Cellos

Maxim Akchurin

In the orchestra since 2022

Maxim Akchurin was born in 2001 in Saint Petersburg. Since 2019 he has been a student of the St. Petersburg State Conservatory (the Honoured Artist of Russia, Associate Professor Alexei Massarsky’s class). He has performed with the musicAeterna orchestra since 2022.

He is the laureate of a number of youth contests, including the III prize of the Sviridov International Competition for Youth Performing Arts as a member of the ensemble (St. Petersburg, 2017) and the IV prize of the All-Russian Music Competition (Ufa, 2022).

He took part in master classes by Sergey Roldugin, Oleg Sendetsky, Denis Severin, and Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt; master classes at the Kronberg Academy under Jens Peter Maintz (Germany, 2018), at the International Murren Summer Academy (Switzerland, 2018).

He has participated in the programmes of the St. Petersburg Music House since 2020.

He has performed in the concert halls of the Mariinsky Theatre, the St. Petersburg Academic Philharmonia, the State Academic Chapel, etc. He toured in Germany and Switzerland, participated in the concert programmes of the Vladimir Spivakov International Charity Foundation, collaborated with such musicians as Graf Murzha, David Grimal, Kristóf Baráti, Naoko Sonoda, Christopher Chen.

DO YOU REMEMBER YOUR FIRST PERFORMANCE WITH MUSICAETERNA?

At my first rehearsal with the orchestra we worked on Fauré's Requiem — it turned out that for me it was new music in a new ensemble, so the impressions, of course, were the brightest. Every time the maestro appears, the magic begins. As music comes to life, an endless flow of thoughts and colours appears. It always brings me great pleasure.

HOW DO YOU PREPARE BEFORE GOING ON STAGE?

Before going on stage I feel a mixture of joy and excitement. The joy of being able to show my many years of work, share my thoughts and feelings, the whole inner world. The excitement arises from the desire to show everything you are capable of, and an internal dialogue with myself helps me cope with my nerves.

WHAT PERIOD IN MUSIC DO YOU PREFER?

Personally, modern academic music is sometimes much less understandable to me than the music of Baroque or Classicism. Yet I believe that if the performer was still able to understand and live through the music he is playing, it will become closer to the listener, regardless of the era it was written in.

TELL ABOUT THE INSTRUMENT YOU PLAY.

Lately I have been playing a modern cello by the St. Petersburg master Roman Naumov. I'm just starting to familiarize myself with it, and this process is not fast at all, but very interesting. I've been looking for an instrument that would fit me perfectly for several years. For a long time I stuck with such a stereotype: it is necessary to look for an ancient instrument with a rich history — therefore, I did not look in the direction of modern masters. However, one day I went to Roman's workshop, and I really loved one cello — both for the convenience of playing it, and for the saturation of sound, and for the timbre.

WHAT ARE YOUR FAVOURITE COMPOSITIONS FOR SOLO CELLO?

Of course, Bach's suites - all without exception, I can't choose one favourite. As a cellist, you get to know this music as a child and continue to grow up with it all your life. Among my favourite works there are also Britten's First Suite and Kodály's Sonata.