Concert | Alexander Pushkin in Opera and Song

A recital by Anastasia Prokofieva, soprano and Sergey Rybin, piano
Anastasia’s operatic performances include Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata, Susanna in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro and Zerlina in Don Giovanni, performed in the Bolshoi Hall of Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory. She has sung with a wide variety of orchestras and worked with famous conductors such as Gennadi Rozhdestvensky, Alexander Petuhov, Andrea Raffanini, Vyacheslav Valeev and Stanislav Dyachenko.

Forthcoming engagements include Despina in Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte in the Benjamin Britten Theatre in London and a solo concert with Ukraine’s National Philharmonic Orchestra: Arias by Glinka, Rimsky-Korsakov and Rachmaninov.

In 2009, she recorded her first CD: Mirror of Russia’s Soul, a selection of Russian romances by different composers and from different periods, some well-known the world over, others rarely if ever performed. In January 2011, she will record a CD of arias from operas inspired by Russia’s greatest poet: Pushkin’s Arias.

Prokofieva debuted in Japan at the Kyoto International Festival in May, 2007, performing Italian arias with the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Andrea Raffanini. Prokofieva has performed in festivals across Italy and worked with Teatro alla Scala pianists Mzia Bachtouridze and Luca Gorla.

Prokofieva regularly appears in prestigious international music halls, including Centro Cultural Manuel de Falla, Teatro Filarmonico Verona, Kiev Philharmonic Lysenko Collonaded Hall, Stadthalle Guetersloh, East Pyongyang Grand Theatre, Tatar Grand Concert Hall (Kazan), Cadiz Conference Center and Rimini Teatro Ermete Novelli.

Anastasia Prokofieva graduated from the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory masters program in 2009. She is currently studying at the International Opera School at London’s Royal College of Music.

Sergey Rybin, piano

Sergey was born in the city of Tomsk in Siberia (Russia). He began playing the piano aged seven, studying at the specialised music school for gifted children, attached to the Conservatory of Novosibirsk. Subsequently, he studied at the Moscow State University of Culture and Arts, where having gained a Ph.D., he became Professor of Piano and taught for four years. Before coming to the UK Sergey also worked as a repetiteur and coach for Helikon Opera Company in Moscow.

In June 2004, under the tutelage of Professors Malcolm Martineau and Colin Stone, Sergey graduated with distinction from The Royal Academy of Music in London (post-graduate diploma course in Piano Accompaniment). During this period, Sergey won the following prestigious awards: The Serena Nevill Award of The Concordia Foundation; The Leverhulme Prize of The Royal Academy of Music; the Sir Arthur Bliss Prize; the Ludmila Andrew Russian Song Prize; the Frank & Hilda Stokes and Marjorie Meyer Memorial Prize and the Cork Award of The Royal Academy of Music.