Was founded in 1936. It has toured to 18 countries throughout the world. It has recorded 28 CDs commissioned by companies of Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Japan, USA, France, United Kingdom, including such companies as Warner Classics International and Mirare. 

The orchestra worked with such renowned conductors and musicians as D. Kitayenko, G. Rozhdestvensky, K. Penderecki, M. Pletnev, V. Fedoseyev, V. Gergiev, A. Boreyko, K. Tennstedt, J.-C. Casadesus, E. Inbal, M. Rostropovich, N. Petrov, Y. Bashmet, D. Hvorostovsky, E. Virsaladze, N. Gutman, B. Berezovsky, A. Knyazev, L. Isakadze, P. Donohoe, V. Repin, N. Lugansky, D. Matsuev, S. Krylov, F. Kempf and others.

It took part in various international festivals: Beethovenfest in Bonn, La Folle Journee, Le Festival de Radio France, Le Festival International de Piano a la Roque d’Antheron, Le Festival de Musique Classique a Saint-Riquier, Nuits de la Citadelle a Sisteron, Russian Christmas at the Kennedy Center, Arts Square International Winter Festival, Stars of the White Nights Festival, Festival of the World’s Symphony Orchestras, Crescendo, Stars on Baikal Festival, EURASIA International Music Festival, Boris Berezovsky Festival, Trans-Siberian Art Festival. It has had two subscription series – in the Concert Hall and at the New Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre.

The orchestra’s performances have been broadcasted by radio and television channels: Radio France, France Musique, Arte, NHK, and Kultura (Culture).

One of the leading symphony orchestras in Italy, was founded in 1994 through the merger of the public radio orchestras of Turin, Rome, Milan, and Naples. Its chief conductor appointed in 2009 is Juraj Valcuha.

The orchestra musicians worked with such renowned conductors as G. Pretre, G. Sinopoli, E. Inbal, G. Noseda, C.M. Giulini, W. Sawallisch, M. Rostropovich, M.-W. Chung, R. Chailly, L. Maazel, Z. Mehta, Y. Ahronovitch, M. Janowski, S. Bychkov, D. Kitayenko, A. Lazarev, V. Gergiev, R. Abbado, and K. Petrenko. The orchestra has long-term cooperation with the largest

radio channel in Italy (Radio3) and three television channels (Rai1, Rai3, Rai5). Its repertoire features not only the classical symphonic legacy, but also contemporary and avant-garde music. RAI has been honored to be the first performer of contemporary authors’ compositions, many of which have been commissioned by the orchestra. In 2004, the orchestra gave a number of contemporary music concerts under the umbrella title Rai NuovaMusica.

The orchestra takes part in festivals in Ravenna, MITO SettembreMusica, La Biennale di Venezia, Sagra Malatestiana in Rimini (Italy), Salzburg (Austria) and others. It gives performances in prestigious concert halls, including the Berlin Philharmonic and Musikverein in Vienna. CD and DVD releases of orchestra recordings boast an invariably high circulation.

It was conceived and founded in 2006 as an orchestra-academy combining an educational mission and concert activities. Its musicians are students studying at musical educational institutions of Ekaterinburg. They take part in rehearsals, master classes and concerts with outstanding conductors and soloists, study orchestral performing traditions.

Every year the orchestra musicians give more than 30 concerts, presenting over 20 concert programs to the audience. Maestro Enkhe is the artistic director and chief conductor of the Ural Youth Symphony Orchestra, which also worked with such prominent conductors and musicians as Vladimir Fedoseyev, Thomas Sanderling, Saulius Sondeckis, Alexander Rudin, Dmitry Liss, Hans-Jörg Albrecht, Leo Kremer, Sergei Krylov, Mikhail Tsinman, Rustem Abyazov, Pavel Petrenko, and Oleg Caetani. The orchestra has been honored to perform with N. Gutman, A. Rudin, S. Roldugin, A. Shilkloper, D. Kramer, V. Grokhovsky, A. Korobeinikov, Dang Thai Son, J.M. Canizares, N. Borisoglebsky, E. Derzhavina, D. Trifonov, D. Vasiliev, V. Gryaznov, A. Nabiulin, F. Kopachevsky, and Yu. Favorin.

