This is a recent violin made in 2018, and when I say it, many people can hardly believe me - that's how rich its sound is. It is made of old noble wood by the wonderful Bolognese violin maker Roberto Regazzi. One day he came to my teacher Boris Davidovich Belkin to give a master class at the Kigiana Academy of Music in Siena. Regazzi was showing some of his instruments, and I grabbed this violin — it was love at first sight! The master was not going to sell it, because he considered it his best creation and wanted to keep it to show other musicians as a sample. But I persisted, and as a result, now I am the happy owner of this instrument. The violin has enormous potential. We develop together, we communicate, it responds to me, although sometimes it is capricious — well, a true Italian! Its tone is like molten gold — rich, dark — while at the same time at the top it has such a silvery soprano typical of the Italian instruments.

I try to make sure that music doesn't occupy all of my time altogether. However, I think that for musicians who are really passionate about their work, it ceases to be a job. Music becomes as necessary as air, and in this case you are not coming to the rehearsal for work — you are coming to create. On the other hand, hours-long rehearsals require a lot of physical labour, emotional involvement, and intensive communication. Therefore, you need personal space and time outside of any sounds to recuperate. I'm trying to carve out the opportunity to switch to something else: socializing with friends, reading books, visiting theatres and galleries.

I'm a true melomaniac: I have classics on my playlist, and Slipknot (a heavy metal band with a very non-standard approach to creating musical fabric), and Tigran Hamasyan (a pianist who plays complex, experimental jazz fusion). Basically, any non-trivial high-quality music — regardless of the genre. When I studied in Cremona, in addition to the main course, we had a unique opportunity to attend additional master classes, including a course in composition. It is there that I met Gabriel Prokofiev, the grandson of Sergei Sergeyevich, an amazing, outside the box thinking person. He made DJ sets in which he combined trendy electronic sound with academic music. It seems to me that the future belongs to the symbiosis of the arts — this is exactly what Teodor is striving for.

I always prefer a good atmospheric bar to a noisy club. I like the atmosphere in which you can have a quiet chat over a cocktail or a glass of fine red wine. As for books, I have been instilled with a love of classical Russian literature since childhood. For me, Pushkin is the Mozart of words, and, say, Lermontov is like Beethoven. I love Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Bulgakov, Kuprin… In Russian literature there is a deep emotional background and space for imagination — for the same reason, I like Stefan Zweig among foreign authors, for example. All these books have influenced my formation as a person in one way or another.

I learned about the orchestra quite a long time ago: for the past seven years I have lived, studied, and performed in Europe, and there the name musicAeterna has still been all over. No one stays indifferent: musicAeterna is either hated or adored — at the same time, everyone notes the impeccable quality of performance. It happened so that I had never heard the orchestra live — until I became its member myself. I was burning with the desire to get into musicAeterna: this is a top-class orchestra, in which amazing musicians play. Later, when I got to know them in person, I've realized that they are also wonderful people. In addition, Dom Radio itself is a temple that is imbued with creativity, some kind of special aura. All this combined creates an amazing creative atmosphere that you won't find anywhere else.