Russian National
Youth Symphony Orchestra,
Clement Nonciaux

Russian National Youth Symphony Orchestra – Symphony Academy is a unique musical collective and the largest youth project in the orchestral field. It was created in September 2018 with the support of the Presidential Grants Foundation and the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and is being developed as part of the national project Culture. The Moscow Philharmonic Society is the curator of the project. In its creative work, the orchestra combines Russian musical traditions and international experience, solving three fundamental questions – art, educational and enlightenment. Such combination of functions, none of which is auxiliary, has no analogues.

Today the orchestra consists of more than 120 musicians from 42 regions of Russia. The project makes high demands on the participants: a large amount of educational, rehearsal and concert work, the need for personal and professional dedication, discipline, and passion. For the development of young musicians, unprecedented conditions have been created: excellent rehearsal base, intensive concert life, cooperation with the best conductors and soloists of the world, classes with concertmasters of major orchestras and professors of famous music high schools.

An important role in the development of the project participants is played by the work with outstanding conductors. The orchestra performed under the direction of outstanding conductors: Valery Gergiev, Vladimir Fedoseev, Mikhail Jurowski, Alexander Lazarev, Alexander Sladkovsky, Charles Dutoit, Pinchas Zukerman, Thomas Zehetmair, Vasily Petrenko, Julian Rachlin, Vassily Sinaisky, Philippe Herreweghe, Tugan Sokhiev, Marc Minkowski, Paavo Järvi, Lionel Bringuier and Jean-Christophe Spinosi. The soloists performing with the orchestra are Denis Matsuev, Alexandre Kantorow, Nikolay Lugansky, Alexander Romanovsky, Vadim Repin, Julian Rachlin, Piotr Beczała, Julia Lezhneva, Miklós Sebestyén, Sabine Devieilhe, Khibla Gerzmava, Maxim Vengerov, Carolin Widmann, Erwin Schrott, Thomas Hampson, Sonya Yoncheva, to name a few.

Today RNYSO is an integral part of the concert life of the country: during five seasons it held more than 220 concerts, having performed in 33 Russian cities. The RNYSO concerts took place on two main stages of the Moscow Philharmonic, Mariinsky-2 Concert Hall, on the Red Square in Moscow and have being broadcast by Medici.tv. In the first years of its life, the RNYSO presented a number of major symphonic programs, took part in the international festivals,as well as in major cultural and public events. In the season 2023/24 the orchestra takes part in the Another Space. Continuo, All of Stravinsky, Dialogues with Brahms, The Language of Music subscription concerts performing under the baton of Alexander Lazarev, Dmitry Jurowski, Philipp Chizhevsky, Dmitry Sinkovsky with such soloists as Denis Matsuev, Nikolay Lugansky, Vadim Repin, Daniil Kogan, Nikolay Didenko, Dmitry Masleev, Konstantin Emelyanov, Sergei Davydchenko, Natalia Muradymova.

The RNYSO repertoire is being constantly replenished with symphonies of Beethoven, Berlioz, Weber, Brahms, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Mahler, Shostakovich, Lokshin, works by Mozart, Glinka, Schumann, Wagner, Richard Strauss, Stravinsky, Ives, Respighi, Pärt, Tarnopolsky, Reich, Zimmermann, Staud, Widmann, Ligeti, Sysoev and Adams, along with the greatest composers of the Baroque era. In November 2020, the collective was honored to open the 7th International Contemporary Music Festival Another Space. In summer 2021, the orchestra has performed in the largest European halls, such as KKL Luzern Concert Hall and Wiener Musikverein.

Clément Nonciaux began his musical career with piano at the Conservatoire de Tours at the age of six. Curious and eager for musical experiences, he studied numerous disciplines such as harpsichord, percussion and musicology. His ambition to become a professional musician pushed him towards Paris where he completed his piano studies and developed a passion for the orchestral repertoire and the theater.

Driven by his curiosity, he moved to Germany where he started a bachelor's degree in orchestral conducting under the direction of Professor Scott Sandmeier at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg and continued with a master's degree at the UdK Berlin under the direction of Steven Sloane and Harry Curtis. During this period he conducted numerous orchestras, including the Komische Oper Berlin Orchestra, the Kammerakademie Potsdam, and the Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester Frankfurt. This German period also opened the door to opera, where he was able to work in several countries as a répétiteur.

In 2022 he began to participate in conducting competitions and won the second prize at the 1st International Rachmaninoff Competition for Pianists, Conductors and Composers in Moscow. On this occasion, he was invited to conduct the Mariinsky Orchestra in concert in St. Petersburg. In March 2023 he took part in the 17th Donatella Flick Conducting Competition in London, where he conducts the London Symphonic Orchestra.

Clément Nonciaux practices music with a mission to create links throughout the world. He is committed to learning about the foreign cultures that music brings him close to, and is emotionally committed to reaching out to audiences, especially with repertoire from his native country.

