VII International Contemporary
Music Festival
"Another Space"

The MSSO was founded in 1943 by the USSR government and is one of the oldest symphony orchestras in Russia. Leo Steinberg, the Peoples Artist of USSR and conductor of the Bolshoi Theatre, became the MSSO first Chief Conductor, a post he held until his death in 1945. He was succeeded by a series of distinguished Soviet musical giants that has included Nicolay Anosov (1945–1950), Leo Ginsburg (1950–1954), Mikhail Terian (1954–1960), Veronica Dudarova (1960–1989), and Pavel Kogan (1989–2022). Owing to the collaboration with such figures the orchestra became one of most prominent national symphonic ensembles, but in the first place it was known through its performances of Russian and Soviet classical music, involving many premieres of Myaskovsky, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Glier.

The Moscow State Symphony Orchestra became renowned around the globe under the leadership of Pavel Kogan. In 1989 he was engaged as Music Director and Chief Conductor and immediately enriched the orchestra repertoire by the works of European and American musical literature. A landmark of the MSSO has been to present the great cycles of complete symphonic works from leading composers: Brahms, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, R. Strauss, Mendelssohn, Mahler, Bruckner, Sibelius, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, Glazunov, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Scriabin, Berlioz, Debussy and Ravel. The orchestra’s wide-ranging programs combine great orchestral, operatic, and choral classics with equally significant music of the 21st century, including many forgotten or neglected works. 

The MSSO plays some 100 concerts annually. Along with the series in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory and in Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra performs in the Great Hall of the Saint-Petersburg Shostakovich Philharmonic Society and on the stages of many other Russian cities. The MSSO tours regularly overseas including the USA, United Kingdom, Japan, Spain, Austria, Italy, Germany, France, South Korea, Australia, China and Switzerland. The Moscow State Symphony Orchestra also has a long and distinguished recording history with DVD and CD studio and live recordings, television and radio broadcasts. In 1990 the Pioneer made a live recording of Tchaikovsky’ piano and violin concertos, performed by the MSSO and Maestro Kogan (soloists – Aleksey Sultanov, Maxim Vengerov). In the early 1990s Russian television released the documentary Travels with the orchestra about the MSSO and Pavel Kogan tour in Europe and Saint-Petersburg. Their Rachmaninov cycle, released by Alto, which recorded all the symphonies and Symphonic Dances, has become a chart-topping album.

The MSSO has a proud history of collaborating with eminent conductors and soloists including Evgeny Svetlanov, Kirill Kondrashin, Aleksandr Orlov, Natan Rakhlin, Samuil Samosud, Valery Gergiev, David Oistrakh, Emil Gilels, Leonid Kogan, Vladimir Sofronitsky, Sergei Lemeshev, Ivan Kozlovsky, Svyatoslav Knushevitsky, Sviatoslav Richter, Mstislav Rostropovich and Daniil Shafran. 

Questa Musica Ensemble was founded in 2008 to bring together talented young singers and instrumentalists. As early as the following year, Questa Musica appeared in Venice and made its debut at the Moscow International House of Music. In 2001, the ensemble appeared at the Chamber Hall of the Moscow Philharmonic Society. Today, Questa Musica's choir and orchestra feature leading Moscow musicians, many of whom are involved in education along with concert performance. Questa Musica's projects have been nominated for the Golden Mask Theatre award on several occasions.

The ensemble's repertoire encompasses Russian and international classical music, Renaissance and Baroque works, and contemporary music. The ensemble was involved in Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas staged by Alisher Khasanov, Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale (choreographer and director: Oleg Glushkov), Handel’s Messiah, Mozart's symphonies and Requiem performed on historical instruments, as well as Stravinsky’s Les Noces with Mark Pekarsky Percussion Ensemble. Other highlights include premieres of the opera Francis by Sergey Nevsky at the Bolshoi New Stage, and of Passion According to Nicodemus by Alexander Manotskov (conducted by Philipp Chizhevsky), performing Sergey Nevsky's opera Autland under Titus Engel with the Dutch ensemble Vocaallab, and participation in the first Russian edition of Night of Music project (2013). 

In 2015, Questa Musica was invited by Boris Yukhananov, Artistic Director and Stage Director of Stanislavsky Electrotheatre, to participate in the production of Drillalians opera series that included world premieres of several works by Russian composers Dmitry Kurlyandsky, Boris Filanovsky, Alexey Syumak, Sergei Nevsky, Alexey Sysoev, and Viadimir Rannev. The next co-production with the Electrotheatre was Galileo. Opera for violin and scientist (music by Sergey Nevsky, Kuzma Bodrov, Dmitry Kurlyandsky, Kirill Chernegin, Pavel Karmanov, idea and soloist: Elena Revich). In 2016, the ensemble was a guest of the Linz Baroque Festival (Austria), while in 2017, its soloists were involved in the production of Octavia. Trepanation, opera by Dmitry Kurlyandsky, world premiered at the Holland Festival in Amsterdam. 

