Yuri Medianik

Russian musician, conductor.

Yuri Medianik is a rare phenomenon of contemporary music performance. This is a person with a flair for performance, inordinate virtuosity with respect to several musical instruments and outstanding artistic individuality. He is an artist whose creative work is far beyond academic musician standards.

Yuri Medianik is a Russian multi-instrumentalist, one of highly accomplished musicians that can play several instruments. At the age of 2, he started playing the bayan; at 8 continued with the violin and not long time ago ‘fell in love’ with bandoneon and was the first musician to acquaint the Russian general public with this popular instrument from Argentina. He is the author of NTO Project (first project of the electronic tango in Russia), guest conductor of Bass Voices of the 21st Century Festival, founder and conductor of Pluri_Art Orchestra, art director of Emotion-orchestra, honorary member of Kaunas Conservatory (Lithuania). For 6 concert seasons, Yuri has been the Art Director of Young Talents’ Performance – a number of subscription concerts in the Rachmaninov Hall of Moscow Conservatory devoted to young talents.

The musician completed graduate and post graduate program at Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory (violin class of prof. Аra Bogdanyan), Gnessin Russian Academy of Music (bayan class of prof. Vyacheslav Semenov).

Yuri Medianik is a prize winner in a number of prestigious competitions, namely: Demidov International Violin Competition (Grand prize), Vogtland’s Days of Music International Accordeionists and Bayanists Competition (1st prize, Klingenthal Germany), 3rd International Competition of Bayanists and Accordionists (1st prize, Moscow), Yugoria First All-Russian Bayan Competition (1st prize) etc.

Yuri Medianik’s concerts are held at the Moscow International House of Music, SC Olimpiysky, Rossia Concert Hall, State Kremlin Palace, Grand and Small Halls of Moscow Conservatory, Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, Victoria Hall (Geneva), Concert Hall in Boston University, (USA), Concert Hall in Oxford University (England), Glinka Capella (Saint-Petersburg), Grand Hall of Sverdlovsk Philharmonia, Novaya Opera Theatre of Moscow, Samara Opera and Ballet Theatre, Voronezh Opera Theatre, Erevan Organ Hall (Armenia).

In spite of Yuri’s great devotion to classical music, his repertoire is not limited to it. He works closely with jazz musicians — Sergey Zhilin, Igor Butman, Oleg Kireev, Daniel Kramer; performs together with TODES ballet by Alla Dukhova; dancers — Sebastian Arce, Mariana Montes and Michael Ihnow; actors — Dmitry Pevtsov and Irina Apeksimova. Fruitful cooperation with Anna Netrebko, Erwin Schrott and maestro Vladimir Spivakov is a separate milestone of Yuri’s creative career.

A Recollection of Piazzola CD (Gnessin Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra/ M. Khokhlov, Piazzolla Quintet ensemble) is among the records of Yuri Medianik that has been internationally acclaimed. In 2007, it has remained in TOP 100 best-selling albums in the UK branch of the Internet shop www.amazon.com for three months. The record of SonataBACH program together with the cellist Boris Andrianov, as well as Golden Age of Soviet Tango CD — joint program with the art project TenorS of the XXI Century — are coming soon.

Yuri Medianik is in constant development and forges ahead with new ideas. In 2011, the musician prepared a new concert program in the Moscow International House of Music— LATINO in Shades of White — which was a success. In the same year, Yuri Medianik and Pluri_Art Orchestra worked closely with Channel One participating in several editions of ‘Star Factory. The Return’ project (joint performance with Dominick Joker). In 2012, Yuri became producer of the Story of Love. Anna Magdalena and Johann Sebastian Bach program with the actress Irina Apeksimova which was first performed at the Moscow International House of Music and then in Perm and Tver philharmonias. During 2013/2014 concert season, a new program by Emotion-orchestra project will be opened for the first time: Vivaldi. Four Seasons of Tango — a completely new interpretation and modification of A. Vivaldi’s scores in tango style preserving the original themes of the composer.