First Violins

Elena Rais

In the orchestra since 2005

Elena Rais graduated with honours from the Novosibirsk Conservatory and postgraduate studies in violin (2005, 2007). In 2001 she became an artist of the Novosibirsk Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, from 2005 to 2019 she worked as an artist of the musicAeterna orchestra under the direction of Teodor Currentzis – first at the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theatre, and then at the Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre. Since 2018 she has worked as a concertmaster in the Perm Opera Grand Symphony Orchestra, and since 2019 as a concertmaster and a soloist in the Symphony and Chamber orchestras of the Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre. In the autumn of 2022 she has joined the musicAeterna orchestra again.

Her repertoire includes all the leading solo parts of the opera and ballet repertoire, as well as numerous chamber and solo works of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Back in Novosibirsk, together with the artists of musicAeterna she initiated a series of chamber concerts Music for Us, and at the Perm Opera she also initiated a series of chamber music concerts on the big theatre stage. She has performed solo parts in many theatrical projects ranging from Leonid Desyatnikov’s Russian Seasons and Vladimir Martynov’s Come In in Novosibirsk to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Concert Symphony for Violin, Viola and Orchestra in Perm.

HOW DID YOU COME TO BE A MUSICIAN?

There are no professional musicians in my family, and my engagement in music could be called accidental. As a child, I used to do ballet and figure skating. My dad and I frequented the Chelyabinsk Opera and Ballet Theatre. Back then, I was more impressed by the costumes than the music. Out of curiosity, I enrolled in a violin class at a music school. I began to pay more attention to solo violin parts in ballets: I especially liked the Swan Lake and One Thousand and One Nights.

WHAT MAKES MUSICAETERNA DIFFER FROM OTHER ENSEMBLES?

I joined the orchestra in 2005, as soon as Teodor Currentzis arrived in Novosibirsk. I first heard him as a conductor with Mozart's Symphony No. 40. It immediately became clear to me then: such an approach to music is the only true way.

I've never known any other orchestra like musicAeterna. We all started very young: in 2005, there were 16-year-old musicians in the orchestra, and I was one of the oldest – I was just over 20. We spent a lot of time together – either in Teodor's office or at rehearsals. And to this day, such a family atmosphere has persisted in the orchestra.

WHAT DO YOU DO BESIDES MUSIC?

I have no hobbies outside of music, but I do sports to keep fit. I run every other day while listening to podcasts on history or classical music in my headphones, for example, Mozart's concerts. I listen to nothing but academic music, with rare exceptions. Running is also an opportunity for me to spend time alone with myself and my thoughts, without being distracted by communication with others. I love skiing. From time to time we make it out with family and friends to the mountains.

WHICH COMPOSITIONS WOULD YOU LIKE TO PERFORM?

I really love the early romantics: Schubert and Mendelssohn are my favourites. They have a filigree, stylistic virtuosity that requires an intellectual understanding of the composition. The late romantics, who need to be played expressively, are not very close to me.

I have no ambition to perform all possible violin solos. I think that a competent musician should know his own characteristics and select a repertoire based on them. I would like to play Strauss's A Hero's Life with the orchestra. I don't know if I ever get a chance: this symphonic poem is a rarely performed, large–scale piece. And also I have never played the solo from Glazunov's ballet Raymonda with the orchestra. However, I have managed to perform the violin part from this composition with the piano.

COULD YOU TELL ABOUT YOUR INSTRUMENT?

I play a 1792 violin crafted by two masters, Villaume and Giron. My violin has a beautiful timbre, its mensuration is very comfortable. Of course, it bears some traces of time, but I carefully monitor its condition so that it lives as long as possible. I picked it up in 2013 and fell in love immediately. Two days later, I had to play a baroque programme with the orchestra: I put the gut strings on it, lowered the tuning and played the concert on it. We've been together ever since.