Major milestones on Questa Musica's path include Sinfonia for 8 voices and orchestra by Berio performed at the 5th Qara Qarayev Contemporary Music Festival (2013) and at the 5th Another Space Actual Music Festival (Moscow, 2016), as well as the stage production of Handel's Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno at the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Music Theatre (2018). In 2019, joined by London Baroque Brass soloist ensemble, Questa Musica presented a programme of British music at the December Nights of Sviatoslav Richter festival.

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.

Moscow-born concert pianist Andrey Gugnin is rapidly gaining international acclaim as a passionately virtuosic performer, who possesses an “extraordinarily versatile and agile technique, which serves an often inspired musical imagination” (Gramophone). In 2020, the BBC Music Magazine Awards named Gugnin the winner of the Instrumental Award for his recording Shostakovich: 24 Preludes – Piano Sonatas 1 & 2 (Hyperion). Since winning the prestigious Sydney International Piano Competition in 2016, Gugnin has gone from strength to strength in concerts and recordings which exhibit his impassioned interpretations. 

In addition to winning in Sydney, Gugnin also received prizes at this illustrious competition for Best Overall Concerto, Best 19th/20th Century Concerto, Best Violin and Piano Sonata, and Best Preliminaries for his first-round recital. His also won the Gold Medal and Audience Award at the XCI International Gina Bachauer Piano Competition in 2014, and second prize at the 2013 Beethoven International Piano Competition in Vienna.

Increasingly in demand as a concerto soloist, Gugnin has been invited to perform as a guest artist with notable orchestras worldwide, such as the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Mariinsky Symphony Orchestra, the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia, the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra, Utah Symphony, West Australian Symphony Orchestra and the Sydney Symphony, and has performed under the distinguished batons of Maestro Valery Gergiev, Jaap Van Zweden, Reinbert de Leeuw, Daniel Raiskin, Stanislav Kochanovsky and Asher Fisch. He has also collaborated in a more chamber context with the Asko Schönberg ensemble, Orchestre de Chambre de Genève, Jerusalem Camerata and Camerata Salzburg and on several occasions as the duo partner of violinist Tasmin Little. 

As a recording artist, Gugnin has published a broad scope of repertoire ranging from solo piano to symphonic works. His release of Liszt’s Transcendental Etudes (Piano Classics, 2018) were commended as Editor’s Choice, and distinguished Gugnin as “one to watch” (Gramophone). Other notable recordings include his duo programme with violinist Ioana Cristina Goicea (Atoll Records, 2019), an inspired selection of solo piano suites entitled Pictures (Steinway & Sons, 2016), and a collection of piano duets with Vadim Kholodenko (Delos International, 2010). Andrey has also extensively recorded for TV and radio in Russia, The Netherlands, Croatia, Austria, Australia, Switzerland and the USA. 

In addition to these recordings, Gugnin’s Shostakovich Concertos (Delos International, 2007) were selected to feature on the soundtrack of Steven Speilberg’s Oscar®-winning film Bridge of Spies. 

Gugnin’s expanding list of performance venues include Vienna’s Musikverein, Victoria Hall in Geneva, Carnegie Hall in New York, Abravanel Hall in Salt Lake City, Sydney Opera House, the Great Hall of the Moscow State Conservatory, the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow, Mariinsky Concert Hall, the Louvre in Paris, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Space and Asahi Hamarikyu Hall. Gugnin has also participated in a plethora of international festivals, including Verbier, Klavier Festival Ruhr, Mariinsky International Festival, Dubrovnik Summer Festival, the Ohrid Summer Festival and the Duszniki Chopin International Festival. 

In 2020, as allowed by the covid pandemic, Gugnin embarked on performing numerous solo recitals at prestigious venues in Russia, as well as showcasing a new concerto by Alexey Shor in Armenia. Gugnin joined Tasmin Little in her farewell concert at the Southbank Centre as one of her four favourite pianists to collaborate with, which was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 and for which Andrey was praised for his “emphatic, mesmerising playing” (Bachtrack). He continued his collaboration with Hyperion, recording his next CD of solo works for release in 2022. 

Gugnin took his first lessons with Natalia Smirnova, who laid the foundations for study with Olga Mechetina, Valery Kastelsky, Lev Naumov, Stanislav Ioudenitch, William Naboré and Vera Gornostayeva.

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).