Alexander Ghindin has been unanimously acclaimed by critics and music lovers as one of the most talented and original pianists of the present day. “Alexander Ghindin is not just a virtuoso, of which there are few on the stage today. He is also a true personality, a poet and a singer of the piano, an inspired lyricist and dramatist who has a subtle feel for the music and conveys the composers’ ideas” (Music Review, 2008). The pianist was born in 1977 in Moscow. He attended the Central School of Music of the Moscow Conservatoire (class of Professor M. S. Voskresensky), from which he graduated in 1994. It was also from Voskresensky’s class at the Moscow Conservatoire that he graduated with distinction in 1999, and in the same year he joined the Moscow State Philharmonic as a soloist. Before entering the Conservatoire in 1994, at the age of seventeen he became the youngest-ever laureate of the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, and is quickly establishing himself as one of the most sought-after pianists of his generation. Later he gained in Second prize at the International Queen Elisabeth Piano Competition in Brussels in 1999. These successes assisted the start of the pianist’s extremely intensive recital activities. 

Ivan Nikiforchin was born in Moscow in 1995, graduated from the Academic Music College at the Moscow State Conservatoire (the choral conducting class) and from the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatoire (the opera and symphonic conducting class). His extensive repertoire includes music from many different periods – from Bach, Purcell and Mozart to Elgar, Hindemith and Schoenberg – and he has given the Russian premieres of works by Elgar, Hindemith, Holst, Respighi and many other composers. From 2017, he was assistant to Valery Polyansky, the chief conductor and choirmaster of the State Academic Symphony Capella of Russia, and since 2021 he has conducted the Capella himself. In September 2019 he was given an award by the International Boris Tchaikovsky Society for outstanding achievements in the interpretation of twentieth-century Russian music. Two months later, as the best graduate conductor of the Moscow Conservatoire, he was awarded a scholarship from the renowned Russian conductor Alexander Sladkovsky, Chief Conductor of the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Tatarstan, and in 2020 he became conductor of that orchestra. In March 2021 he made his debut at the Bolshoi Theatre as a guest conductor in Mozart’s Don Giovanni.

The National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia (NPR) was founded in January 2003 by the Ministry of Culture. The Orchestra united top orchestra musicians and gifted youth. During the years of its activities, the NPR has succeeded in becoming one of the best symphonic orchestras of Russia and in gaining admiration from the audience and recognition from the professionals. The Orchestra is headed by Maestro Vladimir Spivakov, a world-known violinist and conductor.