Flutes

Anna Komarova

In the orchestra since 2022

Anna Komarova was born in Abakan. She graduated from the Secondary Special Music School of the St. Petersburg State Conservatory and the St. Petersburg State Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory. She has been a member of the musicAeterna orchestra since 2022.

In 2013 she became the laureate of the Maestro Temirkanov Foundation. Since 2014 she has been a scholarship holder and a regular participant in concert programmes of the Gartow Stiftung.

She took part in the master classes by A. Magni, N. Mokhov, D. Lupachev, M. Demin, E. Yakovlev, S. Bubnov, N. Popov, A. Golyshev, S. Cherrier, E. Pahud, R. Ciani, C. Brunel, Pierre Yves Artaud, D. Buryakov, F. Renggli, D. Formisano, A. Lieberknecht, K. McCall.

Anna Komarova is the laureate of numerous All-Russian and international competitions, namely, she won the First Prize and the Grand Prix winner of the Art of the 21st Century International Competition (Vienna, 2012; Kiev, 2014), the International Competition in Stockholm (Sweden, 2017), the Grand Prix of the Karandashova Competition for Chamber Ensembles (St. Petersburg, 2018), the I All-Russian Competition for Symphony Orchestra Artists (Moscow, 2018), the Gnessin International Competition for Young Musicians (Moscow, 2020), the Second Prize of the III All-Russian Music Competition in the nomination “woodwind instruments quintet” (Moscow, 2020), the V Prize and Special Prize for the performance of a contemporary work of the X Kobe International Flute Competition (Japan, 2022), the Second Prize of the International Young Artist Flute Competition in Tampere (Finland, 2022).

She has performed with such musical ensembles of St. Petersburg as the
Russian Horn Orchestra, the Tavrichesky Symphony Orchestra, and the St. Petersburg Academic Symphony Orchestra. From 2013 to 2018 she worked as an artist of the Mariinsky Theatre Youth Orchestra. In 2018 she became the first soloist of the flute group of the Russian National Youth Symphony Orchestra. As part of the orchestra, she worked with such soloists and conductors as D. Matsuev, V. Gergiev, V. Fedoseyev, M. Yurovsky, M. Minkowski, P. Järvi, V. Petrenko, D. Petrenko. P. Herreweghe, J.-C. Spinosi, A. Netrebko, D. Trifonov, A. Ramm, P. Ferrández, P. Milyukov, V. Repin, M. Vengerov, D. Masleev, A. Lazarev, P. Zuckerman, S. Dogadin, and others.

THERE IS PARTICIPATION AND VICTORIES IN MANY MUSIC COMPETITIONS TO YOUR NAME. DON'T YOU FEEL ANY FATIGUE FROM THIS STAGE OF YOUR CAREER?

I have no desire to skip the period of competitions in my career as I do not perceive it as an annoying duty. The result itself is of second importance for me — the preparation that you have completed is much more important. As part of the process, you discover new works, replenish your repertoire, you hone your performance — this is the most valuable thing in this case.

WHAT ORCHESTRAS HAVE YOU PREVIOUSLY WORKED WHAT?

I believe that in any endeavour, sooner or later quantity turns into quality. For example, my orchestral experience, be it working in the orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre or the Russian National Youth Symphony Orchestra, is very helpful now: working with each new conductor is getting to know a new gesture, a new understanding of music, a new style of creative thinking. Every time you adapt and make a new contribution to the overall design. This is how experience and time work with cumulative effect.

HOW HAVE YOU BECOME A MEMBER OF MUSICAETERNA?

I've been to musicAeterna concerts as a spectator and could only dream of playing with them. I remember when I was invited for an emergency stand in, I was very impressed by what Teodor pays attention to, how he works, how accurate and subtle his hearing is, his understanding of the texture… Now I am happy to be part of musicAeterna! With each rehearsal, my idea of music expands exponentially. At first it seemed to me that I would not keep up with these horizons, I would not be able to get beyond my own capabilities. Initially, this feeling was frightening, but now, on the contrary, I am even glad it is there. It's great to see more, to take more risks, to demand more of yourself…

WHAT BOOKS INFLUENCED YOU IN YOUR?

I used to like the novels by Jack London or, say, Veniamin Kaverin's "The Two Captains" — with their idealistic images that I always wanted to reach out to. Now I don't read much fiction — I'm more interested in books on Musicology, Neurobiology, Psychology, and Social Sciences. I am interested in how our consciousness works, including the emotional intelligence. Recently I have listened to lectures on the Philosophy of Moral by a Harvard University professor, I'm ploughing through Montaigne's "Experiments", I approached Stephen Hawking (although I can't say that I understand his theory one hundred per cent so far). It seems to me that the more you try to learn, the more interesting you become as a person — for others and for yourself. As a result, you will have something to convey from the stage through music. As Niccolo Paganini once said, "We must strongly feel to make others feel."

WHAT DO YOU DO AT LEISURE?

You should definitely allow yourself to have rest. Such moment of distraction give you new strength and more desire to return to music later. For this New Year's vacation I would love to go to my parents in Abakan. It is not so difficult to find one and a half to two hours to practice with the instrument to keep yourself in creative shape and even learn something new.

WHAT ARE THE LATEST MUSIC TRACKS IN YOUR PLAYLIST?

When we were on tour, I was listening to Sting, Adele, a Russian rock band "Spleen", Brahms, and Gesualdo on the road. Well, and 2pac, of course, where would we be without him!