Germany

Novaya Rossiya State Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1990 by decree of the Russian Government. In 2002, Yuri Bashmet became the orchestra's Artistic Director and Principal Conductor, opening a new page in the ensemble's history. 

The orchestra has collaborated with renowned conductors and soloists, including Valery Gergiev, Tan Dun, Alexander Lazarev, Teodor Currentzis, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Andres Mustonen, Maxim Vengerov, Jean-Luc Ponty, Barry Douglas, Peter Donohoe, Denis Matsuev, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Boris Berezovsky, Viktor Tretiakov, Gidon Kremer, Vadim Repin, Anne-Sophie Mutter and Sergey Krylov, Kristóf Baráti, Viktoria Mullova, Natalia Gutman, David Geringas, Alexander Knyazev, James Galway, Deborah Voigt, Anna Netrebko, Laura Kleikomb, Plácido Domingo, Montserrat Caballé, Anna Caterina Antonacci, Patricia Cioffi, Elīna Garanča and ballet dancers Ulyana Lopatkina, Nikolai Tsiskaridze and Ilze Liepa as well as actors Konstantin Khabensky and Sergei Bezrukov.

Since 2002, the orchestra has given over 1000 concerts in Russia and abroad. Russian performances have taken place in Moscow and St. Petersburg, cities and towns of the Volga region and the Golden Ring, of the Urals and Siberia, while international tours have brought the musicians to countries like Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Poland, Republic of Korea, Spain, Switzerland, UK, Baltic and Nordic countries, and many others. 

The orchestra's repertoire combines classical and contemporary music of various styles and genres. It has premiered works by Gian Carlo Menotti, Edison Denisov, Mikael Tariverdiev, Sofia Gubaidulina, Giya Kancheli, Alexander Tchaikovsky, Tan Dun, Jean-Luc Ponty, Toru Takemitsu, Igor Raichelson, Emil Tabakov, Alexander Baltin, Vladimir Komarov, Boris Frankstein, Georgy Buzogly, Kuzma Bodrov and Alexey Sumak. 

The orchestra regularly appears at Yuri Bashmet's Winter International Arts Festival in Sochi and at international festivals in Yaroslavl, Rostov-on-Don and Minsk. It has taken part in the Mstislav Rostropovich Festival, Moscow Easter Festival, Guitar Virtuosi and Vivacello Festivals. The orchestra's discography includes works by Mozart, Beethoven, Weber, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, and Alexander Tchaikovsky. 

In March 2007, the orchestra received a grant from the Government of the Russian Federation, followed by the Grant of the President of the Russian Federation in 2010. In 2014, Novaya Rossiya was involved in preparing and running the cultural programme of the 22th Winter Olympic Games in Sochi. 

In the 2021/22 season, the orchestra presents subscription concert cycles at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall and the Rachmaninov Concert Hall (Philharmonia-2) in Moscow, some of which will focus on young audiences. Conductors Alexander Sladkovsky, Igor Razumovsky, Denis Vlasenko and soloists Alena Baeva, Gaik Kazazian, Viviane Hagner, Zlatomir Fang, Boris Berezovsky, Dmitry Masleyev, Olga Seliverstova, Yaroslav Abaimov and many others will appear alongside the orchestra throughout the season.

Yuri Bashmet is one of the most outstanding musicians of the present day. He studied music at the Moscow State Conservatoire under Vadim Borisovsky and Fyodor Druzhinin. Under the latter, Yuri Bashmet trained and held an assistantship at the Moscow Conservatoire (1976–1978). The start of his concert activities is connected with a tour to Germany by the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, founded by Rudolf Barshai (1976). Since 1978, Yuri Bashmet has taught at the Moscow Conservatoire, as a lecturer (1988), and later as a professor (1996). Starting in 1980, Yuri Bashmet has regularly given master classes in Japan, Europe, America and Hong Kong. His students, several of whom have gone on to become prize-winners at international competitions, perform with the world’s greatest orchestras.

In 1986 Yuri Bashmet formed the chamber orchestra Moscow Soloists. Later, several musicians took the decision to remain in France, while Yuri Bashmet abandoned leadership of the orchestra, which soon after ceased to exist. In 1992 Yuri Bashmet founded a new ensemble using the old name, its members the most talented young musicians of Russia, graduates and post-graduate students of the Moscow Conservatoire. 

In 1996 Yuri Bashmet established the Experimental Viola Faculty at the Moscow Conservatoire, where in addition to solo viola works the repertoire was expanded to include viola roles in chamber, opera and symphony music as well as a strong focus on the history of performing styles from the past and present. 

The geography of the musician’s appearances is vast: it includes the finest concert halls of Europe, the USA, Canada, South America, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. For the first time in world performing practice, Yuri Bashmet gave solo viola concerts in such venues as Carnegie Hall (New York), the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), the Barbican Hall (London), Berliner Philharmoniker, La Scala (Milan), the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire and the Great Hall of the Leningrad Philharmonic. 

