Rachmaninoff Days

Alexey Melnikov was born in Moscow in 1990. He started his music education at Gnesin Music High School (class of Prof. Tatiana Shklovskaya). Alexey has performed at numerous national and international youth music competitions, including the Carl Czerny competition in Prague, where he won the 2nd award.

In 2008 he carried on with his education at Moscow Conservatory (class of Prof. Sergey Dorensky) and also studied under the guidance of Prof. Dorensky's assisstants: Nikolay Lugansky, Pavel Nersisian and Andrey Pisarev. During his college years Sergey won a number of international competitions, including International Véra Lautard Competition in Novosibirsk (2nd Prize), Cantù (Italy, 1st Prize), San Marino (1st Prize, Audience awards, Critcs and Orchestra awards) and Hamamatsu (Japan, 3rd Prize).

The musician performed together with Belgorod and Tomsk Philharmonic Society orchestras, Veliky Novgorod Philharmonic Society Chamber Orchestra,  Prague Virtuosos Chamber Orchestra, Bacău Philharmonic Orchestra (Romania), Republic of San Marino Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra and other ensembles. Alexey played as a solo performer across venues in Russia, USA, Germany, Italy, France, Belgium, Japan, including the Grand Hall of Moscow Philharmonic Society, Salle Cortot in Paris, Tokyo Bunka Kaikan, Palác Žofín in Prague and Teatro La Fenice in Venice. The musician took part in international music competitions in Italy and France, performed at Heinrich Neuhaus Festival and Romantic Music Festival in Moscow.

In 2017 Alexey Melnikov won the Manhattan International Music Competition in NYC having performed on stage of the world-famous Carnegie Hall. Same year the musician released a solo album with pieces by Beethoven and Liszt on ACOUSENCE Records label. In June 2019 the musician won the 3rd Prize and Bronze Medal at 16th International Tchaikovsky Competition.

Yury Favorin was born in Moscow in 1986. At the age of five he began learning the piano and recorder. He was eight when he entered the Gnesin Specialized Musical Primary School in Moscow, where he learned the piano under Professor Lidiya Grigorieva, the clarinet under Professor Ivan Mozgovenko, and the composition under Professor Vladimir Dovgan. 

In 2004 Yury entered the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory to study the piano under Professor Mikhail Voskresensky. He also studied the composition with Karen Khachaturyan and chamber ensemble with Alexander Rudin. Yury graduated from the Conservatory summa cum laude in 2009. In 2013–2015 Yury was also studying at University Mozarteum in Salzburg (Austria) with Professor Jacques Rouvier.

Yury performed with Pierre Boulez, Kent Nagano, Vladimir Jurowsky, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Alexander Rudin, Marin Alsop, Eri Klas, Alexander Vedernikov, Andrew Grams, Paul Goodwin, Kazuhiro Koizumi, Dmitry Liss and other leading conductors. Boris Berezovsky, Alexander Rudin, Gérard Caussé, Marc Coppey, David Lively, François Salque, Romain Guyot, Alexander Ghindin are among his partners on the stage. Together with composer Alexey Sysoev (electronics) and Dmitry Schyolkin (percussion) Yury has built the ensemble of free improvisatory music ERROR 404. 

Yury have accomplished several first performances of works by contemporary composers. Among his recordings there are complete Annees de pelerinage (live recording, released on label Melodiya) and Harmonies Poetiques et religieuses by Liszt, pieces by Alkan, russian composers of XX and XXI century (Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Medtner, Myaskovsky, Roslavets, Feinberg, Popov and others). 

Yury gives recitals in many countries – Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States of America, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, France, Poland, United States, Japan, China, Russia, Belarus, Azerbaijan among them – achieving outstanding success everywhere. He also gives charity concerts for sick children (Moscow), war children (Vienna), and the disabled (Vienna). Yury is a member of the Freundes- und Förderkreises des Händel-Hauses zu Halle e.V. (Germany). 

He gives concerts at the most prestigious concert halls – Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Palais des beaux arts and Flagey Studio (Brussels), Cite de la musique (Paris), Tokyo International Forum (Japan), Beijing Concert Hall (China), Frideric Chopin University of Music Hall (Warsaw), Mendelssohn-Haus (Leipzig), Great, Small and Rachmaninoff's Halls of the Moscow Conservatory, the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall (Moscow), Saint-Petersburg Philarmonia Hall, Moscow International Performing Arts Center (House of Music), the House of Composers in Moscow and many others. 

Yury is the winner of the Prize of the Gyorgy Cziffra Foundation (Vienna, 2003), and is a laureate of many international competitions, among them: the International Olivier Messiaen Competition (piano), Fourth Prize (Yvonne Loriod Prize), and the Prize for the Young Soloist from the Musical Creativity Foundation (Paris, 2007), as well as the International Queen Elisabeth Competition (Piano), Fourth Prize (Brussels, 2010). 

He has taken an active part in numerous musical festivals, such as International Piano Festival in La Roque d'Antheron, Piano aux Jacobins, the Festival La Folle Journée in Nantes and in Tokyo, L'esprit du piano in Bordeaux, Guangzhou und Beijing, International Festival in Saint-Lizier, Musique en Vallée du Tarn, J. S. Bach Festival, Olivier Messiaen Festival, Steinway Parade, Magic of Piano, Art-November, Moscow Forum (International Festival for Contemporary Music), Moscow Autumn, and International Festival-School TERRITORIYA. 

Also he took part in the masterclasses with Paul Badura-Skoda, Stephen Kovacevich, Dmitry Bashkirov, Sergey Babayan, Boris Berman, Marios Papadapoulos, Ferenc Rados and Noel Flores. Yury was a participant of the International Summer Academy Praha – Vienna – Budapest (2003), the Academy of the Festival Verbier (Switzerland, 2011), the International Holland Music Sessions (TIHMS) (the Netherlands, 2011), the International Summer Academy in Oxford (2012), and the International Summer Academy Mozarteum in Salzburg (2012).