Anton Batagov was born in Moscow in 1965, graduated from the Moscow Conservatory. He received a special award at the International Tchaikovsky Competition (1986) and a number of other awards. He was the artistic director of the Alternativa festival (1989–1996). In 1990, Melodiya CD label released his debut album – Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant Jesus (Twenty Contemplations onInfant Jesus) by Olivier Messiaen. In 1997 he stopped performing live for 12 years to focus on recording projects. As a composer, Batagov is a minimalist; the Los Angeles Times referred to him as “a Russian Terry Riley”. He is the author of tunes for major Russian TV channels: NTV (1997–1998), RTR (1998–2000), Kultura (Culture) (2002–12). In 2009, he received the Steppenwolf Award in the Best Music category.

Pavel Baransky graduated from the National Music Academy of Ukraine, where he studied vocal under Professor Nikolai Kondratyuk. He is a prize-winner of many international competitions, a finalist of the Operalia, Plácido Domingo’s international singing competition, and the BBC Competition in Cardiff. He had his further training at the International Studio of the Zurich Opera.

He performed lead roles at the Hamburg State Opera and worked at the Welsh National Opera. Pavel Baransky gave performances in prestigious concert halls, including the Royal Albert Hall and the Barbican Centre in London, the Carnegie Hall in New York, the Salle Pleyel in Paris, the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory.

He has toured to countries of Europe, the United States and Russia. He worked with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra, Ural Philharmonic Orchestra; he worked with such renowned musicians as Vladimir Yurovsky, Vassily Sinaisky, Nikolai Alexeev, Dmitry Liss, Andrei Korobeinikov, and Vasily Petrenko.

Pavel Baransky took part in famous European festivals, including the Glyndebourne Opera Festival and La Folle Journee in Nantes (France) and Tokyo.

People’s Artist of the USSR
Honorary Academician of the London Academy of Arts
Officer of Fine Arts and Literature

Student of Fyodor Druzhinin at the Moscow Conservatory. Prize-winner of international competitions in Budapest (1975) and in Munich (1976).

He performed with such renowned musicians as: S. Richter, M. Rostropovich, I. Stern, A-S. Mutter, G. Kremer, M. Argerich, M. Maisky, M. Portal, Sh. Mintz, O. Kagan, N. Gutman, V. Tretiakov, M.J. Pires and other celebrated musicians.

As the soloist and conductor, Yuri Bashmet performs with the topline orchestras: The Berlin and New York Philharmonic Orchestras, the Chicago and London Symphony Orchestras, etc.

Yuri Bashmet is the founder and director of the Moscow Soloists Chamber Ensemble. He also founded the International Charity Fund, the Shostakovich International Award given for outstanding achievements in art all over the world. He is the founder and jury chairman of Russia’s first and only International Competition of Violists, which is held in Moscow. He is the president of the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition in the United Kingdom, a member of the jury for violist competitions in Munich and Maurice Vie Competitions in Paris. Yuri Bashmet is a professor of the Moscow Conservatory.

He was awarded State Prizes of the USSR and Russia as well as the Sonnings Musikfond Prize (a prestigious prize also awarded to I. Stravinsky, L. Bernstein, B. Britten, Y. Menuhin, I. Stern, A. Rubinstein, D. Shostakovich, M. Rostropovich, S. Richter). He was awarded Orders of Merit for the Fatherland and Merit of the Italian Republic.

Pyotr Glavatskikh was born in Ekaterinburg in 1979. He finished the Specialized Music School at the Ural Conservatory (L. Kumische class), the Academic Music College at the Moscow Conservatory (A. Kurashov class) and graduated from the Moscow Conservatory (Professor V. Snegirev class). He finished the post-graduate course, studying the marimba at the Stuttgart Academy for Music and Performing Arts. He is a first-prize winner and awardee of many international marimba and percussion instrument competitions.

Pyotr Glavatskikh worked with symphony orchestras of Moscow, the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theatre, the Novaya Opera Theatre. He participated in performances with Placido Domingo and William Lacey. He performs with solo concerts in the best concert halls of Russia. He took part in international music festivals – Eurasia and Estate Jazz (Ekaterinburg). He is a Golden Mask Prize winner.

Since 2015 he has been working with Intermusica (United Kingdom) in the project Sacred Imaginations: New and Ancient Music of the Christian East, which debuted successfully in London, Paris and Berlin.

Lucas Debargue was born in French Department Oise in 1990. He started his first piano classes at the age of 11 at school in Compiègne. Having completed his general education, he stopped studying music and entered the Literature Faculty at the University of Paris; however, some time later he started taking private piano lessons.

