Gala concert – Stars of the Russian operatic scene

Saturday, 17 October 2026
Kolarac Endowment Hall at 8 PM
Formal Opening
Gala concert – Stars of the Russian operatic scene
RTS Symphony Orchestra and Choir
Conductor: Dušan Vilić
Soloists: Tatiana Pavlovskaya, soprano, Ekaterina Lukash, mezzosoprano, Igor Morozov, tenor, Sergey Kaydalov, baritone, Vyacheslav Vasilyev, baritone, Ilia Kazakov, bass
Programme: Highlights from the operas by P. I. Tchaikovsky, N. Rimsky-Korsakov and M. Mussorgsky
With the collaboration of the RTS Music Production
3000, 4000, 5000

The Radio Television of Serbia Symphony Orchestra is one of the most prominent orchestral ensembles of Serbia. Founded in 1937 as a part of “Radio Belgrade”, the Symphony Orchestra has always had profiled artistic directions, oriented towards the affirmation and preservation of national music heritage, as well as capital works of world literature.
This programme policy, established by the first conductor, Mihailo Vukdragović, has been retained for more than 8 decades that have been marked by the work of chief conductors: Mladen Jagušt, Vančo Čavdarski, and Bojan Suđić.
Throughout history, the most renowned domestic and foreign artists, solo artists and conductors have collaborated with the orchestra, which has performed at all major festivals in Yugoslavia and Serbia, and has also toured successfully across Europe, Africa and Asia. In the “Radio Belgrade Sound Archive”, hundreds of recordings have been permanently archived, many of them published on several sound carriers.
The Symphony Orchestra has won numerous relevant awards and recognitions, including the award of the “Association of Opera and Symphony Musicians of Serbia” for high quality music and as the most promising orchestra (1971), “Siringa” (1982), the award at the “Festival of World Symphony Orchestras” in Paris (1986), and the “Special Golden Ring award” (1987) (“Specijalni zlatni beočug”), on the occasion of the orchestra’s 50th anniversary.
In 2008, marking the 70th anniversary, the RTS Symphony Orchestra, received the “Golden Ring of Excellence” award, for great achievements in the cultural and artistic mission. The orchestra has also won the annual award of the radio programme “Classical Music” (“Muzika klasika”), for the best orchestral ensemble in 2013. In 2019, it was awarded the “Sretenje Order of the Third Degree”, for its lasting contribution to the culture.
Today, the RTS Symphony Orchestra operates within the RTS Music Production as a modern ensemble, keeping pace with global tendencies in the interpretation of music. Its repertoire includes significant symphonic, concert and vocal-instrumental pieces of domestic and foreign literature. In its history, the Symphony Orchestra has premiered many works of distinguished Serbian contemporary artists of various generations, and some of these works are dedicated to the orchestra. Its repertoire also includes opera and operetta literature, as well as the music of popular genres. It is actively present in concert halls, in the media and at important social events, positioning itself as a prestigious performer, always striving towards the highest artistic achievements.