The Russian debut of the orchestra took place at the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory in 2009, in the subscription series of concerts by the Moscow Philharmonic.

The Ural Youth Symphony Orchestra is a participant of international festivals – La Folle Journee, Euroorchestria in Russia and France, Crescendo, Kogan-Festival, Eurasia, Bach-fest, Classics on the Volga. In 2012, it was selected as the only orchestra to represent Russia at the festival of the world’s best youth orchestras – Young Euro Classic – in Berlin.

In 2014 the Ural Youth Symphony Orchestra launched an annual summer orchestra academy and a new group – the Tchaikovsky International Youth Orchestra that takes part in the Tchaikovsky Festival (Ekaterinburg and the Sverdlovsk Region).

The Hong Kong Youth Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1978. It consists of one hundred twenty musicians from twelve to twenty five years old. Over the long performing life of the orchestra, most of its ‘graduates’ continued their musical career and became soloists, members of other orchestras or music teachers. New participants of the orchestra are selected at annual open auditions.

The orchestra is directed by Ng Ka-ming, Pak Wing-heng, Yeung Tak-man and Joseph Kam. The orchestra has worked with such prominent guest conductors and soloists as Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Edward Grach, Fou T’song, Timothy Landauer, Georg Tintner, Sir David Wilcocks, Tang Muhai, Kenneth Jean, Yeh Tsung, Yip Wing-sie, Lang Lang, Colleen Lee.

The orchestra can be seen as a musical ambassador of Hong Kong, touring with its concert performances to France, Israel, Cyprus, United Kingdom, USA, Singapore, and China. One of the tours was made during the Week of Hong Kong at the EXPO-2010 International Exhibition in Shanghai.

The Artistic Director of the Symphonic Choir is Andrei Petrenko, Honorable Artist of the Russian Federation. The choir started its life in 2008 to promote cantata and oratorio compositions, which it initially performed in cooperation with the Ural Philharmonic Orchestra; however, very soon it started giving its own a cappella performances. The choir worked with such famous conductors as Dmitri Kitayenko, Krzysztof Penderecki, Jean-Claude Casadesus, Dmitry Liss, Evgeny Brazhnik, Alexander Vedernikov, Enkhe. It gave performances at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, the Mariinsky Theatre Concert Hall, the Salle Pleyel in Paris, St. Isaac’s Cathedral, the Hall of Church Councils at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, at other philharmonic concert venues in Russia.

The choir took part in the La Folle Journee International Music Festival in Nantes (2012) and Ekaterinburg (2015), Moscow Easter Festival (2014, 2015), 21st Transfiguration Choral and Bell Music Festival (Yaroslavl, 2013), major culture projects of Ekaterinburg – Symphonic Forum of Russia, Eurasia International Music Festival, French Autumn Festival, and Bach-fest. In 2015, the choir gave a number of concerts in Denmark, performing with the Odense Symphony Orchestra. The performances with participation of the Symphonic Choir and the Ural Philharmonic Orchestra were broadcasted live by the Arte TV channel in France and other countries of Europe.

In its repertoire the choir has such grand-scale compositions as requiems by Mozart, Verdi, Faure, Berlioz, Silvestrov, The Bells by Sergei Rachmaninoff, The Spring Symphony by Benjamin Britten, At the Reading of the Psalm by Sergei Taneyev, Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of the October Revolution Sergei Prokofiev, Liturgy and All-Night Vigil by Sergei Rachmaninoff.

