Armchair Concerts.
Broadcasts from Tchaikovsky Concert Hall
Russian National Youth Symphony Orchestra,
Dimitris Botinis,
Pavel Milyukov, Maxim Rysanov

Pavel Milyukov was born in Perm (Russia) in 1984. A graduate of the Academic Music College at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, he then continued his studies at the Conservatory itself, including the assistantship programme under Vladimir Ivanov. Further studies brought him to the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz and to the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, under Professor Boris Kuschnir. 

Pavel Milyukov has been a prize-winner of renowned international competitions in Kloster Schoental (2nd Prize, 2003), Astana (Grand Prix, 2008), Seoul (2nd Prize, 2012), Robert Canetti Competition (held in Hungary, 1st Prize, 2005), Vibrarte in Patis (1st Prize, as part of Con Spirito trio, 2008), Niccolo Paganini Competition in Moscow (2nd Prize, 1st Prize was not awarded, 2007), David Oistrakh Competition in Moscow (2nd Prize, 2008), and Aram Khachaturian Competition in Yerevan (1st Prize, 2012). In 2010, he was awarded the 2nd Prize of the 1st All-Russian Music Contest in Moscow, while 2015 brought him the 3rd Prize of the 15th International Tchaikovsky Competition.

Pavel has been enjoying an intense concert schedule, touring across Europe, Japan, South and North Korea, China, Brazil, performing and delivering masterclasses in many Russian cities. He has appeared alongside leading Russian and international orchestras, such as Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra, Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, Mariinsky Orchestra, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Moscow State Symphony Orchestra under Pavel Kogan, and Ural Philharmonic Orchestra, among many others, playing under the baton of Valery Gergiev, Vladimir Spivakov, Vladimir Fedoseev, Mikhail Pletnev, Yuri Simonov, Vladimir Jurowski, Kristjan Järvi, James Conlon, Alexander Sladkovsky, Vasily Petrenko, Pavel Kogan, and Maria Eklund. 

He has been granted two fellowships from the Saint Petersburg Music House and Rossiya Bank. In 2008–2012, Pavel Milyukov was a soloist at the Saint Petersburg Music House. He also took part in the '21st century stars', a programme by the Moscow Philharmonic. 

In 2016, he was awarded the Russian Order of Friendship. Since 2016, Pavel Milyukov has been teaching at the Moscow Conservatory Violin Department under Professor Vladimir Ivanov and delivering masterclasses on a regular basis. 

He plays the 'ex-Szigeti' violin made by Pietro Giovanni Guarneri and provided by Neva Foundation (Switzerland).

Maxim Rysanov is undoubtedly one of the world’s best and most charismatic viola players.

He is regularly invited to perform as a soloist and chamber musician in the UK and abroad and has been a guest at many prestigious festivals including Lockenhaus, Cheltenham, Spitalfields, Newbury, Aldeburgh, Brighton, Homecoming and Crescendo. He works regularly with prestigious artists such as Gidon Kremer, Maxim Vengerov, Janine Jansen, Julian Rachlin, Mischa Maisky, Viktoria Mullova, Marc-Andre Hamelin, Lev Markiz, Giya Kancheli, ASCH Trio, Razumovsky Ensemble and others.

Originally from the Ukraine he is now based in London after having studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and prior to that at the Central Special Music School in Moscow. He is a prize-winner of several major international awards, including the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition, the Guildhall Gold Medal, Valentino Bucchi International Viola Competition, Carmel international Chamber Music Competition, Haverhill Symphonia Soloist Competition and most recently the prestigious Geneva Competition.

Maxim has always given a big part of his creative energies to promoting new music. Several works have been dedicated to him, including works by Dobrinka Tabakova and Elena Langer and more recently he was invited to perform the world premiere of a new Duo Concertante work for viola and cello by Artyom Vassiliev at the Spitalfields Festival with the Britten Sinfonia.

