Alumni at the stage of Moscow Conservatory

14 best representatives of the Russian State Conservatory after P.I. Tchaikovsky performed in Bolshoi hall of Moscow State Conservatory: from Astrakhan, Ekaterinburg, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Rostov-on-Don, Saint Petersburg and Saratov. All of them are participants of a unique project named ‘Alumni. The best alumni of Russia’s conservatories’; the project was organized by Russian Musical Union (RMU) jointly with Moscow conservatory.

– The privilege of coming to the stage of Bolshoi hall always belonged to the most gifted alumni of the Moscow conservatory. We decided to expand the geography of the festival, to invite all those recommended by the conservatories of this vast country and give the honor to perform in this hall, which is one of the symbols of the history of Russian musical culture. We pin our hopes on a worthy future for the home musical art with the art of graduates entering the path of a free artist professional activities – notes Alexander Sokolov, rector of the Moscow Conservatory, Honored Artist of the Russian Federation, laureate of the State Award of the Russian Federation.

– The main idea of the Alumni, which in Russian means ‘graduates, students’, is to provide instrumental performers and musicians of non-capital conservatories with the opportunity to perform on the main music stage of Russia. This project is our joint effort with Russian music expert Vsevolod Zaderatsky. We designed it as the launching pad for young musicians who make their first steps on the professional stage. We hope that to participants whose performances turned out to be the most vivid and memorable, it will help in organizing an individual artistic program, in being noticed and invited to perform at other prestigious musical stages’, – said the head of the Guild of Academic Performance of the RMU, soloist of the Moscow State Academic philharmonic, Honored Artist, pianist Ekaterina Mechetina. –

– The Alumni project is a kind of reward for successful completion of training at the conservatory. The feeling of belonging to the high art and the opportunity to show themselves in the most prestigious hall of the country, in which the most famous and great musicians of the world performed, is the reward they receive on graduating from the conservatory. When I was going to the concert, I was just overfilled with musician’s curiosity. I’m wondering how our conservatories work and what kind of artists they release that claim to be the best graduates. Still, the person who was distinguished at the final stage of his/her education is the figure with whom we pin our hopes on the future of music in Russia, – the Russian music expert, professor of the Moscow Conservatory, Honored Artist of the Russian Federation, Laureate of the State Award of the Russian Federation, Chairman of the RMU Guild of musicology, Vsevolod Zaderatsky.

– The beginning of musicians’ career is always difficult, and it lies in our power to help them overcome the first difficulties. Supporting young talents is a contribution to the future of national culture. We will try to make such festivals an annual event’, – said Aleksandr Klevitsky, general director of the RMU.