As a child, my parents sent me to a music school, which was famous for its graduates, discipline, and a busy schedule of tours and competitions. For a long time, I positioned myself as a pianist, although I did not like to practice and often protested about it. I entered college already as a choir conductor, but I rebelled there too. It was a difficult teenage period, but the love of music helped me stop putting a spoke in my own wheel. My temper receded into the background.

Despite all the recommendations, I entered the Moscow Conservatory to study with Yuri Anatolyevich Yevgrafov. This professor, to say the least, changed my fate. Thanks to his composition You Left the Village Behind, I chose the department of choral conducting over the performance department. His training is very specific, yet he showed me how to achieve performance freedom, and this is the most important thing for a musician. Studying at the conservatory was not easy for me. In the early years, I continued to think of myself as a pianist and came to the conservatory at seven in the morning to study until 11 in the evening: I no longer had an instrument at home. After that, my regular classes started, then I gave lessons to private students, then I studied myself again. I had to overcome not only fatigue, but also a feeling of lack of skill. Finally, I decided to stop swimming against the current and completely immersed myself in vocal performance.

I have a thing for Scriabin's music, especially his later opuses. The colour of his preludes fascinates me. I love Tishchenko and his less known contemporary Alexander Lokshin. Unfortunately, his music is almost never performed. It was Olga Vlasova who introduced me to modern vocal music. Together with her, I have repeatedly performed Luigi Nono's vocal cycle The Forest Is Young and Full of Life. In modern music, it is the opportunity to be not only a vocalist, but also an artist, performer, and dancer that attracts me. And the main thing is that it allows to find oneself amidst the throbbing modernity, not in nostalgia for the past or dreams of the future.

I first heard musicAeterna when I was a student volunteering at one of Mozart's Requiem concerts. Unfortunately, due to the hustle and stress, I couldn't really embrace the music. A few years later, I saw an advertisement for recruitment to the Diaghilev Festival Choir and I didn't think twice, I applied immediately. During the classes, I was amazed by the level of Vitaly Polonsky's work, and at the subsequent audition, I was impressed by the depth of Teodor Currentzis's questions. We hardly talked about the composition I was performing, but rather about my spiritual path and world outlook.

I moved from Moscow to Saint Petersburg in order to work at musicAeterna. Three months after moving, I feel at home here: I have my own cosmetologist and orthodontist. I'm back at the gym, I'm practicing yoga. For me, the easiest way to adapt, to ‘ground myself’ in a new place, is to do the cleaning. I like to put my house in order on weekends, and after that I go out with friends.

I have a dream, or rather even a goal, to develop modern vocal performance in Russia. I would like to launch a festival where everyone who is interested in current vocal techniques could learn something new for themselves, and get to know modern composers. It seems to me that there are few such opportunities in our country. As for my big dreams, I would like to conquer Elbrus.