Second Violin

Ilya Gaysin

In the orchestra since 2017

Biography
Interview

Ilya Gaisin graduated from the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory
specializing in violin (2006) and opera and symphonic conducting (2008) under the supervision of professors Sergey Kravchenko and Valeriy Polyanskiy.

He has won the Gennadiy Rozhdestvenskiy award. Ilya Gaisin is a laureate of numerous international violin contests held in Italy, Finland, Russia and Ukraine. He won the II Kalman International Conducting Competition (Budapest, 2012) and is a laureate of the International Opera Conducting Competition in Ruse (Bulgaria, 2014). Since 2005, he has also been working as a conductor.

In 2005 – 2008, he conducted the Academic Symphony Orchestra of the North Caucasus State Safonov Philharmonic. In 2012 – 2017, he was the leading conductor of the Moscow Chamber Orchestra of the Pavel Slobodkin Centre. Since 2018, Ilya Gaisin has been the conductor of the Perm State Opera and Ballet Theatre.

HOW CAN AN ASPIRING MUSICIAN TELL THEY SHOULD MAKE MUSIC THEIR PROFESSION?

Generally speaking, anyone should try their hand at music. Whether to do it professionally or just for fun and self-development is a different question; the answer can be found through learning from experienced tutors. I am inclined to say, though, that you should make music when you cannot imagine your life without it.

WHEN DID YOU REALIZE YOU COULD NOT LIVE WITHOUT MUSIC?

This realization came rather late. I think I only started to fully comprehend it at the age of 16 or so. By that time, I had already been touring around the world for a few years. This had just been an integral part of my life, though. Later on, practicing became a pleasure to me; I understood I could use my “home laboratory” to produce things that brought me the feeling of creative fulfillment.

WHAT DO YOU WORK ON AT YOUR “HOME LABORATORY”?

I combine my role as a musician with that of a conductor. As the latter, I aspire to make some sort of discovery that would make each member of the orchestra not just play their part but feel responsible for the whole piece. This may sound simple but achieving such an effect in practice is quite hard.

WHAT DOES A REHEARSAL FEEL LIKE TO A CONDUCTOR AND TO AN ORCHESTRA MUSICIAN?

Having been at either side of the “barricades”, I can say that my emotional response is different. My psychology changes, almost against my will. Time flows in different ways. When I am conducting, time flies in an instant. Although when I am playing in the orchestra and Theodor is at the conductor’s stand, time goes very fast, too. But this is more of an exception to the rule.

DO YOU NEED INSPIRATION TO PLAY, OR DOES IT FEEL MORE LIKE A JOB TO YOU?

This might be the biggest secret of a conductor’s craft. With an ordinary conductor, musicians will work; with an inspiring one, that work will turn into creation of something new.

WHAT DOES MUSICAETERNA MEAN TO YOU?

Aside from the direct translation from Latin, musicAeterna means much to me. It is eternal devotion to music. It is the constant and uncompromising strive towards the ideal. It is a field for experiment and a space for friendship. It is the process of search. It is an area of challenges. Finally, it is freedom — not utilitarian freedom, not freedom from effort, but the freedom to venture through the worlds of Mozart, Mahler, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev and many, many others…