"The Complete Stravinsky"

Yaroslav Timofeev is a musicologist, lecturer, music critic, presenter, and concert host. Having graduated from the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, he has been a prize-winner of international piano, composing and church bellringing competitions. In 2014, Yaroslav defended his Ph. D. thesis titled Stravinsky and “Khovanshina” in Sergei Diaghilev’s version: an attempt of historical research and source study. In 2015, he got the 1st degree Resonance award for Russian Young Musical Critics at the Diaghilev Festival. 

Since 2011, Yaroslav Timofeev has been a music reviewer authoring over 750 articles for leading Russian media, such as Izvestia, Kommersant, Russia Beyond the Headlines newspapers; The New Times, Music Academy, Musical Life magazines; Colta.ru portal; and Arzamas project, among others. He has also been a script-writer and editor of the Absolute Pitch and Artificial selection shows on the Kultura TV channel. In 2014–2015, he was an editor with the Culture Division of Izvestia newspaper. In 2009–2015, he headed the Musicology Section of MolOt (Junior Department of the Russian Composers Union). Since 2018, he has been the Chief Editor with the Musical Academy Magazine.

Yaroslav Timofeev has been a Jury member and an Expert Council member of the Golden Mask National Theatre Award. As a musical consultant, he was involved in the staging of the Opening Ceremony of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics. He has been working at the Moscow Philharmonic Society since 2010, presenting concerts of the project ‘Mom, I'm a Melomaniac’ since the 2017/18 season and being a permanent co-author and co-host of the ‘Music Language’ project since 2018/19. He also gives pre-concert lectures in Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov Concert Halls. In spring 2020, he hosted several online concerts of the Armchair Concerts series. 

Yaroslav has been a pianist with OQJAV indie group since 2017. As part of the group, he was awarded the Mikael Tariverdiev Prize for the Best Film Soundtrack at the Kinotavr festival (2020).

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.

Philipp Chizhevsky was born in Moscow in 1984. He graduated from the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory with a double degree in choral conducting (2008, class of Professor Stanislav Kalinin) and opera and symphonic conducting (2010, class of Professor Valery Poliansky). He then worked as a choirmaster and conducting trainer at the Gnessin State Musical College. In 2008, he became a prize-winner of the Russian National Conductors' Competition in Moscow.

The same year, he and Maria Grilikhes co-founded Questa Musica ensemble performing in Russia and abroad. He has led the ensemble through many large-scale projects such as Purcell's Dido and Aeneas at the Arkhangelskoye estate and museum (2011, directed by Alisher Khasanov) and The Fairy Queen at the Great Hall of the Conservatory (2017), Sergei Nevsky’s Francis at the Bolshoi Theater (2012, staged by Vladimir Bocharov), Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale at Na Strastnom Theatre Centre (2013, choreography by Oleg Glushkov), Drillalians opera series at Stanislavsky Electrotheatre (2015, directed by Boris Yukhananov, composers: Dmitry Kurlyandsky, Boris Filanovsky, Alexey Syumak, Sergei Nevsky, Alexey Sysoev, Viadimir Rannev), Galileo opera for violin and scientist at Stanislavsky Electrotheatre (2017, idea by Elena Revich, directed by Boris Yukhananov), and Haendel's Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno at the Moscow State Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theatre (2018, directed by Konstantin Bogomolov). 

Since 2011, Chizhevsky has been conducting the State Symphony Capella of Russia (Artistic Director and Principal Conductor: Valery Polyansky). He assisted Gennady Rozhdestvensky in rehearsing the orchestra's subscription concerts and conducted the orchestra at the 1st All-Russian Music Competition, which brought him a letter of acknowledgement from the Russian Ministry of Culture. Philipp Chizhevsky conducted the premiere of Michael Nyman’s opera Prologue to Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell in Perm (2012). 

In 2014, he directed and conducted Mozart's Così fan tutte at the Buryat State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater (stage director Hans-Joachim Frey). In partnership with Vladimir Jurowski and Fuad Ibrahimov, he conducted the Russian premiere of Stockhausen's Gruppen for three orchestras and three conductors as part of Another Space festival (2016) at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall. In 2018, he conducted the world premiere of Giya Kancheli's T–S–D for cello and orchestra at the opening of the 10th edition of VIVACELLO festival. 

Since 2014, Chizhevsky has been a guest conductor with the Russian Bolshoi Theatre. In the 2014/15 season, he was the artistic director of the 1st Baroque Festival of the Bolshoi. As a conductor and stage director, he has been engaged in several productions, including Offenbach's La Périchole at the Bolshoi Chamber Stage (2019, stage director Philipp Grigoryan) and one-act operas The Diary of Anne Frank by Grigory Frid and Weiße Rose by Udo Zimmermann (2021, stage director Hans-Joachim Frey). 

At the Perm Tchaikovsky Opera and Ballet Theatre, Philipp Chizlevsky regularly conducts Bizet' Carmen staged by Konstantin Bogomolov (2021). 

He has been collaborating with Russian and international orchestras, including Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra, Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia, Novaya Rossiya State Symphony Orchestra, Russian Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestra of the Kolobov Novaya Opera Theatre (Moscow), Musica Viva Moscow Chamber Orchestra, State Academic Chamber Orchestra of Russia, Brandenburger Symphoniker, Tokyo New Symphony Orchestra, and others. 

His recordings feature Sketches to Sunset and Russian Seasons by Leonid Desyatnikov (with violinist Roman Mints, Brno Philharmonic Orchestra, and Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra), and Boris Papandopulo's Piano Concerto (with pianist Andrey Gugnin and Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra). 

In 2019, he received the BraVo International Professional Music Award and the Golden Mask Russian National Theatre Award for the production of Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno at the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theatre. Beforehand, he had been nominated three times for the Golden Mask award. 

