Second Violins

Pyotr Chonkushev

In the orchestra since 2023

Pyotr Chonkushev was born in 1990 in Elista to a musical family. He began his musical education in the studio for gifted children at the Chonkushov Elista Art School. He graduated from the Secondary Special Music School of the Rimsky-Korsakov St. Petersburg State Conservatory (class of A. Baranova), in 2014 he graduated from the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory, and in 2018 he completed the internship at the Moscow State Conservatory (class of the People’s Artist of Russia, professor I.V. Bochkova, chamber class of the People’s Artist of Russia, professor A.I. Rudin).

He took part in master classes by Zakhar Bron, Latica Honda-Rosenberg, and Liviu Prunaru. In 2007, he completed an internship at the Schleswig-Holstein Festival’s Orchestral-Academy (Germany) created by Leonard Bernstein.

Pyotr Chonkushev is the laureate and award winner of international and All-Russian competitions, including the International ‘Nutcracker’ Television Contest (Moscow 2003), the All-Russian Delphic Games Contest, the International Dvarionas Competition (Lithuania), etc.

As a soloist, he has performed with the Musica Viva Moscow Chamber Orchestra, the State Symphony Orchestra of the Udmurt Republic, the Nikolayev Youth Symphony Orchestra, the State Symphony Orchestra of the Republic of Kalmykia, and the National Orchestra of Kalmykia.

From 2013 to 2021, he was an artist of the Musica Viva Moscow Chamber Orchestra. From 2018 to 2021, he worked as an artist and one of the concert masters of the Verbier Festival Orchestra (Switzerland), since 2021 he has been an artist of the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra.

In 2023 he was awarded the title of the Honoured Artist of the Republic of Kalmykia.

HOW DID YOU GET TO KNOW MUSICAETERNA?

It's only this year that I have joined the orchestra officially, but my first acquaintance with musicAeterna and maestro Currentzis took place back in 2016 in Perm when I took part in the recording of Mahler's Symphony No. 6. In the following years, I played with musicAeterna in various projects again and again, so I joined the orchestra gradually and naturally. Even from the point of view of choosing a city, one can say that I came back 'home': before moving to Moscow to study at the conservatory, I lived in St. Petersburg for ten years, where I graduated from the ten-year music school programme of the conservatory. When I first met musicAeterna, I was absolutely delighted with the highest level of musicians, Teodor's incredible energy and his approach to interpretation of the score. The way he hears music.

WHAT INTERESTS YOU IN MODERN ACADEMIC MUSIC?

I'm interested in discovering modern music, it helps me feel the pulse of our time. After all, the world is constantly undergoing changes, and one's sense of self in the world is changing, which requires the search for other means of expressing inner thoughts and experiences, a different musical language. The experience of studying modern music, in turn, helps to take a fresh look at classical music. For example, in musicAeterna concerts, Teodor often puts works by contemporary composers specially written for these concerts along with the music of Mahler or Wagner. And this kind of musical dialogue from different eras is very interesting to me.

WHAT ARE YOUR MOST VIVID IMPRESSIONS OF STUDYING AT THE CONSERVATORY?

Over the period of my studies at the Moscow Conservatory, there were many bright events, meetings, and discoveries. However, looking back, I remember the very first moment — admission. Then, quite spontaneously, just a couple of weeks before the start of the entrance exams, I decided that I would go to Moscow to apply. And I was just happy when I found out that I had been enrolled in the class of Professor Irina Bochkova. Of course, that feeling of the new city atmosphere, a new challenge, also inspired and gave strength.

WHO HAS HAD THE BIGGEST INFLUENCE ON YOU AS A MUSICIAN?

I sincerely admire the performers who have reached great heights and made a contribution to the violin art. These are David Nadien, Henryk Szeryng, and David Oistrakh, and among modern musicians, for example, Giuliano Carmignola and Christian Tetzlaff. I am interested in listening to representatives of different generations and schools, tracking the evolution of performance approaches, analyzing their performances and drawing something useful for myself.

WHAT ARE YOUR FAVOURITE FILMS?

In Moscow, I had my favourite cinema theatre, Mir Iskusstva, where they screened art house and cinema classics in general. I really enjoyed going there and could watch several movies in a row in an evening. Therefore, there are many movies I may call my favourite, it is not so easy to pick… I will name those films that first came to mind, which means that they really left their trace in the soul. These are Andrey Zvyagintsev's Return, Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker, and Alexei Balabanov's films — I've recently watched his works once again, and some of them I've seen for the first time and was very impressed!