A Training Programme for Young Conductors and Promotional Grants for Young Artists

A Training Programme for Young Conductors and Promotional Grants for Young Artists

A very special objective of the NPR is its support of talented young musicians in order to create conditions for their artistic and professional growth. In the 2004/2005 season, at the initiative of its director Georgy Ageev, the NPR launched a project aimed at training a group of young conductors, which has no analogues in the orchestral world. Moscow press and experts unanimously stressed the importance of this initiative, considering it as a most appropriate, long-awaited action designed to assist talented young people in polishing their skills in one of the most complicated musical professions. In 2006-2009, the NPR conductors-trainees took part in the concerts of the "Here We Are!" Series at the Svetlanov Hall of the Moscow Performing Arts Center and at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall.
With years, many participants of the NPR training group have achieved great success in the professional field, have taken important positions in leading artistic collectives and have won prestigious awards.

    • Aziz Shokhakimov – the winner of the Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award (2016), the II Prize winner of the G. Mahler Conducting Competition in Bamberg, a conductor of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein (Dusseldorf).
    • Alexander Solovyov – the winner of the International Dimitris Mitropoulos Competition in Athens, conductor at the Bolshoi Theatre, the Head of the Orchestra of the Galina Vishnevskaya Opera Centre.
    • Alexy Bogorad – the winner of the Lovro von Matačić International Competition of Young Conductors in Zagreb, a conductor of the Bolshoi Theater.
    • Denis Vlasenko – a conductor of the "New Russia" State Symphony Orchestra (Artistic Director - Yuri Bashmet).
    • Alevtina Ioffe – the winner of the Victor de Sabata International Conducting Competition in Trieste, the Chief Conductor of the Natalia Satz Children Musical Theater.
    • Konstantin Khvatynets – the Principal Conductor of the Moscow Operetta Theater, a guest conductor of the Bolshoi Theater.
    • Alexey Petrov – the Chief Conductor of the Choir of the V. S. Popov Academy of Choral Arts
    • Alexei Vereshchagin – the Principal Conductor's Assistant of the B.A. Pokrovsky Chamber Music Theatre.
    • Denis Khanzhov – the Artistic Director's Assistant of the A.V. Sveshnikov State Academic Russian Choir.
    • Sergey Kiss – the Principal Conductor of the I. M. Yaushev State Musical Theatre in Saransk.
    • Maxim Emelyanychev – founder and head of the Veritas Youth Chamber Orchestra.
    • Valentin Uryupin – the winner of the II All-Russia Musical Competition (2015), the winner of the International conductors' competition Sir Georg Solti (2017), artistic director and principal conductor of the Rostov Acadimic Symphony Orchestra, conductor of the Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre.

Other conductors trained at the NPR are Philip Chizhevsky, Vladislav Ivanovsky, Victor Kuzovlev, Xenia Zharko, Pyotr Kiselev, Andrey Istomin, Mikhail Arkhipov.

In recent years, the NPR is supporting gifted young musicians with its own special grants. According to Georgy Ageev, the creator of the project, the grants are designed to help promising artists to fully release their creative potential and to find a proper place on the national and world stage. Along with the financial support the grant receivers are actively promoted and regularly take part in various projects of both Orchestras led by Vladimir Spivakov.

Up to now the NPR grants have been awarded to:
2012 – Sergey Radchenko (tenor), Alexey Neklyudov (tenor), Dmitry Trifonov (baritone);
2013 – Kristina Mkhitaryan (soprano) and Yulia Mazurova (mezzo-soprano);
2014 – Ekaterina Kornishina (flute) and Daniil Belikov (percussion);
2015 – Ioann Berdyugin (viola), Iskandeor Khannanov (cello).

In 2017, a new competition was announced for the Group's membership, on the result of which Arsenty Tkachenko, Anna Rakitina, Sergei Akimov, Dmitry Matvienko, Arif Dadashev, Pyotr Gladysh and Alexander Humala joined it. On December 5-6, 2017, open rehearsals of six of the seven competitors were held at the Moscow International Performing Arts Center. The new leader of a group is Alexander Solovyev. 

Anton Torbeev has been accepted by the NPR Management as eligible to join the NPR Conductor-Trainee Group in October, 2018.