His solo concerts and ensemble appearances with other outstanding performers never fail to pack halls and rouse lively interest. Musicians with whom Yuri Bashmet has performed include Sviatoslav Richter, Mstislav Rostropovich, Isaac Stern, Gidon Kremer, Marta Argerich, Oleg Kagan, Natalia Gutman, Viktor Tretyakov, Rafael Kubelik, Seiji Ozawa, Valery Gergiev, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Colin Davis, John Eliot Gardiner, Yehudi Menuhin, Charles Dutoit, Neville Marriner, Paul Sacher, Michael Tilson Thomas, Kurt Masur, Bernard Haitink, Kent Nagano, Simon Rattle, Yuri Temirkanov and Nikolaus Harnoncourt to name but a few. 

Yuri Bashmet’s concert programs are unusually varied and include music from various styles and eras. Many contemporary composers have dedicated or specially written works for him. These include Schnittke’s concerto, Monologue and Concert for Three (dedicated to Mstislav Rostropovich, Yuri Bashmet and Gidon Kremer), concerti by Gubaidulina, Аlexander Tchaikovsky, Balakauskas, Eshpai and Ruders, Golovin’s Sonata Breve, Raskatov’s viola sonata and Kancheli’s Liturgy and Styx. 

Yuri Bashmet is the founder and jury chair of Russia’s only International Viola Competition (Moscow) as well as president of the International Lionel Tertis Viola Competition in the United Kingdom. He is the recipient of various awards and regalia from Russia as well as from other nations. In 1995, he received the Sonnings Musikfond Prize, one of the most prestigious in the world, which was conferred in Copenhagen. Previous recipients of this award include Igor Stravinsky, Leonard Bernstein, Benjamin Britten, Yehudi Menuhin, Isaac Stern, Arthur Rubinstein, Dmitry Shostakovich, Mstislav Rostropovich, Sviatoslav Richter and Gidon Kremer.

Alexandre Bouzlov is one of the most vivid and talented cellists of the next generation, one who represents the Russian performing school with honour at the world’s leading music venues. 

Alexandre Bouzlov was born in Moscow in 1983. In 2006 he graduated from the Moscow Conservatoire itself in the class of Natalia Gutman. At master-classes, he has received instruction from such renowned cellists as Mstislav Rostropovich, Daniil Shafran, Natalia Shakhovskaya, Boris Talalay, Eberhard Finke and Bernard Greenhouse.

Alexandre Bouzlov has won 1st prizes at Young Concert Artist competitions in Leipzig (2000) and New York (2001) and the Grand Prix in the categories “Cello” and “Chamber Ensemble” at the New Names All-Russian Open Competition (Moscow, 2000). In 2005 he took 2nd prize at one of the most prestigious music compositions in Europe – the ARD International Cello Competition in Munich (Germany), while in 2007 he was the undoubted favourite at the XIII International Tchaikovsky Competition at which he took the Silver Medal, the prize for the best performance of a work by Tchaikovsky and the special prize of the Mstislav Rostropovich and Galina Vishnevskaya Foundation. One year later the cellist took 2nd prize at the LXIII International Cello Competition in Geneva, the oldest cello competition in Europe. In 2010 he was awarded Grand Prix and Audience prize at the Emanuel Feuermann Cello Competition in Berlin. Alexandre Bouzlov has won 3rd prize at the XV International Tchaikovsky Competition (2015). 

He has worked with conductors including Valery Gergiev, Yuri Bashmet,Vladimir Fedoseyev, Karel Maria Chichon, Paavo Järvi, Yakov Kreizberg, Stanislav Kochanovsky, Thomas Sanderling, Leonard Slatkin, Vladimir Spivakov, Yuri Temirkanov, Christoph Poppen. As a soloist he has performed with numerous American symphony orchestras, travelling to almost each and every American state while on tour. Alexandre Bouzlov’s debut at the renowned Carnegie Hall took place in 2005, while May the same year saw a gala at the Lincoln Center in New York with the Orchestra of St Luke’s under the baton of Leonard Slatkin. 

Alexandre Bouzlov performs with such acclaimed musicians as Natalia Gutman, Yuri Bashmet, Vadim Repin, Leonidas Kavakos, Martha Argerich, Julian Rachlin, Dmitry Sitkovetskiy. 

The cellist takes part in international festivals including Verbier Festival (Switzerland), Musical Kremlin, Moscow Autumn, December Evenings of Svyatoslav Richter (Moscow), the Stars of the White Nights, Arts Square and Musical Olympus (St Petersburg), festivals in Ludwigsburg, Mecklenburg Vorpommenn, Usedom (Germany) and festival in Menton (France), the Oleg Kagan Memorial Festivals in Moscow and Kreuth (Germany), international chamber music festivals in Colmar, Menton and Montpellier (France), Crescendo (Israel). 

He has recorded for Russian TV and radio as well as radio stations in Germany, Switzerland, France, the USA and Austria. He currently teaches at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatoire where he has his own class and is an assistant to Professor Natalia Gutman; he runs master-classes in Russia, Europe and the USA. 

Bouzlov’s engagements for the current season include performances at the Trans-Siberian Art Festival and the Moscow Easter Festival, concerts with Stanislav Kochanovsky, Nikita Borisoglebsky, Valery Sokolov, Andrei Usov, Yury Favorin, Vadim Repin, recitals in various cities of Russia and Europe.