Talent Support

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 2017, a new competition was announced for the Group's membership. In its updated edition the Group started its work in January 2018 and ended in May 2021. Then the conducting trainee program continued at the Moscow Virtuosi orchestra.
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, the Music Director to Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg and Artistic Director to Tekfen Philharmonic Orchestra. 
  • Alexander Solovyov — the winner of the International Dimitris Mitropoulos Competition in Athens, the Music Director and the Principal Conductor of the Mikhailovsky Theatre.
  • Alexey Bogorad — the winner of the Lovro von Matačić International Competition of Young Conductors in Zagreb, a conductor of the Bolshoi Theater.
  • Denis Vlasenko — the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Alisher Navoi Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theatre in Tashkent and of the Samara Philharmonic Academic Symphony Orchestra.
  • 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, a conductor of the Natalia Satz Children Musical Theater.
  • Valentin Uryupin — the winner of the 2nd All-Russian Music Competition in opera and symphony conducting and the winner of the 8th International Georg Solti Conducting Competition in Frankfurt am Main (the first Russian in the competition's history to win first prize). In 2019, he was awarded the Russian Presidential Prize for Young Cultural Figures. In the 2021/22 season, he was the Principal Conductor of the Kolobov Novaya Opera Theatre.
  • Philipp Chizhevsky — the prizewinner of the All-Russian Conducting Competition, an Artistic Director of the E. F. Svetlanov State Orchestra of Russia, Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the State Academic Chamber Orchestra of Russia, and founder and Artistic Director of the Questa Musica ensemble.
  • Alexei Vereshchagin — Grand Prix winner of the All-Russian Conducting Competition named after S. G. Eidinov, conductor of the B. A. Pokrovsky Chamber Stage of the Bolshoi Theater.
  • Maxim Emelyanychev — founder and head of the Veritas Youth Chamber Orchestra, the prizewinner of the International Hans von Bülow Piano Competition and winner of the 2019 International Opera Awards, the Principal Conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the Il Pomo d’Oro orchestra, and Principal Guest Conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.
  • Arsenty Tkachenko — an award-winner of the 3rd All-Russian Ilya Musin Open Competition for Young Conductors, Conductor an Deputy Artistic Director of the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia, the Princical Conductor of the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra and Novosibirsk Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra.
  • Anna Rakitina — the prizewinner of the Nikolai Malko International Conducting Competition in Copenhagen, the Deutscher Dirigentenpreis in Cologne, and the TCO Conducting Competition in Taipei, Taiwan. She is also a recipient of the European Culture Prize. From 2019 to 2023, she was Assistant Principal Conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
  • Sergey Akimov — the prizewinner of the XVI International Dimitrios Mitropoulos Competition in Greece (second prize; first prize was not awarded), a finalist for the Nestlé & Salzburg Young Conductors Award at the Salzburg Festival, and the founder, artistic director, and principal conductor of the Affrettando chamber orchestra.
  • Dmitry Matvienko — the winner of the Jāzeps Vītols International Competition for Young Conductors in Riga and the Nikolai Malko International Competition in Copenhagen. He was awarded the Critics' Prize and the Made in Italy Special Prize at the Guido Cantelli International Competition in Novara (Italy). He is also the Principal Conductor of the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra (Denmark).
  • Arif Dadashev — the conductor of the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Musical Theatre and the Moscow Operetta Theatre, and a guest conductor at the Mariinsky Theatre.
  • Pyotr Gladysh — the founder and artistic director of the Art Incognito chamber orchestra.
  • Alexander Khumala — the winner of the Jāzeps Vītols International Conducting Competition in Riga and the "Turning to Polyphony" Competition in Wrocław, and the artistic director of the Krakow Philharmonic.
  • Anton Torbeev — the conductor of the E. V. Kolobov Novaya Opera Theatre and the Galina Vishnevskaya Opera Center, and the principal guest conductor of the Liaoning Opera (China).

Other conductors trained at the NPR are Alexey Petrov, Denis Khanzhov, Vladislav Ivanovsky, Victor Kuzovlev, Xenia Zharko, Sergey Kiss, Pyotr Kiselev, Andrey Istomin, Mikhail Arkhipov.


PROMOTIONAL GRANTS FOR YOUNG ARTISTS

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).