Dušan Vilić was born in Belgrade into a Serbian-Russian artistic family. His exceptional musical talent was evident from early childhood. After completing his secondary music education, specializing in violin and organ, he earned his degree at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade. There, he focused on violin while also taking elective classes in voice. He improved his organ-playing skills under the guidance of leading European performers, including A. Parshin, D. Sanger, E. Bellotti, P. Kohout, and O. Latry.
During his studies, he became the prizewinner at numerous national competitions, gave concerts as a violinist and organist, and took part in concerts featuring students from the Vocal Department in the class of Lj. Gross. Led by the top musicians of the Berlin Philharmonic L. Spierer and S. Bernardini, he twice participated in master classes with the German-Scandinavian Symphony Orchestra as a violinist and accompanist. At one of the concerts of the Orchestra, he tried his hand at conducting.
Over the years, Vilić has been actively collaborating with the Serbian Patriarchal Choir ‘The First Belgrade Singing Society’, as a soloist and organist. With the Choir, he has repeatedly performed at the Moscow Easter Festival, established by Valery Gergiev, as well as at international festivals of sacred music in cultural centres of Europe. During those times, his composing skills also manifested themselves, and as a composer, he became a prize-winner at the Third Open All-Russian Contest of Composers, ‘The 21st Century Russian Music’.
He continued his musical education in Russia, graduating from the Opera and Symphony Conducting Department of the St Petersburg Conservatory in 2019 and completing his post-graduate studies at the Conservatory in 2021 (class of Professor A.S. Dmitriev, People’s Artist of the USSR). During the final year of his post-graduate studies, he was taught by Professor A.I. Polishchuk.
Dušan Vilić had made his debut as a conductor in his student years in his native city of Belgrade with the Stanislav Binički Symphony Orchestra, with which he had established close cooperation. The critics noted the young conductor’s professional excellence, describing his performances as a burst of new creative energy in the musical life of the Serbian capital. ‘Two bright Slavonic cultures are harmoniously combined in him, like two instruments’, the metropolitan press wrote about Dušan Vilić.
In Russia, Vilić has conducted many orchestras, including the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the St Petersburg Conservatory Opera Studio Orchestra, the Orchestra of St Petersburg State Philharmonia for Children and Teenagers, the St Petersburg Youth Orchestra, the St Petersburg Metropolis Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, and the Novosibirsk Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra.
The conductor’s repertoire encompasses masterpieces of various eras and styles. Concert opuses by composers of the past as well as by contemporary composers have been performed with such famous soloists as Boris Andrianov, Nikita Mndoyants, Vadim Teyfikov, Aleksey Maslov, Dmitry Petrov, and Anastasia Rogaleva, Nikolai Mazhara, Albert Zhmaev, Luka Gadeliya. The musician closely cooperates with Elena Obraztsova Cultural Centre. Also, he has frequently been a jury member at various vocal and instrumental competitions.
Between 2019 and 2022, he conducted a wide variety of concert programmes with the Volgograd Academic Symphony Orchestra. With the Orchestra, he also performed solo organ and violin compositions.
In the 2022–2023 season, Vilić served as a conductor of the St Petersburg Opera Theatre. Since October 2023, he has been a conductor at the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre.

Ekaterina Lukash was born in Voronezh. She graduated with honours from Moscow’s Russian Institute of Theatre Arts (GITIS, class of Alexander Titel and Igor Yasulovich) in 2015 and subsequently continued her studies at Moscow’s Victor Popov Academy of Choral Arts (class of Natalia Popova).
From 2014 to 2017, the singer was a trainee at the Moscow State Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theatre, and since 2021 she has been a soloist of the company.
There Ekaterina Lukash performed the title role in Carmen, the parts of Adalgisa (Norma), Isabella (L’italiana in Algeri), Niklausse (Les Contes d’Hoffmann), Maddalena (Rigoletto), Suzuki (Madama Butterfly), Friday (Robinson Crusoe), Lyubasha (The Tsar’s Bride), Olga (Eugene Onegin), Polina (The Queen of Spades), the Tkachikha (Weaver) (The Tale of Tsar Saltan) and the Princess (Dargomyzhsky’s Mermaid).
She has appeared as a guest soloist with the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia (title role in Offenbach’s La Périchole, Sonya in a concert version of War and Peace), with the Novosibirsk (Konchakovna in Prince Igor, Carmen), Krasnoyarsk (Amneris in Aida, Orpheus in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, Adalgisa in Norma, Boulotte in Barbe-Bleue), Nizhny Novgorod (Countess in The Queen of Spades, Carmen) and Voronezh (Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, the Child in Ravel’s L’Enfant et les sortilèges) opera and ballet theatres and with the State Opera of Tatarstan (Polina and Milovzor in The Queen of Spades, Marina Mnishek in Boris Godunov, Fenena in Nabucco, Third Lady in Die Zauberflöte, Carmen). Ekaterina Lukash is a regular guest at the Feodor Chaliapin International Opera Festival in Kazan.
In 2019, the singer took part in the world premiere of Vladimir Nikolayev’s opera Worker and Kolkhoz Woman (role of Marlene Dietrich, Moscow Concert Hall Zaryadye), and in 2021 she appeared in the world premiere of Igor Raykhelson’s The Burned Chapter of “Eugene Onegin” (Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory). In 2020, the artist portrayed Romeo (I Capuleti e i Montecchi) at the fifth Seeing the Music Festival of Musical Theatres on the stage of the Moscow State Opera and Ballet Theatre for Young Audience named after Natalia Sats.
Ekaterina Lukash made her Mariinsky Theatre debut in 2025 at the concert of laureates of the 27th International Glinka Competition of Vocalists, performing Varvara’s songs and couplets from Not Only Love and – together with Albina Shagimuratova – the duet of Norma and Adalgisa from Norma. In the same year, she appeared for the first time in a Mariinsky Theatre production, singing Adalgisa at the premiere of a new staging of Norma. Since October 2025, the artist has been a soloist with the Mariinsky Opera Company.

