Diana Pasko,
Arseny Tarasevich-Nikolayev

State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia (Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra) is one of the oldest symphony ensembles in the country: in 2021 it has celebrated its 85th anniversary. The first performance of the orchestra conducted by Alexander Gauk and Erich Kleiber, took place on October 5th, 1936 in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory.

Over the years, the State Orchestra was directed by outstanding musicians: Alexander Gauk (1936–1941), Natan Rakhlin (1941–1945), Konstantin Ivanov (1946–1965) and Yevgeny Svetlanov (1965–2000). In 2005, the ensemble was named after Yevgeny Svetlanov. In 2000–2002, the orchestra was headed by Vasily Sinaisky, in 2002–2011 – by Mark Gorenstein, in 2011–2021 – by Vladimir Jurowski, in 2021–2022  by Vasily Petrenko. Since 2024, Philipp Chizhevsky has been Artistic Director of the orchestra.

The orchestra’s concerts were held at the most famous concert venues in the world including the Great Hall of the Conservatory, the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, the Bolshoi Theater of Russia, the Column Hall of the House of Unions, the State Kremlin Palace in Moscow, Carnegie Hall in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington, the Musikverein in Vienna, the Royal Albert Hall in London, the Pleyel in Paris, the Colon National Opera in Buenos Aires, the Suntory Hall in Tokyo. In 2013, the orchestra for the first time performed in the Red Square in Moscow.

Herman Abendroth, Ernest Ansermet, Leo Blech, Nikolai Golovanov, Kurt Sanderling, Otto Klemperer, Kirill Kondrashin, Lorin Maazel, Kurt Mazur, Nikolai Malko, Igor Markevich, Yevgeny Mravinsky, Charles Munch, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Mstislav Rostropovich, Saulus Sondeckis, Igor Stravinsky, Mariss Jansons, Andrey Boreyko, Alexander Vedernikov, Valery Gergiev, Charles Dutoit, Alexander Lazarev, Alexander Sladkovsky, Leonard Slatkin, Yuri Temirkanov, Thomas Zehetmair, Mikhail Jurowski, Neeme Jarvi and other outstanding conductors directed at the conductor's desk of the orchestra.

Famous musicians and ensembles performed with the orchestra including singers Irina Arkhipova, Galina Vishnevskaya, Montserrat Caballé, Sergei Lemeshev, Elena Obraztsova, Dmitry Hvorostovsky, Maria Guleghina, Placido Domingo, Jonas Kaufmann, Sergei Leiferkus, pianists Emil Gilels, Van Cliburn, Heinrich Neuhaus, Nikolai Petrov, Sviatoslav Richter, Maria Yudina, Valery Afanassiev, Boris Berezovsky, Elisso Virsaladze, Yevgeny Kissin, Nikolai Lugansky, Denis Matsuev and Grigory Sokolov, violinists LeonidKogan, Yehudi Menuhin, David Oistrakh, Boris Belkin, Maxim Vengerov, Gidon Kremer, Victor Pikaysen, Vadim Repin, Vladimir Spivakov and Victor Tretyakov, violist Yuri Bashmet , cellists Mstislav Rostropovich, Natalia Gutman, Alexander Knyazev and Alexander Rudin, as well as Sveshnikov State Academic Russian Choir and Yurlov State Academic Choir Capella of Russia.

In recent years, the list of soloists collaborating with the ensemble has been recruited with the names of such singers as Ildar Abdrazakov, Dinara Alieva, Aida Garifullina, Khibla Gerzmava, Dmitry Korchak, Elisabeth Kulman, Jose Kura, Vasily Ladyuk, Julia Lezhneva, Waltraud Meier, Anna Netrebko and Rene Pape, pianists Marc-Andre Hamelin, Leif Ove Andsnes, Rudolf Buchbinder, Simon Trpceski, Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Mitsuko Uchida, violinists Kristof Barati, Ilya Gringolts, Alina Ibragimova, Leonidas Kavakos, Patricia Kopatchinskaya, Sergei Krylov, Julian Rakhlin, Julia Fischer, Thomas Zehetmair, Nikolai Znaider and Pinchas Zuckerman, violist Maxim Rysanov. Considerable attention is also paid to joint work with young musicians, including conductors Maxim Emelyanychev, Dmitry Matvienko, Marius Stravinsky, Valentin Uryupin and Philipp Chizhevsky, pianists Andrei Gugnin, Lucas Debargue, Philipp Kopachevsky and Dmitry Masleyev, violinists Alena Baeva, Pavel Milyukov and Aylen Pritchin, cellist Alexander Ramm.

Having visited abroad for the first time in 1956, the orchestra has since represented Russian art in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Denmark, Italy, Canada, China, Lebanon, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, USA, Thailand, France, Czechoslovakia, Switzerland, South Korea, Japan and many other countries.

The discography of the ensemble includes hundreds of LP records and CDs released by leading recording companies in Russia and abroad (Melodiya, Bomba-Peter, Delos, Deutsche Grammophon, EMI Classics, BMG, Naxos, Chandos, Musikproduktion Dabringhaus und Grimm, BelAir, ICA Classics, Pentatone, Toccata Classics, Fancymusic and others). A special place in this collection belongs to the Anthology of Russian Symphonic Music, which includes audio recordings of works by Russian composers from Glinka to Stravinsky (conducted by Yevgeny Svetlanov). The TV channels such as Mezzo, medici.tv, Russia-1 and Kultura, radio Orpheus made recordings of the orchestra’s concerts.

Recently, the State Orchestra performed at the G. Enescu Festival in Bucharest, Another Space, Universe is Svetlanov! festivals and the XIV Guitar Virtuosos Moscow International Festival, Summer. Music. Museum  Festival in Istra; performed world premieres of works by Alexander Vustin, Victor Yekimovsky, Efrem Podgaits, Sergei Slonimsky, Vladimir Nikolaev, Alexei Retinsky, as well as Russian premieres of works by John Adams, Brett Dean, Gerard Grisey, Victor Kissin, Gyorgy Kurtag, Valentin Silvestrov, Olivier Messiaen, Rodion Shchedrin, Carl Orff, Vladimir Tarnopolsky and Karlheinz Stockhausen; took part in the  International Tchaikovsky Competition, the Grand Piano Competition for young pianists; presented the annual cycle of Stories with Orchestra educational concerts eight times; visited the cities of Russia, Austria, Argentina, Brazil, Greece, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Peru, Uruguay, Chile, Germany, Spain, Romania, Turkey, China, Japan. Chamber evenings with the participation of soloists of the orchestra are also regularly held.

Since 2016, the State Orchestra has been implementing a special project to support professional composer creativity involving close cooperation of the ensemble with contemporary Russian authors. The first in the history composer in residence was Alexander Vustin. For outstanding creative achievements, the collective has been bearing the honorary title of “academic” since 1972; in 1986 it was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, in 2006, 2011 and 2017 it dignified the gratitude of the President of the Russian Federation.

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 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. Since 2024, Philipp Chizhevsky has been Artistic Director of the Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra.

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.