Online Exibition

The International Tchaikovsky Competition is a world musical heritage. It is one of the most regarded world competitions for the musicians from all over the world.

The first Competition was held in 1958 and included two disciplines – piano and violin. Beginning with the second competition a cello category was added, and the vocal division was introduced during the third competition. The competition of performers on wind instruments was introduced into the program of the 16th competition in 2019. This is how the world’s unique performing competition developed, held simultaneously in five disciplines: piano, violin, cello, vocal, wind instruments.

The most prominent Russian musicians, such as Dmitri Shostakovich, the Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the first Competition, David Oistrakh, Emil Gilels, Leonid Kogan, Mstislav Rostropovich, Daniil Shafran, Alexander Sveshnikov, Irina Arkhipova, the Chairmen of the jury, contributed to the development of the Competition.

Due to their performance at the Сompetition most Russian and foreign performers gained worldwide recognition. Many of the winners returned to the Сompetition after years as the jury members.

The exhibition from the funds of the Russ an National Music Museum and from the archives of the сompetition is dedicated to the history of the International Competition. On the photos you can see grand openings and closing ceremonies of the Competition in different years, welcome speeches, drawing, auditions, discussions of jury members, the winners triumph, prizes awarding and other memorable moments in its history.

Dmitri Shostakovich said in his welcome speech to the 3rd International Tchaikovsky Competition: “Our world needs beauty that elevates and ennobles the man, makes his world purer. And music one of the wonders of the life – will never leave the man. I want my thought to bе understood first of all bу young musicians. Because they are the future of the art, and today all the beauty of this world is in their hands.” These remarkable words can be as well addressed to participants of the 17th International Tchaikovsky Competition.

Photos of S. Melnik, S. Henkin, A. Stepanov, A. Daiko, M. Dalibando, S. Novoselov, S. Biryukov, Y. Barykin, D. Rylov are used at the exhibition.