“Tchaikovsky. Rachmaninoff.”

On April 28, the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory hosted a concert featuring two young stars of the classical music scene and winners of prestigious international competitions: Anastasia Makhamendrikova (piano) and Alexander Ramm (cello). The program included acclaimed masterpieces of the classical repertoire—Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme, as well as three celebrated works by Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Variations on a Theme of Corelli, and the Sonata for Cello and Piano.

The evening was accompanied by the Moscow Conservatory Concert Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Honored Artist of Russia Anatoly Levin. The concertmaster was Anna Odintsova, a laureate of international competitions.

Pianist Anastasia Makhamendrikova is a student at the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music and a pupil of the outstanding pianist Vladimir Ovchinnikov. Her name is well known to everyone following the development of piano performance in Russia. Anastasia has won first prizes and Grand Prix awards at numerous competitions and festivals, including the First International Youth Competition of Classical Solo Performance Nota Bene, The Crystal Heart of the World, Musical Ascent, Grand Prize Virtuoso (United Kingdom), the Pietro Argent Competition (Italy), the Alexander Scriabin Competition (France), and the X International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians, where she was also awarded a special prize—a Yamaha AvantGrand piano. She has performed at all of Moscow’s major concert venues, as well as in some of the world’s most prestigious halls in the United States, England, France, Belgium, Malta, Italy, Belarus, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan.

Cellist Alexander Ramm is also regarded as a brilliant virtuoso and one of Russia’s most promising musicians. “Ramm’s interpretations are distinguished by tremendous expressive power. Unlike most young musicians, he plays thoughtfully and is not afraid of reflection, elegiac moods, or long pauses. His technique is phenomenal,” The Cape Times once wrote about him.

A graduate of the Moscow Conservatory, Alexander is also a laureate of numerous international competitions, including the Cambridge International Competition in Boston, the Beijing International Music Competition, the Antonio Janigro International Cello Competition, and many others. In April 2013, he was awarded Third Prize at one of the world’s most prestigious cello competitions, the Paulo Cello Competition in Helsinki, becoming the first Russian musician to receive laureate status at the competition. In June 2015, he won Second Prize and a silver medal at the International Tchaikovsky Competition.