St. Petersburg Music House celebrates its 15th anniversary!
On February 3, St. Petersburg Music House (Federal State Institution of Culture “Music House", a subordinate to the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation) under the direction of People's Artist of Russia, professor, cellist and conductor Sergei Roldugin celebrated its 15th anniversary – this is how many years ago since we started in the field of academic music. Our ultimate mission is to promote classical music, preserve performing traditions and nurture young Russian musicians.
For Russian young soloists who participate in its programmes, St. Petersburg Music House offers opportunities to appear in the top concert halls, attend master-classes given by outstanding teachers, and gain hands-on experience playing with symphony orchestras. All these opportunities are absolutely free of charge for young soloists who are just embarking on their musical careers. “Young performers must develop serious concert responsibility in order to be successful, which is why meeting public - the best teacher - fundamentally distinguishes a training concert from a public performance. At such performances, a young soloist appears not as an apprentice trying his or her hand, but as a professional, from whom they expect an artistic adventure,” says Sergei Roldugin.
While establishing St. Petersburg Music House, the Russian government also transferred to it a unique St. Petersburg building of the former palace of Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich Romanov (an uncle of the last Russian tsar) on 122 Moyka River. At that time, the mansion and its premise were in a derelict and dilapidated state. By granting a newly renovated architectural landmark like this to an institution which is there for supporting talented young people and promoting the Russian music performance school, the Government has demonstrated the special importance it attaches to the role which the young people play in art and has recognised their achievements.
The palace welcomed 2021 with renewed facades and two small buildings belonging to its historical ensemble (122 "B" and "G" Moika) brought back to it. The latter was made possible through successful cooperation with the Government of St Petersburg, which received a new kindergarten building in the Admiralteуski district (2 Klimov per.) equipped with a swimming pool and state-of-the-art facilities for children's care and recreation from benefactors attracted by St. Petersburg Music House. The historical buildings at 122 Moika will be used to set up a new rehearsal facility for soloists from St Petersburg Music House.
In its long history, St.Petersburg Music House has given rise to great projects. From 2006 to 2020, over 4,000 performances were given at venues around the world. The participants of the St. Petersburg Music House projects have appeared in more than 1,500 live performances. Having toured 151 cities in 52 countries on five continents, the St. Petersburg Music House soloists have brought audiences a unique perspective on Russia's still-evolving music performance school, featuring exceptional excellence and virtuosity. Programmes and concert posters were read in two dozen languages.
Some 933 concerts were staged in Russia. The St. Petersburg concert series "Young Interpreters of Russia" accounts for 181 events. Since 2011, 182 concerts "Evenings in the English Hall” have been held on the Music House's own venue, the English Hall. More than 490 thousand listeners attended the performances which the soloists of the Music House gave.
An important part of the educational efforts undertaken by St. Petersburg Music House are workshops: an introductory programme “Higher Music Performance Courses” featuring a three-day crash course carried out at the English Hall in St. Petersburg along withexternal workshops of the “Embassy of Musical Mastery” series.Since 2012, 35 cities in Russia, as well as Nur-Sultan, the capital of Kazakhstan, have hosted 61 artists. More than 1,000 students received a series of face-to-face tutorials with the Russia's best music educators. By the year 2020, some 555 music college and university students from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok with 15 majors joined the massive "River of Talents" project, which offers master classes in St. Petersburg and orchestra performances in the Volga region philharmonic hall. Since 2007, there have been 94 galas performed by the finalists of the River of Talent. In 2021, River of Talent will run for the 15th time.
In 2017, St. Petersburg Music House began to expand its geography. Nizhnyaya Oreanda, Yalta has become the summer residence for workshops. Health resort on what used to be the palace of the imperial family is now home to "Music House Summer Academy", which is held in July and August and allows for young soloists to combine music training and performing with relaxing on the beach of the Black Sea. In 2021, the Summer Academy will have 5 sessions. In 2019, the Music House started preparations to launch its international training venue for young soloists Music House Academy in Vienna. A training facility surrounded by the picturesque Vienna Woods is now awaiting until the quarantine restrictions are lifted.
The unusual circumstances we faced in 2020 prompted St.Petersburg Music House to create a series of workshops "Embassy of Musical Mastery ONLINE". Since May 2020, the YouTube channel of St. Petersburg Music House has hosted 36 online tutorials from renowned musicians such as Mikhail Voskresensky, Mikhail Gantvarg, Andrey Diev, Denis Lupachev, Peter Laul, Alexander Mndoyants, Evgeniy Petrov, Sergei Roldugin, Irina Tishchenko, Alexei Utkin, and Maxim Fedotov. The promotion of online programs has resonated greatly, not only in Russia, but also around the world Joint broadcasts of the St.Petersburg Music House galas and Rossotrudnichestvo representative offices commenced in cooperation with star soloists. The number of views on the channel reached 614,000.
A special pride of St.Petersburg Music House has always been the soloists' triumphs at major international competitions, for which they prepare in workshops and live concerts. As an example, 16 soloists of St.Petersburg Music House have become laureates in the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 2007, 2011, 2015, and 2019. The prizewinners include Miroslav Kultyshev (piano, 2nd prize, 2007), Dmitry Masleev (piano, 1st prize, 2011) and Aleksander Ramm (cello, 2nd prize, 2015), Sergei Redkin (piano, 3rd prize, 2015), Pavel Milyukov (violin, 3rd prize, 2015), Alexey Lobikov (trombone, 1st prize, 2019), Alexey Melnikov (piano, 3rd prize, 2019). 55 soloists of St. Petersburg Music House took part in this Competition.
For more details please visit our website: www.spdm.ru
The St. Petersburg Music House projects:
Young Interpreters of Russia
Mariinsky Orchestra and Soloists of St.Petersburg Music House
Russian Tuesdays