This season’s highlights include a performance of the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante with the London Mozart Players on Mozart’s 250 birth day anniversary, a tour of Australia with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta and a premiere performance of Styx by Kancheli with the Liepaja Orchestra and Chorus “Kamer…” in Latvia. Additionally he has appeared at the Bergen Festival, Utrecht Festival, West Cork Chamber Festival, and Julian Rachlin & Friends Festival in Dubrovnik, where he performed Vivaldi Concerto for 4 violins along other stars - Jansen, Rachlin and Vengerov. This season Maxim also toured Europe with Viktoria Mullova Ensemble. Since 2005, Maxim is a member of the renowned chamber music series, Spectrum Concerts Berlin, which takes place in the Kammermusik saal of the Berlin Philharmonie.

In the forthcoming season Maxim will make his debut in Japan and China in a chamber project with Julian Rachlin and Mischa Maisky and also perform the Mozart Sinfonie Concertante with Augustin Dumay and the Orchestre Royale de Wallonie at the Beijing Festival. He will also make his orchestral debut in Germany performing the Bartok Concerto for Viola with the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland Pfalz and Tamas Vasary and perform an arrangement of the Elgar Cello Concerto with the Rouse Philharmonic Orchestra in Bulgaria.

Future recording plans a debut recital disc with Evelyn Chang on the Avie label and recording of chamber programme with Janine Jansen for Decca. Both are scheduled for 2007.

After a conducting fellowship at the Guildhall School of Music and winning the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s Young Conductor scheme, Maxim also has a burgeoning career as a conductor. Most recently he directed a performance of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf with Sir Roger Moore in Dubrovnik. In December 2006 Maxim will conduct Stravinsky Soldier’s Tale in Utrecht.

Maxim is delighted to have a Giuseppe Guadagnini (1780) viola on extended loan from an anonymous donor.

Russian National Youth Symphony Orchestra – Symphony Academy is a unique musical collective and the largest youth project in the orchestral field. It was created in September 2018 with the support of the Presidential Grants Foundation and the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and is being developed as part of the national project Culture. The Moscow Philharmonic Society is the curator of the project. In its creative work, the orchestra combines Russian musical traditions and international experience, solving three fundamental questions – art, educational and enlightenment. Such combination of functions, none of which is auxiliary, has no analogues.

Today the orchestra consists of 128 musicians from 35 regions of Russia. The project makes high demands on the participants: a large amount of educational, rehearsal and concert work, the need for personal and professional dedication, discipline, and passion. For the development of young musicians, unprecedented conditions have been created: excellent rehearsal base, intensive concert life, cooperation with the best conductors and soloists of the world, classes with concertmasters of major orchestras and professors of famous music high schools.

An important role in the development of the project participants is played by the work with outstanding conductors. The orchestra performed under the direction of outstanding conductors: Valery Gergiev, Vladimir Fedoseev, Mikhail Jurowski, Alexander Lazarev, Alexander Sladkovsky, Charles Dutoit, Pinchas Zukerman, Thomas Zehetmair, Vasily Petrenko, Julian Rachlin, Vassily Sinaisky, Philippe Herreweghe, Tugan Sokhiev, Marc Minkowski, Paavo Järvi, Lionel Bringuier and Jean-Christophe Spinosi. The soloists performing with the orchestra were Denis Matsuev, Alexandre Kantorow, Nikolay Lugansky, Alexander Romanovsky, Vadim Repin, Julian Rachlin, Piotr Beczała, Julia Lezhneva, Miklós Sebestyén, Sabine Devieilhe, Khibla Gerzmava, Maxim Vengerov, Carolin Widmann, Erwin Schrott, Thomas Hampson, Sonya Yoncheva, to name a few.

Today RNYSO is an integral part of the concert life of the country: during six seasons it held more than 280 concerts, having performed in 43 Russian cities. The RNYSO concerts took place on two main stages of the Moscow Philharmonic, Mariinsky-2 Concert Hall, on the Red Square in Moscow and have being broadcast by Medici.tv. In the first years of its life, the RNYSO presented a number of major symphonic programs, took part in the international festivals, as well as in major cultural and public events.