His next engagements include a new production of the opera Le Postillon de Lonjumeauby Adolphe Adam at the Novaya Opera Theatre in Moscow in July 2023, directed by Evgueny Pisarev.

Since winning the Cello First Prize and Gold Medal at the XIV International Tchaikovsky Competition in 2011 at the age of 22, Narek Hakhnazaryan has inspired audiences with his artistry, securing a reputation as one of the world’s foremost cellists. Hakhnazaryan has performed with orchestras across the globe, earning praise from critics as “dazzlingly brilliant” (The Strad) and “nothing short of magnificent” (San Francisco Chronicle). In 2014, Hakhnazaryan was named a BBC New Generation Artist, and, in August 2016, made his BBC Proms debut to critical acclaim.

Highlights of Hakhnazaryan’s 2021/22 season included performances in Madrid with the Orchestra of Santa Cecilia and Antonio Pappano, at the Dvořák Prague Festival with Tomáš Netopil, Pisa Festival, Helsinki Philharmonic and Residentie Orchestra with Nicholas Collon at both The Hague and Concertgebouw Amsterdam. He also toured Australia and New Zealand. In 2020/21 he made his debut with the Vienna Radio Orchestra and Marin Alsop in the opening concert of their season at the Musikverein, and with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra receiving an immediate re-invitation. He was invited for a residency with Finnish Radio Symphony and Hannu Lintu, performing two televised concerti and a solo recital. 

The cellist’s 2019/20 season featured several notable debuts, including the Philharmonia Zurich with Gianandrea Noseda and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra with Manfred Honeck. Return engagements included Beare’s Premiere Music Festival (formerly Hong Kong Chamber Music Festival), BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and Essen Philharmonic with Netopil.

Hakhnazaryan’s commitment to new and rarely heard repertoire is evident in his recent European and American programs. In Warsaw, at the Eufonie Festival, he performed the late Andrej Panufnik’s Cello Concerto, and in Washington, DC, Hakhnazaryan appeared with PostClassical Ensemble in fellow Armenian Vache Sharafyan’s Cello Concerto No. 2, alongside acclaimed visual artist Kevork Mourad for Armenian Odyssey, a world-premiere multimedia production in the Great Nave of the Washington National Cathedral.

Hakhnazaryan was previously named one of the Vienna Konzerthaus’s Great Talents, and has performed in the Austrian capital with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra led by Jakub Hrůša, as well as at the Musikverein with Daniil Trifonov and Sergei Dogadin. In the summer of 2019, Hakhnazaryan joined longtime collaborator Trifonov for Shostakovich and Rachmaninoff sonatas at the Verbier and Rheingau Festivals. In 2018/19, Hakhnazaryan took part in a residency at Wigmore Hall, offering a series of fascinating programs of classic and lesser-known solo repertoire. A distinguished international orchestral soloist, Hakhnazaryan has appeared with the Baltimore, St. Louis, Seattle, Toronto, London, WDR, Frankfurt Radio, Sydney, New Zealand, and NHK Symphony Orchestras; the Royal Stockholm, Czech, Seoul, Netherlands, and Rotterdam Philharmonics; the Utah Symphony; Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra; Orchestre de Paris; and Teatro dell’Opera in Rome. He has collaborated with acclaimed conductors such as Alsop, Bělohlávek, Gergiev, Guerrero, Neeme Järvi, Koopman, Lintu, Pletnev, Robertson, Sarasate, Slatkin, and Sokhiev.

An eager chamber musician and recitalist, Hakhnazaryan has performed in New York’s Carnegie Hall, San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre, Washington DC’s National Gallery of Art, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Salle Pleyel Paris, Berlin Konzerthaus, Oji Hall Tokyo, Shanghai Concert Hall, and esteemed festivals such as Ravinia, Aspen, Piatigorsky, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Kissinger Sommer, Robeco Summer, Beethovenfest Bonn, Mikkeli, Pau Casals, Lucerne, and Verbier, among many others.

Hakhnazaryan has received scholarships from the Rostropovich Foundation and the Russian Performing Arts Fund, and won awards including First Prize in the 2006 Aram Khachaturian International Competition in Armenia and First Place in the 2006 Johansen International Competition for Young String Players. As First Prize winner in the 2008 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Hakhnazaryan debuted at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall and in Washington, DC. In 2017 he was named an Honored Artist of Armenia, by then-President Serzh Sargsyan.

Narek Hakhnazaryan was born in Yerevan, Armenia, into a family of musicians: his father is a violinist and his mother a pianist. Mentored by the late Rostropovich, Hakhnazaryan received an Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory of Music in 2011 where he studied with Lawrence Lesser, following studies at the Moscow Conservatory with Alexey Seleznyov and at the Sayat-Nova School of Music in Yerevan with Zareh Sarkisyan. Hakhnazaryan plays the 1707 Joseph Guarneri cello and F.X. Tourte and Benoit Rolland bows.