THE STATE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA NOVAYA ROSSIYA

The State Symphony Orchestra Novaya Rossiya was established in 1990 by decree of the Government of the Russian Federation.

In 2002, Yuri Bashmet took over the conductor’s desk, thus opening a new page in the orchestra’s history. Under the maestro’s leadership, the orchestra has developed an inimitable style of performance with its creative freedom, sound quality, and boldness of interpretation.

The orchestra has worked with renowned conductors and performers including Valery Gergiev, Tan Dun, Alexander Lazarev, Saulius Sondeckis, David Stern, Luciano Acocella, Teodor Currentzis, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Andres Mustonen, Rauf Abdullaev, Emil Tabakov, Maxim Vengerov, Jean-Luc Ponty, Barry Douglas, Peter Donohoe, Denis Matsuev, Elizaveta Leonskaya, Boris Berezovsky, Viktor Tretyakov, Gidon Kremer, Vadim Repin, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Sergey Krylov, Kristóf Baráti, Viktoria Mullova, Natalia Gutman, David Geringas, Sergey Antonov, Alexander Knyazev, James Galway, Deborah Voigt, Anna Netrebko, Laura Claycomb, Placido Domingo, Montserrat Caballé, Anna Caterina Antonacci, Patrizia Ciofi, Elīna Garanča, Nino Katamadze, ballet dancers Ulyana Lopatkina, Nikolai Tsiskaridze, and Ilze Liepa.

Since 2002, the orchestra has given more than 750 concerts in Russia and abroad, including cities in the Volga region, the Golden Ring, the Urals, Siberia, the Moscow region, the Baltic States, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Ukraine, France, Germany, Greece, the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Austria, Turkey, Bulgaria, India, Finland, Japan, South Korea, and Sweden.

The orchestra’s rich repertoire combines classical and contemporary works of various styles and genres. The orchestra has premiered works by such composers as Béla Bartók, Gian Carlo Menotti, Alfred Schnittke, Edison Denisov, Mikael Tariverdiev, Sofia Gubaidulina, Giya Kancheli, Alexander Tchaikovsky, Tan Dun, Jean-Luc Ponty, Toru Takemitsu, Mikhail Feldman, Igor Raichelson, Hans Rott, Emil Tabakov, Alexander Baltin, Vladimir Komarov, Boris Frankstein, Georgy Buzogly, and Vladimir Belyaev.

Novaya Rossiya places a special emphasis on concerts for children and young people. It is a regular participant in children’s philharmonic subscriptions, concerts with young soloists, and charity and educational events.

Since 2008, the orchestra has annually participated in the Yuri Bashmet Winter International Arts Festival in Sochi, the Mstislav Rostropovich International Festival, the Moscow Easter Festival, and the Yuri Bashmet International Festivals in Yaroslavl and Minsk.

The orchestra took an active part in the cultural program of the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi. It recorded the Olympic anthem and the national anthems of Russia and the participating countries. On 4 February 2014, the orchestra conducted by Yuri Bashmet gave a concert at the Olympic Committee meeting attended by President of Russia Vladimir Putin, IOC President Thomas Bach, and the heads of the participating countries. The opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games and the raising of the Olympic flag were to the accompaniment of Novaya Rossiya under the baton of Yuri Bashmet.

Novaya Rossiya is a participant in innovative musical programs. One of those is the Parallel Worlds eclectic program, which combines music by Sergey Rachmaninoff, Sergey Prokofiev, Igor Stravinsky, Alexander Mosolov, and Tikhon Khrennikov, performed live by the orchestra, with Silver Age poetry and 3D projections of paintings by Russian artists of the early twentieth century.

The orchestra was awarded a commendation by the President of the Russian Federation for active participation in the preparation and celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945 (14.08.1995) and for its major contribution to the development of Russian musical art and its creative achievements (29.09.2010).