establishment of traditions in the Russian musical art and education.