The RNYSO repertoire is being constantly replenished with symphonies of Beethoven, Berlioz, Weber, Brahms, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Mahler, Shostakovich, Lokshin, Schnittke, works by Mozart, Glinka, Schumann, Wagner, Richard Strauss, Stravinsky, Ives, Respighi, Pärt, Tarnopolsky, Reich, Zimmermann, Staud, Widmann, Ligeti, Sysoev, Boulez, Xenakis, Berg, Varese, Romitelli and Adams, along with the greatest composers of the Baroque era. In November 2020, the collective was honored to open the 7th International Contemporary Music Festival Another Space. In summer 2021, the orchestra has performed in the largest European halls, such as KKL Luzern Concert Hall and Wiener Musikverein.

In the season 2024/25 the orchestra takes part in the Another Space. Continuo, All of Stravinsky, The Language of Music, Musica sacra nova subscription concerts performing under the baton of Yuri Bashmet, Dmitry Jurowski, Philipp Chizhevsky, Dmitry Sinkovsky, Alexander Sladkovsky, Fyodor Lednev with such soloists as Denis Matsuev, Boris Berezovsky, Dmitry Shishkin, Angel Wong, Vadim Repin, Daniil Kogan, Boris Andrianov, Alexander Ramm.

Dimitris Botinis was born in Moscow into the family of the famous Greek conductor Dimitris Botinis Senior, who gave the his son his first conducting lessons. He graduated from the Municipal Conservatoire in Patras as a violinist. He studied conducting under Professor Yuri Simonov at his master courses in Hungary and subsequently at the St. Petersburg Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory, from which he graduated with distinction in 2011.

Dimitris was a winner of the Antonio Pedrotti International Conducting Competition (Italy, 2006), where he was collected all the special prizes, and of the first Russian Competition of Opera and Symphony Conducting (Moscow, 2011).

Since March 2021, he has been a conductor with the Moscow Philharmonic that previously employed him as an assistant to Yuri Simonov (then Artistic Director and Chief Conductor). Since 2015, he has also been Chief Conductor of the V. I. Safonov Academic Symphony Orchestra of the North Caucasus Philharmonic Society, where, besides symphonic programmes, he has also been involved in concert performances of operas. Since 2022, he has also been Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra.

Mr. Botinis collaborates with leading Russian ensembles including Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra, Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia, Russian National Orchestra, Novaya RossiyaState Symphony Orchestra, Academic Symphony Orchestra of the St Petersburg Philharmonic, Ural Academic Philharmonic Orchestra, State Symphony Orchestra of Tatarstan, State Philharmonic Orchestra of the Russian Federation, and Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra.

In 2012, he made his debut with the Mariinsky Orchestra and began collaborating with the St Petersburg House of Music. He took part in Musical Olympus Festival in 2011-2016.

In November 2014, he conducted the first (“test”) symphony concert at the Rachmaninoff Concert Hall (Philharmonia-2), while in January 2017 he conducted the orchestra at the hall’s official grand opening, performing Rachmaninoff’s 2nd Piano Concerto with Denis Matsuev at the piano.

Dimitris has toured to Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland, Estonia, South Korea and Cyprus. In 2017, he recorded works by Russian composers with the Bamberger Symphoniker.

Highlights of his career include appearances with renowned orchestras of Greece, such as National Symphony Orchestra of Radio and Television and State Symphony Orchestras of Athens and Thessaloniki. He participated at the International Festival of Patras in 2010 and 2011, made his debut at the Athens Concert Hall in 2013, and appeared at the National Opera and Ballet Theatre of Greece in 2019.

In autumn 2018, he became the first conductor to stand at the console of the Russian National Youth Symphony Orchestra, with which he gave several concerts in Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod and cities in Siberia. In September 2019, he performed at the Stars on Baikal Festival in Irkutsk. The 2021/22 season sees his debut with the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse (France).

In 2021, he was awarded the Presidential Prize for Young Culture Professionals of the Russian Federation for his contribution to the establishment of traditions in the Russian musical art and education.

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).