Altos

Polina Novikova

In the choir since 2024

Polina Novikova graduated from the Rimsky-Korsakov St. Petersburg Music College majoring in the Opera Singing (the class of Nina Romanova), and the Vocal Department of the Rimsky-Korsakov St. Petersburg State Conservatory (the class of Evgeniya Gorokhovskaya). She performs as a soloist and a choir artist in various musical and theatrical projects.

WHEN DID YOU REALISE YOU WANTED TO BE A MUSICIAN?

Mom bought a piano with her first scholarship — no one studied music in the family, but for some reason it seemed to her that there should definitely be a piano at home. So, at the age of four, I started putting different pictures on the music stand and playing the emotions they evoked on the keys. It was a torture for the whole family, so at the age of five I was sent to a music school. I quickly realized that it's not that simple there — you really have to sit at the piano for hours and study hard. So tantrums followed. Anyway, I really liked my teachers.

At the music school, we were given concert subscriptions. Mom, dad, and grandma took turns taking me there. When you're little, you don't really understand anything about music. It's only after a while that a shift happens — a click— and you get really interested. That's how my passion for opera began. I was taken to a cinema theatre where they screened recordings of concerts from the Royal Opera House and La Scala. And when I saw Don Giovanni for the first time, I completely switched over — I even started singing in a completely different way since then.

DO YOU REMEMBER YOUR FIRST CONCERT WITH MUSICAETERNA?

My first serious work with musicAeterna was Persephone. That was the first time I came across Stravinsky: I knew his other works, but I had never sung them. Besides, I still specialize in opera singing, and here I needed a subtler, more precise technique - it is similar to the difference between painting in oils and watercolours. In addition, the choir singer has many roles in Persephone: once you're a nymph, next a shadow in the world of the dead, and then a living person. You need to be able to switch between them. I've never learned so fast in my life as during the rehearsals for this performance. This is probably one of the most serious jobs of my life. It reformed me.

WHAT DO YOU DO IN YOUR FREE TIME?

I've been practicing Arabic dancing for quite a long time, and now I'm doing cross-stitch. Recently, for example, I knitted a thermos case, and also made a beaded bag. It is very pretty, but nothing fits into it. Actually, I don't have much free time for hobbies: work takes up most of it, of course, but I'm also the happy owner of two dogs — a Rhodesian Ridgeback and a Porcelaine. Their names are Era and Orpheus. By the way, Era managed to work with musicAeterna before me — she participated in a chamber concert dedicated to Baudelaire.

WHAT INSPIRES YOU?

Walking inspires me. When I get very tired, I go to Pushkin and walk around the Alexandrovsky or Catherine Park, I will never get bored with it. The nature, people, environment, and weather are always different there. Earlier, while I was still living in Omsk, I purposefully mastered all means of transportation: a bicycle, skis, a skate, an electric scooter. I was attracted by the very opportunity to try a type of movement unknown to me before. Now I have a skydive in my plans. It's important for me not to be afraid to experience new things, to dive into something I haven't tried before. Don't be afraid to get dirty, and then wash up.