State Academic Symphony Orchestra
"Evgeny Svetlanov", Marius Stravinsky,
Julia Zilberquit

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.

Marius Stravinsky started playing the violin when he was four at the Moscow Central Music School. He continued his studies at the Yehudi Menuhin School in Great Britain from the age of ten and three years later became the first former Soviet student to secure a scholarship in music at Eton College in the UK. He is a graduate and a scholarship winner of the Royal Academy of Music in London. Stravinsky´s passion for conducting began through meeting Mariss Jansons and playing Bruch Concerto for him aged 13, following which he received conducting training from Igor Golovchin and Thomas Sanderling. The summer of 1998 was spent assisting Claudio Abbado in rehearsals of Peter Brook´s production of Don Giovanni at the Aix-en Provence Festival. He has also attended conducting master- classes with Kenneth Kiesler and Eri Klas.

In September 2002, Stravinsky accepted the position of Assistant Conductor with the Moscow Philharmonic and Moscow Helikon Opera, studying with Vladimir Ponkin. His three year conducting residency at the Helikon Opera included performance runs of Lulu (Berg), Lady Macbeth of the Mtensk District (Shostakovich), Les Dialogue des Carmelites (Poulenc), The Story of Real Man (Prokofiev), Kaschei the Immortal (Rimsky-Korsakov), Siberia (Giordano), Mavra (Stravinsky) and Carmen (Bizet). He has also worked with numerous ensembles including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (UK), Moscow Philharmonic, Russian National Orchestra, Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, Thuringer Symphoniker Saalfeld-Rudolstadt, St. Petersburg Chamber Orchestra, Belarusian State Academic Symphony Orchestra, National Orchestra of Malta, Queensland Symphony, Tokyo Opera Philharmonic Orchestra etc.

Following an extensive search and two year competition over 40 candidates, Stravinsky was appointed Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Karelia Philharmonic Orchestra (KPO) in 2007, becoming one of the youngest conductors in Russia ever to hold such a post. He held this position until 2012. After making his highly successful Mariinsky Opera debut with Mavra and The Nightingale in February 2012, he was immediately re-invited for further performances. His discography includes world premiere recordings of Brull´s Violin Concerto and Symphony, Jadassohn´s Symphony and Pabst´s Piano Concerto – all on the Cameo Classics label. The KPO and Stravinsky have also released of the Thomas Blower Symphony, Lamia by Dorothy Howell and works by Holbrook as well as a Piano Concerto and Silentium by Zhukov.

Vladimir Jurowski invited Marius Stravinsky to be his assistant with the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 2013-2015. He is also a regular guest conductor of the Mikhailovsky Theatre (St Petersburg), where he recently conducted La Bayadere, Swan Lake, Don Quixote, La Fille mal Gardee, White Darkness as well as other performances. He has also developed a strong relationship with the State Academic Symphony “Svetlanov” orchestra, conducting more than a dozen concerts since making his debut in February 2014. Other recent debuts have been with the Slovenian National Philharmonic, Hessisches Staatstheater Orchester of Milan, where he was immediately re-invited for more performances in 2015 and 2017. Other notable highlights next season include debuts with the orchestras of Deutsche Oper Berlin and Staatskapelle Berlin, as well as the St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra and will continue working with the State Academic Symphony Orchestra “Evgeny Svetlanov” in Moscow.

Russian-born American pianist Julia Zilberquit has earned critical acclaim as a recitalist, orchestral soloist, chamber musician, and recording artist.  She was praised by The New York Times as "an outstanding soloist" after her Carnegie Hall performance of Cesar Franck's symphonic poem Les Djinns for piano and orchestra with Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra in 2012.

Highlights of the 2013-14 season include the release of her CD,Bach: Complete Solo Keyboard Concertos; Bach-Vivaldi and features the premiere of two Bach-Vivaldi Concerti Grossi arranged by Ms. Zilberquit for piano and orchestra. This recording was released on the Warner Classics label and was hailed as a “gorgeous rendition” by the prestigious Gramophone Magazine.

Ms. Zilberquit made an arrangement of Shostakovich’s Concertinofor piano and orchestra and premiered it at Carnegie Hall in 1997. She performed it worldwide to critical acclaim and recorded theConcertino with Vladimir Spivakov and the Moscow Virtuosi.

Julia Zilberquit’s other recordings include a solo recording, The Mystery of Bagatelles, released by Naxos in 2007. The CD was praised as a “superb performance” by The Washington Post, and described as an “adventurous program, sparkling with unusual clarity and pointalistic luminescence” in London’s Piano Magazine.  Ms. Zilberquit has also recorded Jewish Music from Russia, featuring works by Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Slonimsky on the Harmonia Mundi label.

In 2008, Ms. Zilberquit premiered Slonimsky’s, The Jewish Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra, which she commissioned. Slonimsky dedicated the piece to Julia Zilberquit and she performed it with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, in commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of the State of Israel.

Julia Zilberquit has performed under the baton of Sir Yehudi Menuhin at the Beethoven Festival in Vienna. In 2004 Ms. Zilberquit discovered a virtually unknown early piano concerto by Beethoven and performed it in Moscow with Yuri Bashmet and the “Young Russia” orchestra. She has been a guest soloist with numerous orchestras, including The Brooklyn Philharmonic, Russian State Orchestra, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Deutsche Symphony, Moscow Soloists, Cairo Symphony, Moscow Virtuosi, Bolshoi Orchestra, Musica Viva, “I Musici de Montréal”, The Russian Philharmonia, Moscow Chamber Orchestra, Sinfonietta Cracovia, and Sinfonia Varsovia.

Ms. Zilberquit has given recitals at the world's major halls including New York's Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, 92nd Street Y, and the Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. Her engagements at major international music festivals include appearances in Seattle, Colmar (France), Klangbogen (Vienna), Valery Gergiev's “White Nights” (St. Petersburg), Richter's “December Nights” (Moscow), “The Palaces of St. Petersburg,” Bard Music Festival in New York, and the Penderecki Festival (Poland).

A native of Moscow, Julia Zilberquit was born into a family of musicians. She graduated from Moscow Gnessin School of Music and The Juilliard School (class of Bella Davidovich). She lives in New York City with her husband, son, and daughter.