The Harmony

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).

The Russian National Orchestra was founded in 1990 by pianist and conductor Mikhail Pletnev. Of its debut at the BBC Proms in London, the Evening Standard wrote, “They played with such captivating beauty that the audience gave an involuntary sigh of pleasure.” The RNO has been described as “a living symbol of the best in Russian art” (Miami Herald) and “as close to perfect as one could hope for” (Trinity Mirror).

Maintaining an active international schedule, the RNO appears in the music capitals of Europe, Asia and the Americas, is a frequent guest at festivals such as Edinburgh, the BBC Proms and Festival Napa Valley, and presents the RNO Grand Festival each September to open the Moscow season. Guest artists performing with the RNO on tour include conductors Vladimir Jurowski, Nicola Luisotti, Antonio Pappano, Alan Gilbert and Carlo Ponti, and soloists Martha Argerich, Yefim Bronfman, Lang Lang, Pinchas Zukerman, Sir James Galway and Joshua Bell, among many others.

RNO concerts are often aired on National Public Radio, the European Broadcasting Union, and Russia’s Kultura channel. Their discography, launched with a highly praised 1991 recording of Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique, now numbers more than 80 critically acclaimed recordings. Notable releases include the complete Beethoven symphonies and piano concertos on Deutsche Grammophon, Tchaikovsky’s six symphonies for Pentatone, and the RNO Shostakovich project, also on Pentatone, cited as “the most exciting cycle of the Shostakovich symphonies to be put down on disc, and easily the best recorded” (SACD.net).

Their recording of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf and Beintus’ Wolf Tracks, conducted by Kent Nagano and narrated by Sophia Loren, Bill Clinton and Mikhail Gorbachev, received a 2004 Grammy Award, making the RNO the first Russian orchestra to win the recording industry’s highest honor. Their recording of Shostakovich Symphony No. 7, conducted by Paavo Järvi, was awarded the Diapason d’Or de l’Année 2015 as the year’s best symphonic album, and was nominated for a 2016 Grammy Award.

Since October 2022, Alexander Rudin has been Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Russian National Orchestra.

Questa Musica Ensemble was founded in 2008 to bring together talented young singers and instrumentalists. As early as the following year, Questa Musica appeared in Venice and made its debut at the Moscow International House of Music. In 2001, the ensemble appeared at the Chamber Hall of the Moscow Philharmonic Society. Today, Questa Musica's choir and orchestra feature leading Moscow musicians, many of whom are involved in education along with concert performance. Questa Musica's projects have been nominated for the Golden Mask Theatre award on several occasions.

The ensemble's repertoire encompasses Russian and international classical music, Renaissance and Baroque works, and contemporary music. The ensemble was involved in Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas staged by Alisher Khasanov, Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale (choreographer and director: Oleg Glushkov), Handel’s Messiah, Mozart's symphonies and Requiem performed on historical instruments, as well as Stravinsky’s Les Noces with Mark Pekarsky Percussion Ensemble. Other highlights include premieres of the opera Francis by Sergey Nevsky at the Bolshoi New Stage, and of Passion According to Nicodemus by Alexander Manotskov (conducted by Philipp Chizhevsky), performing Sergey Nevsky's opera Autland under Titus Engel with the Dutch ensemble Vocaallab, and participation in the first Russian edition of Night of Music project (2013). 

In 2015, Questa Musica was invited by Boris Yukhananov, Artistic Director and Stage Director of Stanislavsky Electrotheatre, to participate in the production of Drillalians opera series that included world premieres of several works by Russian composers Dmitry Kurlyandsky, Boris Filanovsky, Alexey Syumak, Sergei Nevsky, Alexey Sysoev, and Viadimir Rannev. The next co-production with the Electrotheatre was Galileo. Opera for violin and scientist (music by Sergey Nevsky, Kuzma Bodrov, Dmitry Kurlyandsky, Kirill Chernegin, Pavel Karmanov, idea and soloist: Elena Revich). In 2016, the ensemble was a guest of the Linz Baroque Festival (Austria), while in 2017, its soloists were involved in the production of Octavia. Trepanation, opera by Dmitry Kurlyandsky, world premiered at the Holland Festival in Amsterdam. 

Major milestones on Questa Musica's path include Sinfonia for 8 voices and orchestra by Berio performed at the 5th Qara Qarayev Contemporary Music Festival (2013) and at the 5th Another Space Actual Music Festival (Moscow, 2016), as well as the stage production of Handel's Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno at the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Music Theatre (2018). In 2019, joined by London Baroque Brass soloist ensemble, Questa Musica presented a programme of British music at the December Nights of Sviatoslav Richter festival.