RNO Grand Festival

The Russian National Orchestra was founded in 1990 by pianist and conductor Mikhail Pletnev. Of its debut at the BBC Proms in London, the Evening Standard wrote, “They played with such captivating beauty that the audience gave an involuntary sigh of pleasure.” The RNO has been described as “a living symbol of the best in Russian art” (Miami Herald) and “as close to perfect as one could hope for” (Trinity Mirror).

Maintaining an active international schedule, the RNO appears in the music capitals of Europe, Asia and the Americas, is a frequent guest at festivals such as Edinburgh, the BBC Proms and Festival Napa Valley, and presents the RNO Grand Festival each September to open the Moscow season. Guest artists performing with the RNO on tour include conductors Vladimir Jurowski, Nicola Luisotti, Antonio Pappano, Alan Gilbert and Carlo Ponti, and soloists Martha Argerich, Yefim Bronfman, Lang Lang, Pinchas Zukerman, Sir James Galway and Joshua Bell, among many others.

RNO concerts are often aired on National Public Radio, the European Broadcasting Union, and Russia’s Kultura channel. Their discography, launched with a highly praised 1991 recording of Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique, now numbers more than 80 critically acclaimed recordings. Notable releases include the complete Beethoven symphonies and piano concertos on Deutsche Grammophon, Tchaikovsky’s six symphonies for Pentatone, and the RNO Shostakovich project, also on Pentatone, cited as “the most exciting cycle of the Shostakovich symphonies to be put down on disc, and easily the best recorded” (SACD.net).

Their recording of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf and Beintus’ Wolf Tracks, conducted by Kent Nagano and narrated by Sophia Loren, Bill Clinton and Mikhail Gorbachev, received a 2004 Grammy Award, making the RNO the first Russian orchestra to win the recording industry’s highest honor. Their recording of Shostakovich Symphony No. 7, conducted by Paavo Järvi, was awarded the Diapason d’Or de l’Année 2015 as the year’s best symphonic album, and was nominated for a 2016 Grammy Award.

Since October 2022, Alexander Rudin has been Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Russian National Orchestra.

The Yurlov Russian State Academic Choir is a world-famous Russian choir, and one of the oldest music ensembles in Moscow. 

Although the Choir celebrated the 100th anniversary of its official history in the 2018/19 season, the prehistory of the company dates back to 1900, when the church choir master Ivan Yukhov founded a family singing ensemble in the town of Shchelkovo near Moscow. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, Moscow saw a lot of emerging art associations like Moscow Art Theater or Pyatnitsky Russian Folk Choir. Yukhov’s amateur choir had become widely known long before the 1917 revolution for performing sacred music, folk songs, choral, vocal, and symphonic works by Russian and Western European composers.

After the revolution, the choir was nationalized by the Soviet authorities, and in January 1919 it received the official status of the First State Choir. Apart from touring extensively, the increasingly popular ensemble was also involved in cultural projects of the young Soviet state. In particular, they recorded soundtracks for such famous films as Jolly Fellows, The Circus, We are from Kronstadt, and Volga Volga. 

Appointing Alexander Yurlov (1927–1973) to head the company in 1958 was a landmark event in its history. With this outstanding conductor, the Choir ranked among the country’s best musical groups in the 1960s. The company collaborated with the renowned Russian composers Sviridov and Shostakovich and premiered works by Rubin and Shchedrin. Alexander Yurlov deserves credit for reviving the tradition of concert performances of Russian Orthodox church music. Yurlov was succeeded by Yuri Ukhov and Stanislav Gusev, talented musicians, conductors and choirmasters who enhanced the popularity of the Choir. 

Since 2004, the Choir has been headed by Gennady Dmitryak, People’s Artist of Russia, professor, one of Russia’s top choral, opera and symphony conductors. A musician of great energy, Gennady Dmitryak meets daunting challenges confidently, while launching unique art projects. With him, the Choir ran Kremlins and Temples of Russia, and Holy Love, festivals reviving the traditions of major vocal and choral educational programs. In the spring of 2014, the company was closely involved in the 22nd Winter Olympic Games and 11th Winter Paralympic Games in Sochi. In the 2018/2019 anniversary season, the Choir held a music festival with concerts in Moscow, Sevastopol, Kurgan, Chelyabinsk, Tyumen, Surgut, Khanty-Mansiysk, as well as in France. 

