About the orchestra
In 1979, an outstanding virtuoso violinist Vladimir Spivakov united the best Muscovite musicians to form the Moscow Virtuosi chamber orchestra. In Solomon Volkov’s book “Dialogues with Vladimir Spivakov”, Maestro recalls that “the aura of this constellation of bright talents was unique”. The brilliant ensemble, comprised of soloists and concertmasters of leading orchestras of the Russian capital, and the members of the illustrious Borodin Quartet (Mikhail Kopelman, Andrei Abramenkov, Dmitri Shebalin, and Valentin Berlinsky) passed the torch to new generations of talented musicians, winners of international and national competitions. The principles of the legendary comradeship of musicians remain unchanged: human qualities and high level of ethics are as important as professionalism and skills.
The orchestra’s tour geography is very extensive: it includes all regions of Russia, the former Soviet Union, European countries, the United States of America, Canada, Turkey, Israel, China, Japan etc. The Virtuosi give triumphant concerts not only in the best and most prestigious concert halls, such as Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Musikverein in Vienna, Royal Festival Hall and Albert Hall in London, Pleyel and Champs Elysees Theatre in Paris, Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall in New York, Santory Hall in Tokyo, but also in ordinary venues of small towns.
Throughout its history, the orchestra’s stage partners were and have been such outstanding musicians as Mstislav Rostropovich, Elena Obraztsova, Yehudi Menuhin, Vladimir Krainev, Saulius Sondeckis, Jessye Norman, Yuri Bashmet, Maxim Vengerov, Hibla Gerzmava, Evgeny Kissin, Mischa Maisky, Denis Matsuev, Shlomo Mintz, Mikhail Pletnev, Julian Rachlin, Giora Feidman, Michel Legrand, Pinchas Zukerman. The Moscow Virtuosi has also performed under the baton of wonderful contemporary musicians Christian Zacharias, Vadim Repin, Peter Guth, Andres Mustonen, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Vladimir Feltsman, and others.
The orchestra collaborates with young soloists and conductors, including Bolshoi Theatre soloist Anna Aglatova (soprano), prize-winners of international competitions Shio Okui (piano, Japan) and Maria Dueñas (violin, Spain), principal conductor of the Mikhailovsky Theatre Alexander Soloviev, multiple Grammy nominee Maxim Emelyanychev, principal conductor and musical director of the Novaya Opera theatre Valentin Uryupin, conductor of the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia Arsenty Tkachenko.
Many child prodigies make their debut with the Moscow Virtuosi and then regularly perform with the orchestra. Some of these young musicians have now become acknowledged worldwide, for example Deutsche Grammophon musician Daniel Lozakovich (violin, Sweden), prize-winners of international competitions Danielle Akta (cello, Israel), and Alexander Malofeev (piano, Russia), to name but a few. For this purpose, Maestro Spivakov has created a special concert programme entitled “Moscow Virtuosi. Today and Tomorrow”, which features grant holders of the Vladimir Spivakov International Charity Foundation and prize-winners of international competitions, and which is particularly admired by the audience.
In every performance the Moscow Virtuosi manage to do the essential: emotionally move and intellectually engage any listener, even an unprepared one, to grant them joy of communitacting with musical masterpieces, to awaken their desire to return to a concert hall. For us, as Maestro Vladimir Spivakov puts it, creativity has become a necessity, and work has become an art that, in the words of Pablo Picasso, «washes off the dust of everyday life from the soul».
The Moscow Virtuosi treat traditions with care. The orchestra’s extensive repertoire includes music of different styles and époques, from Baroque to works by Dmitri Shostakovich, Sergei Prokofiev, Béla Bartók, Astor Piazzolla, Krzysztof Penderecki, Rodion Shchedrin, Alfred Schnittke, Sofia Gubaydulina, Arvo Pärt, and Giya Kancheli.
The Moscow Virtuosi is the only Russian orchestra to have released recordings under such famous labels as BMG Classics and RCA Red Seal. The numerous CDs reflect the musicians’ wide-ranging repertoire.
The orchestra continues its hard but joyful creative work, maintaining the highest performing level and the right to the ambitious title «Moscow Virtuosi». Here every musician is a bright personality, and together they form a world-class ensemble. What distinguishes it from many other chamber orchestras is a high truly European culture of ensemble performance, attention to the smallest details and nuances, careful, non-formal, active creative position in relation to the author’s idea, bright artistry, love and respect for the audience who came to the concert.
The outstanding violinist and conductor Vladimir Spivakov has been the artistic director of the Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra since its creation. It is thanks to Maestro Spivakov, his many years of meticulous work with the orchestra that the Moscow Virtuosi are among the best chamber orchestras in the world, with a loyal and grateful audience everywhere, recognition and the highest reputation that has been won over years of hard work and creativity.
Since 2003, the Moscow Virtuosi is a resident orchestra at the Moscow International Performing Arts Centre.
The Moscow Virtuosi are actively developing new projects: in the autumn of 2020, the musicians presented a new programme “The Seasons. Reinterpretation”, which turned out to be very much in tune with the events taking place in the world. The Mystery Concert brought together Baroque music and works of the 20th century, and the performance of The Four Seasons by contemporary composer Max Richter, who reinterpreted the famous cycle by Antonio Vivaldi, became the climax of the concert. Especially for this project, artists from Canada have created an animated video sequence illustrating the history of the development of civilization and human life.
The orchestra pays great attention to development projects and education. The Moscow Virtuosi have created an online project “Play with the Virtuosi” for musicians of all skill levels. On the official website of the orchestra, you can watch the uploaded recordings of the performance of chamber works, and then watch the same video without the part of your instrument, and play it yourself.
The orchestra soloists regularly conduct master-classes for young musicians (students of the Schnittke Moscow State Institute of Music, scholars of the Vladimir Spivakov International Charitable Foundation and the Art, Science and Sport Charitable Foundation, etc.).
On the initiative of the orchestra director Nikita Lebedev and with the support of the artistic director Vladimir Spivakov, the idea of the socio-cultural initiative “Virtuosi – to MOSCOW” was realized. Within the framework of the project, an annual series of charity concerts takes places in public and private organizations of the city, aimed at supporting vulnerable groups of the population. This project can rightfully be considered the social mission of the orchestra.