The Mariinsky New Music Ensemble was founded in 2015 thanks to the efforts of a group of musicians of the Mariinsky Orchestra and with the support of Valery Gergiev. The ensemble comprises not just instrumentalists but professional composers as well (Alexei Krasheninnikov, Alexei Pozin and Vartan Gnoro), who combine their activities in the orchestra with writing music. Alexei Krasheninnikov (violin), the inspiration behind the ensemble, won 1st prize at the VI All-Russian Andrei Petrov Composition Competition (2012) and has been a member of the Union of Composers of St Petersburg since 2013.
The aim of the ensemble is to promote contemporary music at the Mariinsky Theatre and beyond, as well as to assimilate new musical language of the 20th and 21st centuries and new techniques of performing instruments. The works performed include opuses not just by St Petersburg composers but also the most interesting and trend-setting music by contemporary composers living and working in Russia and abroad.
Formed less than one year ago, the ensemble has already given several concerts in the chamber venues of the Mariinsky Theatre, to great acclaim performing works by such composers as George Crumb, Luciano Berio and René Staar as well as the young St Petersburg composers Anton Tanonov, Mehdi Hosseini, Nastasia Khrushcheva, Yuri Akbalkan, Artur Zobnin, Artur Vabel and Mikhail Krutik among others.