The Choir often tours throughout Russia from Magadan to Kaliningrad. The company led by Gennady Dmitryak has appeared triumphantly in Spain, Greece, Great Britain, the Republic of Belarus, Armenia, Poland, Ukraine, North Korea and in the Baltic countries. The team is a regular guest of leading music festivals. Symphony conductors collaborating with the Choir include Yuri Bashmet, Valery Gergiev, Vladimir Fedoseev, Dmitri Jurowski, Vladimir Jurowski, Mikhail Pletnev, Pavel Kogan, Teodor Currentzis, Sergey Skripka, Alexander Sladkovsky, and Yuri Simonov. The ensemble is widely known for their brilliant interpretations of music by Bortnyansky, Berezovsky, Kastalsky, Grechaninov, Chesnokov, Rachmaninoff, and Sviridov. The Choir’s repertoire includes virtually all of the Russian and Western European cantatas and oratorios, from Bach’s High Mass to works by Britten, Bernstein, Shostakovich, Schnittke, Kancheli and Tavener. 

A unique project of the Choir was recording the complete choral works by Sviridov commemorating the 100th anniversary of the composer’s birth. In 2019, the project won the Pure Sound International Award for the best recording of Russian academic music in Choral category. 

On May 31, 2019, the Choir was awarded the Commendation of the President of the Russian Federation ‘for merits in developing national culture and art and years of fruitful activities.’ 

(Press Service of the Choir)

Vladislav Lavrik, one of the most talented musicians of his generation, is Russia’s finest trumpeter and a rising young conductor. Vladislav is artistic director and chief conductor of The Tula Symphony and The Chamber Orchestra of Orenburg Philharmonie. Recognized for achievements in both classical and jazz performance styles, he was appointed principal trumpet of the Russian National Orchestra at the age of 20, the youngest person to hold a principal chair in the history of the orchestra. Since 2008 Lavrik has been a professor of the trumpet faculty of the Moscow State Conservatory. In 2011 he was elected to the board of the International Trumpet Guild, the first Russian to be given this recognition and responsibility. In 2016 he received the Russian Presidential Prize for Young Artists, the country’s highest honor for young artists.

In 2010 Lavrik achieved his conducting debut with the Russian National Orchestra at Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow. Since then he has led the RNO in its regular concert season and in festival concerts, including the 2014 program dedicated to Serge Kussevitsky. Mikhail Pletnev, the RNO’s founding conductor, invited Lavrik to the podium for his 2012 return to the concert stage as solo pianist, and Lavrik again led the RNO with Pletnev as soloist in their 2015 concerts in South Korea, Hong Kong and Japan. The 2013 Minnesota Beethoven Festival marked Lavrik’s American conducting debut, leading the RNO in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6. 

In addition to his work with the RNO, Lavrik has guest-conducted other leading Russian orchestras, including the Svetlanov State Symphony orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra “New Russia,” the State Symphony Orchestra, Moscow Chamber Orchestra “Musica Viva,” the Krasnoyarsk Academic Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra of Urdmurtia, the State Symphony Orchestra of the Russian Ministry of Defense, and the State Wind Orchestra. 

Born to a family of musicians, Lavrik’s early training included both piano and trumpet. After completing the Master’s Degree in trumpet performance at Moscow State Conservatory, he completed the opera and symphonic conducting program at the Gnesin Academy of Music, where his major professor was Maestro Vladimir Fedoseyev. Lavrik has also studied with Horia Andreescu, Teodor Currentzis, Mark Elder, Neeme and Paavo Jarvi, Vladimir Jurovsky, Alfredo Naseda, Vassily Petrenko, and Mark Singer. In 2014 he was invited to assist Maestro Kent Nagano leading the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, preparing Saint-Saens’ Symphony No. 3. On several occasions Lavrik has led the Gnesin Academy Opera Series in Tchaikovsky’s Evgeny Onegin. 

Lavrik is an organizer and leader of brass music festivals and ensembles, as well as a sought-after member of trumpet competition juries in the United States and Europe. He is founder and artistic director the Russian National Orchestra Brass Quintet and of the International Brass Days Festival of the Moscow State Conservatory. In recent Brass Days festivals Lavrik has premiered new arrangements by Evgeny Ratner of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition and Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, conducting a large brass and percussion ensemble in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. 

As a conductor and trumpet soloist Lavrik is actively involved in music projects for children, including the RNO’s established series “Magic of Music.” During 2011 and 2012 he visited orphanages and special schools in the United States and Russia with a program of music therapy for children with disabilities. In 2013 he both conducted and performed in premiere performances of the children’s musical Hermitage Cats Save the Day by Chris Brubeck in Washington, DC, Tuscaloosa, Alabama and St. Petersburg, Russia. His recording with the Russian National Orchestra of Alexander Rosenblatt’s Alice in Wonderland with narrator Alexander Oleshko was released in 2013. In 2011 he released a solo album “Meditations” featuring music by Russian composers.