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The State Symphony orchestra of the Republic of Tatarstan

Conductor: Gintaras Rinkevičius

The State Symphony orchestra of the Republic of Tatarstan was founded in 1966 on the initiative of Nazib Zhiganov, a prominent composer, founder and the first chancellor of Kazan conservatoire. The date of festival performance (the 2-d of June) symbolically concurs with the death anniversary of the outstanding composer.

It was Natan Rakhlin, the first conductor, the legendary maestro, who laid the foundation of performer culture, who attracted to the collective a large number of gifted musicians – the Moscow, Leningrad, Novosibirsk, Kazan conservatoires graduates. The brilliant interpreter of the music of XIX–XX centuries, Rakhlin contributed much to creation in Tatarstan of the national symphony school; his are dozens of premieres.

Up to the present a keen awareness of the “today” combined with heedful attitude to national traditions remains the Orchestra’s visiting card. The Orchestra indispensably participates in festivals and the Union of composers’ plenary sessions held not only in the capital of Tatarstan, but in other republics of Povolzhie. The Orchestra’s repertoire includes more than one thousand compositions of various epochs and genres.

The Orchestra is popular in Russia, in the CIS, and also in Spain, France, Italy, Poland, Check Republic, Germany, Holland, South Korea. Three times it became the winner of All-Union and All-Russia competitions; soloists of the world class – M. Rostropovich, G. Vishnevskaya, I. Arkhipova, V. Tretiakov, M. Pletnev, V. Spivakov, G. Kremer, N. Petrov, V. Viardo, I. Oistrakh, D. Shafran, L. Berman, V. Krainev, and numerous prominent home and foreign conductors have performed with the Orchestra.

The leaders of the Orchestra, in relevant years, were Ravil Martynov, Renat Salavatov, Sergey Kalaguin, Imant Kotsinsh. The conductor much experienced as a performer, Fuat Mansurov is the head of the collective from 1989. Today the State Symphony orchestra of the Republic of Tatarstan is one of the brightest and most distinctive musical collectives of Russia.