Tatarstan State Symphony Orchestra,
Alexander Sladkovsky

The Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra has achieved worldwide acclaim for their sophisticated performances and dynamic programming. The orchestra was the inspiration of Nazib Zhiganov, former Chairman of the Composers Union of Tatarstan and Dean of the Kazan Conservatory. In 1966, he received authorization and funding from the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic Council of Ministers to create a symphony orchestra in Tatarstan. The TNSO gave its first concert, featuring works by Bach, Shostakovich and Prokofiev, under its first Artistic Director and Principal Conductor Natan Rakhlin on 10th of April, 1967.

Under its current Artistic Director and Principal Conductor Alexander Sladkovsky, the TNSO has further developed its cultural and social influence through new festivals, artistic collaborations and educational and community outreach.

The orchestra regularly performs in Russian’s major cities and around the world through its extensive touring schedule. Its festivals and special events, including the Rakhlin Seasons, White Lilac, Kazan Autumn, The Creative Discovery and Denis Matsuev & Friends series, are amongst the most notable public, cultural events in Tatarstan and Russia. It is also frequently featured at the Crescendo, Stars on Baikal, The Cherry Orchard and the Hibla Germava Invites festivals.

The TNSO enjoys a long, successful history of collaborations with renowned operatic and instrumental luminaries including Galina Vishnevskaya, Irina Arkhipova, Olga Borodina, Hibla Gerzmava, Albina Shagimuratova, Simone Kermes, Plácido Domingo, Roberto Alagna, Dmitry Hvorostovsky, Leonidas Kavakos, Sergei Krylov, Gidon Kremer, Yuri Bashmet, David Geringas, Boris Berezovsky, Barry Douglas and Igor Butman among others.

The orchestra’s commitment to social and charitable causes has twice earned the Philanthropist of the Year award from the President of the Republic of Tatarstan. Through The Republic’s Heritage project, the TNSO supports both talented music conservatory students and local schools through a series of educational programmes and outreach. The orchestra’s Musical Healing programme is dedicated to helping severely ill and disabled children through a multi-faceted series of cultural events.

The TNSO is an exclusive Sony Music Entertainment Russia recording artist and has released several albums on the Sony Classical and RCA Red Seal labels. Their concerts have also been broadcast on Medici.tv and Mezzo.

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.

Alexander Sladkovsky is a Russian conductor, the People’s Artist of Russia, the People's Artist of the Republic of Tatarstan, who graduated from Moscow and St. Petersburg conservatories. He was born in 1965 in Taganrog. Prize-winner at the Prokofiev International Competition (St Petersburg, 1999). Made his debut as a conductor in 1997 at the Opera and Ballet Theatre of the St. Petersburg Conservatory with Mozart’s opera Così fan tutte. Has been a conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of the St. Petersburg State Capella (1997–2003) and Principal Conductor of the St. Petersburg Conservatory Opera and Ballet Theatre (2001–2003). In 2005 he assisted Mariss Jansons on a production of the opera Carmen, and in 2006 he assisted Mstislav Rostropovich on a production of the programme Unknown Musorgsky (both at the St. Petersburg Conservatory). Subsequently served as Principal Conductor of the St. Petersburg State Capella (2004–2006) and conductor of the State Symphony Orchestra Novaya Rossiya (2006–2010).

Since 2010 he has been Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra. In 2016 the orchestra presented concerts at the Brucknerhaus in Linz and the Musikverein in Vienna. December 2018 featured a tour to China, while in 2014 (in Japan) and in 2019 (in France) the orchestra participated in the festival La Folle Journée.

In the 2014/15 season Alexander Sladkovsky and the Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra appeared at the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia (as part of an anniversary concert commemorating ten years of the Crescendo festival) and the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre.

In 2012 the ensemble released An Anthology of Music by Tatarstan Composers and the album Enlightenment (featuring Tchaikovsky’s Manfred symphony and Rachmaninoff’s Isle of the Dead) on the labels Sony Music and RCA Red Seal, while in 2016 with Melodiya it recorded the First, Fifth and Ninth Symphonies by Mahler and all of Shostakovich’s symphonies and concerti. In May 2020 the Sony Classical label released the box set Tchaikovsky 2020 commemorating one hundred and eighty years since the composer’s birth – a recording of all of Tchaikovsky’s symphonies and concerti. In August 2020 the Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Alexander Sladkovsky recorded symphonic works by Rachmaninoff on the Sony Classical label. Presentation concerts of the box set Sergei Rachmaninoff. Symphonic Collection was held in March 2021 in Moscow, St Petersburg and Kazan.

In 2019 Alexander Sladkovsky received the Sergei Rachmaninoff International Award in the category “Special project in the name of Rachmaninoff” for his particular focus on the composer’s music and for organising the White Lilac festival in Kazan which is dedicated to him. In the autumn of 2019 he founded an annual personal scholarship at the Moscow Conservatory for students of the Opera and Symphony Conducting Faculty. In 2019 he also conducted Verdi’s La Traviata at Moscow Helikon Opera Theatre (directed by Dmitry Bertman). In 2021, upon the invitation by the President of the Zhiganov Kazan State Conservatory, he took the position of Professor of the Opera and Symphony Conducting Department. In 2022, he became the inaugural recipient of the 440 Hertz Orchestral Grand Prix in the ‘Conductor’ category.