Presentation of the album “RIVER OCEAN”

Dmitry Makarov (born 1981 in Leningrad) is a poet, writer, musician, librettist, author of four books of poems and short prose. The most recent are Bolshoe puteshestvie v tochku Ya (The great journey to the point called Myself; Verb Publishing House, 2016) and Stikhami govorit’ (To speak in verse; Kaleidoscop Publishing House, 2021). He is the author of the libretto for Alexander Tchaikovsky’s operas Yermak (2019) and Alexander Nevsky (2021), Alexei Syumak’s Coming Home (2019), and Ilya Demutsky’s oratorio The Ark (2017). Author and presenter of the Scary Tales educational television project and the eponymous book (AST publishing house, 2020), the Jean Ivanych podcast on the Echo of Moscow radio station. In 2020, he released the album To speak in verse with the GANA group.

Dmitry’s works were published in the journals Znamya, Snob, and others. He lives and works in Moscow.

Kuzma Bodrov (born in 1980 in Osh) is a composer, winner and laureate of international competitions, associate professor at the Moscow State Conservatory, head of the composition department of the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music. Kuzma Bodrov is known for his longstanding tandem work the theatre director Dmitry Krymov (he composed music for more than fifteen plays) and with violist and conductor Yuri Bashmet (their latest joint premiere was the Requiem put to poems by Robert Rozhdestvensky). He also composed soundtracks for motion pictures, such as Sobibor by Konstantin Khabensky, Brotherhood by Pavel Lungin, and others.

Zarina Shimanskaya (born in Leningrad) is a pianist. At the age of seven, she began to take piano lessons and study composition. At the age of eleven, she received a scholarship from the Philharmonic Society of St. Petersburg, which enabled her to perform in the Small Hall of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Russian Museum, and the Throne Hall of the Grand Peterhof Palace. She graduated from the St. Petersburg Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory (class of Nina Seryogina), and then took the postgraduate course at the St. Petersburg Conservatory (class of Sergey Uryvaev) and did her master’s degree at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg (class of Evgeniy Korolyov). Laureate of the Virtuosi of the 21st Century competition in Moscow (1999), the Giuseppe Terracciano International Piano Competition in Giffoni Sei Casali (Italy, 2009) and the IBLA Grand Prize competition in Ragusa (Italy, 2017).

Vasiliy Stepanov (born in 1994 in Kazan) is a cellist. In 2018, he graduated from the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory (class of Natalia Shakhovskaya and Boris Andrianov).
In 2018-2020, he trained at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid (class of Jens Peter Maintz). He currently teaches at the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music. Laureate of the Valery Gavrilin Governor’s International Youth Competition (Vologda, 2010; first prize), the Svyatoslav Knushevitsky International Cello Competition (Saratov, 2012; second prize), the International Competition Constellation of Talents (Cheboksary, 2012; Grand Prix), the Mravinsky International Competition for Youth (St Petersburg, 2012; first prize), the Riga Classic Strings international competition (2018; first prize), and the All-Russian Music Competition (Moscow, 2018; second prize).

Since 2017, Vasiliy has been working with theater director Dmitry Krymov. He took part in the recording of Kuzma Bodrov’s music for the soundtracks of Sobibor motion picture (dir. K. Khabensky), and the Brotherhood motion picture (dir. P. Lungin); he participated in the recording of all quartets and the quintet by Alexander Tchaikovsky.

Dennis Gasanov (born in 1994 in Lugansk) is a violinist. In 2013, he graduated from the Central Music School in Moscow (class of Associate Professor Marina Keselman). In 2018, he graduated from the class of the same teacher of the Moscow Conservatory. Winner of the Demyks International Youth Competition (Yekaterinburg, 2015), winner of the Cremona International Competition (Cremona, 2015), winner of the fifth prize and two special prizes (for the best performance of Bach and the sonata by Ysaÿe) at the Premio Rodolfo Lipizer (Gorizia, Italy, 2021). Winner of the second prize and the special prize from press (CD recording in Rome) at the First Violino International Competition in St. Petersburg (2021). Dennis has been engaged in unique projects and world premieres. For example, he recorded all the quartets and the quintet by Alexander Tchaikovsky (with Boris Berezovsky, Leonid Zhelezny, Vasiliy Stepanov, and Darya Filippenko).

Soloist of the St. Petersburg House of Music since 2017.