Since 2011, Philipp Chizhevsky has been teaching at the Moscow Conservatory. Furthermore, he is the Artictic Director of Cantata annual international music festival in Kaliningrad.

Maria was born in 1998 in Kemerovo (Russia). In 2017 she completed her studies at the Novosibirsk Musical College where she got a professional diploma in vocal performance and continued her vocal education in the Gnessin Academy of Music. In September 2017, she joined the Young Artist Program of the Bolshoi Theatre and started working with the Head of the Program, Prof. Dmitry Vdovin and other prominent coaches. 

She has taken part in numerous chamber concerts at the Bolshoi Theatre’s Beethoven Hall. In Summer 2018, she took part in the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro where she sang Melibea in Teatro Rossini. In November 2018, she returned to Pesaro to perform the mezzo-soprano part in Stabat Mater by Rossini. Maria is the 1st Prize winner of the International Vocal Competitions Christmas Assembly in 2015 in Saint Petersburg, the Natalia Spiller International Vocal Competition in Moscow, 2018 and the XXVI Glinka International Vocal Competition in Kazan, 2019. The highlight of her 2018/19 season was her stunning performance at the XVI International Tchaikovsky Competition in St Petersburg where she was awarded 1st Prize. Maria participated in a winners’ concert in Vladivostok, in Saint Petersburg and in Moscow with Maestro Valery Gergiev.

Her repertoire includes Isabella in L’Italiana in Algeri and Melibea in Il Viaggio a Reims by Rossini, as well Lel’ in The Snow Maiden and Lubava in Sadko by Rimsky-Korsakov, Olga in Eugene Onegin by Tchaikovsky, and Bradamante in Alcina by Händel. In 2020, she made her debut in the Bolshoi theatre as Lubava in Sadko and as the Spring in The Snow Maiden in Novosibirsk Opera Theatre. In July 2022 she will be a participant in Bregenz Opera Festival where she will sing the title mezzo-soprano role, Isabella, in L’Italiana in Algeri.

The Yurlov Russian State Academic Choir is a world-famous Russian choir, and one of the oldest music ensembles in Moscow. 

Although the Choir celebrated the 100th anniversary of its official history in the 2018/19 season, the prehistory of the company dates back to 1900, when the church choir master Ivan Yukhov founded a family singing ensemble in the town of Shchelkovo near Moscow. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, Moscow saw a lot of emerging art associations like Moscow Art Theater or Pyatnitsky Russian Folk Choir. Yukhov’s amateur choir had become widely known long before the 1917 revolution for performing sacred music, folk songs, choral, vocal, and symphonic works by Russian and Western European composers.

After the revolution, the choir was nationalized by the Soviet authorities, and in January 1919 it received the official status of the First State Choir. Apart from touring extensively, the increasingly popular ensemble was also involved in cultural projects of the young Soviet state. In particular, they recorded soundtracks for such famous films as Jolly Fellows, The Circus, We are from Kronstadt, and Volga Volga. 

Appointing Alexander Yurlov (1927–1973) to head the company in 1958 was a landmark event in its history. With this outstanding conductor, the Choir ranked among the country’s best musical groups in the 1960s. The company collaborated with the renowned Russian composers Sviridov and Shostakovich and premiered works by Rubin and Shchedrin. Alexander Yurlov deserves credit for reviving the tradition of concert performances of Russian Orthodox church music. Yurlov was succeeded by Yuri Ukhov and Stanislav Gusev, talented musicians, conductors and choirmasters who enhanced the popularity of the Choir. 

Since 2004, the Choir has been headed by Gennady Dmitryak, People’s Artist of Russia, professor, one of Russia’s top choral, opera and symphony conductors. A musician of great energy, Gennady Dmitryak meets daunting challenges confidently, while launching unique art projects. With him, the Choir ran Kremlins and Temples of Russia, and Holy Love, festivals reviving the traditions of major vocal and choral educational programs. In the spring of 2014, the company was closely involved in the 22nd Winter Olympic Games and 11th Winter Paralympic Games in Sochi. In the 2018/2019 anniversary season, the Choir held a music festival with concerts in Moscow, Sevastopol, Kurgan, Chelyabinsk, Tyumen, Surgut, Khanty-Mansiysk, as well as in France. 

The Choir often tours throughout Russia from Magadan to Kaliningrad. The company led by Gennady Dmitryak has appeared triumphantly in Spain, Greece, Great Britain, the Republic of Belarus, Armenia, Poland, Ukraine, North Korea and in the Baltic countries. The team is a regular guest of leading music festivals. Symphony conductors collaborating with the Choir include Yuri Bashmet, Valery Gergiev, Vladimir Fedoseev, Dmitri Jurowski, Vladimir Jurowski, Mikhail Pletnev, Pavel Kogan, Teodor Currentzis, Sergey Skripka, Alexander Sladkovsky, and Yuri Simonov. The ensemble is widely known for their brilliant interpretations of music by Bortnyansky, Berezovsky, Kastalsky, Grechaninov, Chesnokov, Rachmaninoff, and Sviridov. The Choir’s repertoire includes virtually all of the Russian and Western European cantatas and oratorios, from Bach’s High Mass to works by Britten, Bernstein, Shostakovich, Schnittke, Kancheli and Tavener. 

A unique project of the Choir was recording the complete choral works by Sviridov commemorating the 100th anniversary of the composer’s birth. In 2019, the project won the Pure Sound International Award for the best recording of Russian academic music in Choral category. 

On May 31, 2019, the Choir was awarded the Commendation of the President of the Russian Federation ‘for merits in developing national culture and art and years of fruitful activities.’ 

(Press Service of the Choir)