Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra of Russia,
Alexey Bogorad,
Philipp Kopachevsky

State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia (Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra) is one of the oldest symphony ensembles in the country: in 2021 it has celebrated 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 2021–2022  by Vasily Petrenko. Since 2024, Philipp Chizhevsky has been 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 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.

Alexey Bogorad was born in 1979 in Moscow into the family of conductor Vladimir Bogorad. He graduated with honours from the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory where he majored in clarinet with Prof. Vladimir Sokolov (completed in 2001) as well as in opera and symphonic conducting with Prof. Gennady Rozhdestvensky (completed in 2009). 

Alexey Bogorad won the 2nd prize at Stefan Turchak International Conducting Competition (Kiev, 2010) and the 1st prize at Lovro von Matačić International Conducting Competition (Zagreb, 2011).

He was a clarinet soloist of the Bolshoi Theater Orchestra from 1997 to 2011, and also a member of the Russian National Orchestra led by Mikhail Pletnev from 2001 to 2011. 

In 2011–2012, Alexey Bogorad was a conductor of the Evgeny Svetlanov State Symphony Orchestra. Since 2012, he has been a conductor of the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia, and in 2015 he also became a guest conductor of the Yekaterinburg Opera and Ballet Theater (now Ural Opera Ballet). 

As a conductor and stage director, he has staged a few Bolshoi productions including The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra by Britten, (2012), L'Enfant et les Sortiléges by Maurice Ravel (2013), Moidodyr by Efrem Podgaits (world premiere), Marco Spada by Daniel Auber, and Orlando to music by Edward Elgar, Philip Glass, Lera Auerbach and Elena Katz-Chernin (2021). 

Alexey Bogorad was also the musical director of several production, including The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky in Japan (2011), L'Histoire du soldat by Igor Stravinsky at the Drama Studio of the Russian Theater Institute (2013), Le Corsaire by Adolphe Adam and Romeo and Juliet by Prokofiev at Teatro di San Carlo in Naples (2014 and 2016), La Bayadère by Ludwig Minkus at the National Theater in Belgrade (2015), Giselle by Adolphe Adam and The Naiad and the Fisherman by Cesare Pugni at the Ural Opera Ballet in Yekaterinburg (2017). 

The conductor’s extensive stage repertoire also includes Don Giovanni by Mozart, The Flying Dutchman by Wagner, Faust by Gounod, Rigoletto by Verdi, Carmen by Bizet, La Boheme, Tosca and Madama Butterfly by Puccini, Wozzeck by Alban Berg, Ruslan and Lyudmila by Glinka, Iolanta, Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades by Tchaikovsky, Boris Godunov by Mussorgsky, The Tsar’s Bride and May Night by Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, The Fiery Angel by Sergey Prokofiev, and numerous ballets. 

Alexey Bogorad has appeared with the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia, Russian National Orchestra, State Academic Chamber Orchestra of Russia, Academic Symphony Orchestra of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Society, Mariinsky Orchestra (as part of the G20 Summit in St. Petersburg), the Mikhailovsky Theater Orchestra, Ural Philharmonic Orchestra, Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra, Academic Symphony Orchestras of Rostov and Volgograd, and Safonov Academic Symphony Orchestra. In addition, he continues to cooperate closely with the Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra that he conducted at the 15th International Tchaikovsky Competition in June 2015.

A soloist of the Moscow State Philharmonic and a prize-winner at international competitions, the young pianist Philipp Kopachevsky had won tremendous audience admiration and acclaim by the age of twenty-three. He regularly appears in recital in Great Britain, Germany, the USA, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Greece, Poland and Spain as well as throughout Russia. Kopachevsky has won particular popularity in Japan, where especially for NHK TV he recorded a disc of piano music by Chopin. 

Philipp Kopachevsky was born in Moscow in 1990. He graduated from the Central School of Music of the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatoire. He is currently a student at the Moscow Conservatoire (class of Professor Sergei Dorensky). He has been a prize-winner at eight prestigious international competitions, among them the Х International Franz Schubert Piano Competition (Germany).

The musician has performed with the world’s great orchestras, among them English Chamber Orchestra, Moscow Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra of the Kolobov Novaya Opera Theatre in Moscow, Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia, Moscow State Academic Symphony Orchestra, Novaya Rossiya State Symphony Orchestra, Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra and the Academic Symphony Orchestra of the St Petersburg Philharmonic. He has collaborated with such illustrious conductors as Mstislav Rostropovich, Valery Gergiev, Vladimir Spivakov, Mikhail Pletnev, Yevgeny Kolobov, Yuri Simonov, Alexander Dmitriev, Andrew Gourlay, William Noll, Bjarte Engeset, Charles Olivieri-Munroe, Yevgeny Bushkov, Maxim Vengerov, Paul Watkins, Jan Latham-Koenig, Dorian Wilson and Dmitry Liss among others. 

Philipp Kopachevsky has appeared at numerous international festivals, such as the Andrei Sakharov Festival (Nizhny Novgorod), the Vera Lotar-Shevchenko Memorial Competition (Novosibirsk), the Steinway Festival, the Miami Piano Festival, the Arts Naples World Festival (USA), the Colmar International Festival (France), the Mstislav Rostropovich Memorial Festival (Baku), the Baltic Seasons festival (Kaliningrad), Vladimir Spivakov Invites, Stars on Baikal, Crescendo and Denis Matsuev Invites among numerous others. 

Philipp Kopachevsky performed at the world premiere of choreographer Benjamin Millepied’s ballet Without at the Mariinsky Theatre. He is involved in the Moscow State Philharmonic’s project Stars of the 21st Century. Previous engagements include concerts at the Moscow Conservatoire and the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall and appearances with the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia under Jan Latham-Koenig, the State Academic Symphony Cappella of Russia under Philipp Chizhevsky and the Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra under Terje Mikkelsen.