About Romance and Rondo, Horn and Piano, Rossini, Rachmaninov and Rimsky-Korsakov

Radio and TV journalist Artyom Vargaftik was born in 1971 in Moscow. He studied at the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory’s Academic School of Music and the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music, then completed a postgraduate course at the Moscow Conservatory. He taught cello history at the Gnessin Academy of Music in 1997–2000 and was a trainer of music journalism in 2003–2006. 

While still a student, he began working on the radio as a correspondent, presenter, and creator of musical programs. His programs Orchestra Pit and Music Scores Never Burn on the Kultura TV channel brought him a wide recognition. Both projects were awarded with TEFI national television awards in 2003 and 2004, respectively.

From 1994 to 2003, Artyom Vargaftik worked as a music journalist on the Echo of Moscow radio, and since 2003 he has been a columnist for Kultura Radio and Radio of Russia. He has taken part in numerous festivals and concerts in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Nizhniy Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Samara, Saratov, Kazan, and other Russian cities. He has been a regular concert presenter at festivals led by Boris Andrianov, such as Vivacello and Musical Expedition. 

In 2007, he began to collaborate with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, and their active collaboration is still ongoing (in the 2021/22 season, Artyom is creating and hosting The Story of a Masterpiece series). Artyom Vargaftik is also a regular host of concert programs at the Moscow International House of Music.