Russian violinist Aylen Pritchin has, in recent years, firmly established himself as one of the most interesting and versatile young rising stars of the international concert stage. 

Born in Saint Petersburg, Aylen studied with Pr. Elena Zaitseva in his hometown and at the prestigious Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, where he studied with Pr. Eduard Grach. In 2014, Aylen was awarded First Prize at the Long-Thibaud International Violin Competition. He was a former major prize winner at the Wieniawski, Tchaikovsky, Sion-Valais, Kreisler and Oistrakh International Violin Competitions.

His career has led him to perform in Russia and abroad, including Switzerland, Netherlands, Italy, Israel, Poland, Belgium, Bulgaria, Sweden, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Vietnam and Japan; In such prestigious venues as the Vienna Konzerthaus, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Stockholm Musikaliska, Salzburg Mozarteum, Tchaikovsky Conservatory Hall in Moscow and the Champs-Elysées Theatre in Paris. 

His recent orchestral solo performances included the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, MusicAeterna Orchestra, Orchestre National de Lille, Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, Russian National Philharmonic Orchestra, Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra, the Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra, Tatarstan National Orchestra or I Pomeriggi Orchestra among others. 

He performs under the baton of prestigious conductors such as Teodor Currentzis, Maxim Emelyanychev, Cornelius Meister, Mikhail Gerts, Valentin Uryupin, Yuri Simonov, Dorian Wilson, Shlomo Mintz and Roberto Benzi. Aylen also enjoys playing chamber music regularly with such artists as: Maxim Emelyanychev, Lukas Geniusas, Yury Favorin, Alexander Melnikov, Maxim Rysanov, Vladimir Mendelssohn or David Geringas. 

Highlights of the 2020/21 season featured him with Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra/Vladimir Fedosseiev (Elgar), Orquesta Filarmonica de Gran Canaria /Maxim Emelyanychev (Schnittke 2), Toulouse Orchestre National du Capitole/Maxim Emelyanychev (Prokofiev 2), Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra / M.Bakauskas, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra/Y.Simonov (Mendelssohn), Scottish Chamber Orchestra/Maxim Emelyanychev (Brahms). 

The 2019/20 season included his return to the Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra with the Dvorak violin concerto, a collaboration with the Omsk Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Dmitry Vasilyev as part of the Siberian Symphony Orchestra Festival, a tour in Germany with the Russian State Chamber Orchestra and conductor Alexei Utkin (Cologne and Wablingen) and a Japan’s tour in which he plays with the Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra under Christian Arming and the Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra under Michiyoshi Inoue. Among Aylen’s major recital dates in the 2019/20 season is La Folle Journée in Nantes. 

The 2018/19 season saw Aylen touring with Teodor Currentzis and the MusicAeterna Orchestra with the Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto, in Russia and Japan, as well as being a guest soloist of the Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra performing the Korngold’s violin concerto in Moscow. The concert was broadcasted live on Internet. He made his debut with the Transilvania Philharmonic Orchestra in Cluj (Romania) and with the Cannes Orchestra in France under the baton of maestro Roberto Forés-Veses. In April 2019 Aylen Pritchin made his recital debut in Vancouver and Toronto (Canada) together with his duo partner pianist Lukas Geniusas. In chamber music, Aylen performs at the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie and collaborates with his music partners Lukas Geniusas and Yuri Favorin, as well as conductor and pianist Maxim Emelyanychev. 

In December 2017 the Russian label Melodiya published Aylen Pritchin’s third album with Prokofiev´s works for violin and piano with Yury Favorin. Two other albums include Russian music for violin (Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, Desyatnikov) and works for piano trio with Lukas Geniušas and Alexander Buzlov. In August 2019, the label Ad Vitam Records released his latest cd dedicated to solo violin music with some of the most important and significant of the 20th century, including the first edition ever of Tema con 8 variazioni by the composer Jean Françaix. 

Aylen Pritchin and Maxim Emelyanychev’s latest album, dedicated to Brahms Violin Sonatas was released by Aparté in 2021.

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.

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. 

After winning the First prize at the 9th Jeunesses Musicales Conducting Competition in Bucharest in August 2018 Anton Shaburov is considered to be one of the most promising young Russian conductors. 

Other competition successes include the First prize at the 2016 Felix Mendelssohn International Conducting Competition and Grand Prix together with the special audience award at the 2013 Ilya Musin all-Russian Conducting Competition. 

In August 2021 Anton Shaburov became a principal conductor and artistic director of the Rostov Symphony Orchestra (Rostov-on-Don, Russia). In 2019 Tirgu-Mures Philharmonic orchestra (Tirgu-Mures, Romania) elected Anton Shaburov as its principal guest conductor. Since 2017 Anton Shaburov also holds the position of a permanent guest conductor of the Mariinsky Theatre (Primorsky Stage, Vladivostok, Russia).

As a guest conductor, Anton Shaburov performed with the Mariinsky Symphony Orchestra in St. Petersburg, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Moscow State Symphony Orchestra, Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra (Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra). George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra, MAV Symphony Orchestra in Budapest, Kodaly Philharmonic Orchestra in Debrecen, I Solisti Aquilani Chamber Orchestra, Plovdiv Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Thessaloniki Symphony Orchestra, Iasi Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonic Orchestra of Sibiu, Heilongjiang Symphony Orchestra in Harbin, Ural Youth Symphony Orchestra in Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod Philharmonic orchestra and Tatarstan State Symphony Orchestra in Kazan among the others. In 2018 Anton Shaburov took part in the Valery Gergiev’s International Mariinsky Far East Festival in Vladivostok and Yuri Bashmet’s Festival in Khabarovsk. 

In 2017-2020 Anton Shaburov held the position of the chief conductor and artistic director of the Far Eastern Symphony Orchestra (Khabarovsk, Russia). During his work in Khabarovsk, Anton Shaburov managed to enrich the orchestra repertoire with pieces by Paul Hindemith, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Walter Piston, Alfred Schnittke, Nikolai Tcherepnin, Vladislav Zolotaryov. Anton Shaburov led a highly successful performance of the Far Eastern Symphony Orchestra at the V all-Russian Symphonic Forum in Yekaterinburg in September 2018. 

Anton Shaburov received his musical education in two major Russian music institutions - the Ural State Mussorgsky Conservatory and the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory. In Moscow, he studied conducting with the legendary professor Gennady Rozhdestvensky. 

Starting his professional conducting career as a Principal conductor and artistic director of the Symphony orchestra of the Ural Conservatory Anton Shaburov led more than 50 concert programs and several festivals dedicated to Rachmaninov, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Shchedrin, and Zolotaryov. In August 2016 Symphony orchestra of the Ural Conservatory under the baton of Anton Shaburov faced its highest triumph in the Konzerthaus Berlin at the Young Euro Classic 2016 festival. The performance of the all-Russian program had notable success and was also very warmly met by the German and Russian musical press. 

Anton Shaburov shared the stage with Yuri Bashmet, Alexandr Knyazev, Alexandr Ghindin, Boris Andrianov, Nikita Boriso-Glebsky, Sergei Dogadin, and Veronika Dzhioeva among the others. Paying much attention to contemporary music Anton Shaburov regularly performs pieces of living composers. He led world premieres of Mikhael Tariverdiev’s Second Violin Concerto, Leonid Klinichev’s Symphony No.3 as well as pieces by Olga Viktorova, Yuri Abdokov, and Elvira Muratore.