After his performance at the concert organized by the Compiègne City Government, Lucas Debargue decided to study music seriously and entered the National Higher Conservatory of Music and Dance in Paris; he studied under Jean-François Heisser. He combined his studies with classes of Rena Shereshevskaya, a student of Lev Vlasenko, professor of the Moscow Conservatory, as well as with classes at the conservatory in Rueil-Malmaison and Alfred Cortot National School of Music in Paris.

Debargue’s repertoire features works of Russian composers – N. Medtner, N. Roslavets, A. Scriabin, S. Rachmaninoff, and S. Prokofiev as well as jazz improvisations. In 2014, Lucas became the winner at the 9^th Alieva International Piano Competition in Gaillard, France; in 2015 he received the 4^th prize and the prize of the Moscow Music Critics Association at the 15^th Tchaikovsky International Competition.

Vincenzo Capezzuto is a soloist of several ensembles and groups organized by Christina Pluhar – L’Arpeggiata, the European Baroque Orchestra. Together with them and with other ensembles, he took part in numerous baroque music festivals, including Biennale di Venezia. He is a participant of the Salzburg Music Festival. He works with such musicians as Guido Morini, Marco Beasley and his Accordone Ensemble.

The creative career of Misia has been influenced by two cultures – Portuguese and Spanish. She works with diversity of musical genres, though the dominant part is given to the traditional Portuguese genre – fado – notable for free improvisation.

Misia started her artistic career in her home town Porto where she sang fado songs in small cafes. Then she moved to Barcelona and started working in the show of the most famous cabaret of Catalonia – Paralelo. While performing in Spain, Japan, France and Germany, she gained popularity and soon became one of the most in-demand fado singers.

CDs with her songs won wide recognition and were issued in Japan, South Korea and Spain; they were awarded prizes of the Charles Cros Academy and the Record Critics’ prize (Germany); their circulation reached 250,000. Working on her albums, the singer collaborated with Portuguese pianist Maria João Pires, Fanny Ardant, Miranda Richardson, Ute Lemper, and other artists.

Katerina Papadopoulou was born in Athens. At the age of eight, she started singing in the choir that specialized in folk songs and old Byzantine music.

Since then, this music has been given central place in her creative work. She is a participant of a number of Greek television projects focusing on the national culture. The CD portfolio of the singer has albums with Greek and Turkish folk songs. Katerina Papadopoulou teaches folk songs at the Athens Conservatoire and Municipal Conservatory of Peristeri.

Lu Xi was born into a family of professional musicians in China. At the age of 14, she went to study in Russia. She was an extern-student at the Novomoskovsk Music College, which she graduated with honors; then she studied under Professor Vladimir Reva at the Ural Conservatory.

Lu Xi is a prize-winner of many music competitions. She was awarded the Grand Prix at the World Youth Violin Competition – Art of the 21^st Century – in Kiev, the first place at the International Violin Competition in Cremona, a Special Prize of the Paganini International Violin Competition in Moscow.

The young Chinese violinist is a welcomed guest in Russia; she has been invited to perform as a violin soloist with the Ural Philharmonic Orchestra, together with which she successfully toured around Russia and in other countries. She also gave performances with the symphony orchestra of Changchun (China).

As a soloist, she performed in different countries of Europe; her concert programs featured not only compositions from the classical repertoire for violin, but also music of contemporary Chinese composers.

Having lived in Russia for more than ten years, Lu Xi returned to her home country where she is teaching at the Guangzhou Xinghai Conservatory of Music and is an executive director of the Guangdong Provincial Violin Association.

Edyta Fil was born in 1973. She graduated from the Fryderyk Chopin Music Academy in Warsaw and the postgraduate course at the Strasbourg Conservatory where she majored in the flute and chamber music. She is a prize-winner at the National Flute Competition in Olsztyn (Poland), international chamber music competitions in Castelfidardo (Italy) and Klingenthal (Germany). She is a participant of such festivals as Alternative, Vozvraschenie (Coming Back), Moscow Autumn, Another Dimension, Laboratorium (Warsaw).

Edyta Fil performed with chamber programs in Strasbourg, the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Music Academy in Katowice (Poland), Roerich Museum in Moscow. She performed with the Polish Radio Orchestra directed by W. Raisky; she also gave concerts in Austria, Croatia, Spain, Lithuania, Latvia, Morocco, and Switzerland. She taught master classes in the Rachmaninov Concert Hall of the Moscow Conservatory (2009).

She also practices with improvisational music and video-art.

Since 2010 she has been a soloist of the Moscow Philharmonic and the Gallery of Actual Music Ensemble.