Sergey Poltavsky, viola / viola d’amore
Irina Sopova, viola / viola d’amore
Mikhail Kovalkov, viola
Grigory Tsyganov, viola
Daria Filippenko, viola
Pavel Romanenko, viola
Sergey Tishchenko, viola
Sergey Filchenko, violin / viola

Rust Pozyumsky, viola da gamba
Tatyana Fedyakova, viola da gamba
Evgeny Rumyantsev, cello / electric guitar
Grigory Krotenko, bass / viola da gamba
Pavel Dombrovsky, piano
Aileen Pritchin, violin
Yevgeny Subbotin, violin
Yuri Favorin, piano
Anna Orlova, piano

In 2019, the Viola is My Life festival celebrates its fifth anniversary. By its first jubilee, this annual viola festival found already its loyal audience and the creative team of performers and composers. It is quite an extraordinary event, which gathers together the brightest, well-known and successful musicians, who sometimes perform the music that is quite different from their usual academic repertoire in the underground clubs, marries up acoustic music with electronic one using diverse styles, includes performance art and video mapping, and lets the viola demonstrate its hitherto unknown capabilities.

The founder of this festival Sergey Poltavsky performs as the viola and viola d’amore player in the major concert halls and at the key festivals. As a researcher and an author of several solutions for electroacoustic and multimedia compositions, he is a frequent participant of scientific conferences. He also works as a sound director. Together with his supporters, he discovers rare works and introduces them to his audience. At his festivals, the music by John Tavener and Alexandr Filonenko, Erik Satie and Terry Riley, Michael Daugherty and Morton Feldman was introduced to the listeners.

Vadim Kholodenko, Mikhail Muntyan (piano), Evgeny Rumyantsev (cello), one of the cofounders of the Persimfans orchestra Grigory Krotenko (bass), Alisa Ten (vocal), head of the FX Quartet Yevgeny Subbotin (violin), the Pratum Integrum orchestra’s concertmaster Sergey Filchenko (violin) participated in this festival alongside the best Russian viola players.
Initially, the festival was dedicated to viola only but the past year, it included viola da gamba and viola d’amore, and musicians performed early music as well.
This year, its programme will include the Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 for two violas and 18th cantata for a choir and four violas by Johann Sebastian Bach, White Crucifixion by Benjamin Ellin (to be performed the first time in Russia) and several other contemporary pieces, including the Viola in My Life by Morton Feldman.