Sufism is a religious philosophy of Islam and mystical movement mirroring the attempts to find the truth of divine love. Some see it as the inward dimension of Islam. Others argue that the Sufi philosophy came into being prior to the religion. Some researchers point out that Sufi ideas can be found in other religious denominations. Other researchers tend to see the direct connection between Sufism and Islam, as the former is seen as “knowledge aimed at renewal of the heart and devoting it to God”. Sufis create communities – orders – existing around the leader, and come together for prayers.

The Al-Tariqa Al-Gazoulia Order and the namesake ensemble are managed by Sheikh Salem Algazouly. He took them over from his father, Sheikh Gaber Algazouly (1913–1992), who founded the ensemble in 1950. In 1995, Salem Algazouly was elected a member of the Supreme Council for Sufi Orders of Egypt. In his home country, he is reputed as one of the most renowned and respected sheikhs.

The basic concept of the order and ensemble match the underlying idea of existence and assumes that peace, understanding and tolerance are three components of the world’s love melody. Each of them is beautiful in itself like strings of a musical instrument. However, to turn the melody into a path to the Divine these components must become one.

Both rhythm and melody are important along this path to the Divine. The rhythm, however, comes from inside, being set by the beat of the heart and generated by the breathing. Those who are not able to hear their inner rhythms cannot live in harmony with the Universe. The melody is required for knowing God through admiration and inspiration. Each of the Sufi rituals stems from silence and begins with recitation of God’s names. The recitation grows into chanting, first, with no instrumental accompaniment, then with sounds of gradually added Oriental instruments – the Arabic lute – oud, the reed flute – ney – and the Persian tambourine – daf – and turns into a ritual uniting the believers with God.

Sufi music is a prayer inspired by poems of Sufi poets, laid out by using the traditional Arabic stanza and accompanied by percussion instruments.

In Egypt, Al-Tariqa Al-Gazoulia is a famous Sufi ensemble performing ancient hymns, promoting the traditions, demonstrating mastery in solo improvisations and excelling in discipline. Twice a week its participants perform chants at meetings of the Al-Tariqa Al-Gazoulia Order. The ensemble is always invited to formal religious festivities organized by the Supreme Council for Sufi Orders of Egypt.

In July 2014, the ensemble made its first appearance outside Egypt, asserting itself as a musical form of Islam. The musicians took part in the Spiritual Overture Festival in Salzburg, having discovered a unique combination of traditional Sufi chants and classical music.

Sheikh Gaber Algazouly, the founder of the Al-Tariqa Al-Gazoulia Ensemble:

• “Love your enemies and they will turn into those who love you.”
• “He that is honest in his love will also be loved”
• “In love there is no word “I” – only “we”
• “Love and faith are giving without asking anything in return”
• “Leave me among mountains, but don’t take me away from the hearts of those I love”
• “There is no love without absolution of sins”
• “Faith is love and it knows no power”
• “Love is part of faith”
• “He that loves more than you is a truer Sufi than you”
• “Love is the only path that is right, and no selfish and arrogant person can walk along it”

The Arditti Quartet was founded by Irvine Arditti in 1974. It gained recognition by performing interpretations of compositions written in the 20^th century. Several hundred quartets and other chamber music compositions were written specially for the Arditti Quartet, which was entrusted with premiere performances of their works by such renowned composers as Cage, Stockhausen, Ferneyhough, Hosokawa, Lachenmann, Kagel, Sciarrino, Ligeti, Gubaidulina, and many others.

The Quartet has recorded more than 180 CDs. The musicians pay close attention to their work with all the contemporary composers whose music they perform live or in recording studios. For example, all the quartets of Luciano Berio were recorded in cooperation with the author. The Quartet has won a lot of prestigious awards and prizes, including the Deutscher Schallplatten Preis, Gramophone Award, Ernst von Siemens Music Prize.

In addition to their concert performances, the Quartet musicians have been teaching for many years during the International Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt and have been conducting master classes for young musicians and composers all over the world.

In 2014 the Arditti Quartet marked its 40^th birthday by giving concerts in London and Witten (Germany) and by performing world premieres of special event-dedicated compositions of contemporary composers.