Born in 1990 in Ryazan, Igor Morozov graduated in 2016 from the Popov Academy of Choral Art (Moscow) with degrees in both choral conducting and vocal performance (class of Vera Alexandrova).
He gave solo recitals in France and Germany in 2012 and 2013 and made his operatic debut in 2013, singing the Pet Seller in Der Rosenkavalier under Vassily Sinaisky at the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia. In 2024, the artist appeared there as Vladimir Igorevich in the premiere of a new production of Prince Igor. Since 2014, he has been a soloist with the Helikon Opera in Moscow, where his roles include Ivan Lykov (The Tsar’s Bride), Shuisky (Boris Godunov), Prince Sinodal (The Demon), Platon Zubov (David Tukhmanov’s Tsarina (Catherine the Great)), Lensky (Eugene Onegin), Beppe (Pagliacci), Andrei (Mazepa), Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), Mozart (Mozart and Salieri. Requiem), Count Vaudémont (Iolanta), Alfredo Germont (La traviata), Ismaele (Nabucco), Mario Cavaradossi (Tosca), the Young Gypsy (Aleko), Don José (Carmen), Turiddu (Cavalleria rusticana), Vakula (Cherevichki), and Sadko.
Morozov has worked with renowned conductors including Valery Gergiev, Christian Thielemann, Saulius Sondeckis, Jan Latham-Koenig, Ken-David Masur, Vladimir Spivakov, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Mikhail Pletnev, Yuri Temirkanov, Yevgeny Svetlanov, Alexander Vedernikov, Alberto Zedda, and Vladimir Jurowski.
He has performed at La Monnaie (Brussels), the Theater an der Wien, the Teatro Petruzzelli (Bari), the Opéra de Nice, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein (Düsseldorf), the Gran Teatre del Liceu (Barcelona), the Royal Swedish Opera (Stockholm), the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), the Croatian National Theatre (Zagreb), the Estonian National Opera (Tallinn), the Latvian National Opera (Riga), the Municipal theatres of Santiago and São Paulo, the Kolobov Novaya Opera Theatre of Moscow, the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow, the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, opera houses in Krasnoyarsk, Ufa, and Perm. He has also appeared at the Saaremaa Opera Days (Estonia).
His repertoire also includes: Chekalinsky (The Queen of Spades), Iskra (Mazepa), a Jew (Salome), Harvey (Anna Bolena), Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), Attalo (Rossini’s Ermione), Zinovy Borisovich (Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk), and Semyon Kotko as well as the tenor parts in Mozart’s and Saint-Saëns’ Requiems, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Dvořák’s Stabat Mater, Rachmaninoff’s The Bells, Taneyev’s cantata At the Reading of a Psalm, and Leonid Desyatnikov’s The Pinezh Tale About Pushkin’s Duel and Death.
Igor Morozov made his Mariinsky Theatre debut in July 2023, appearing as Prince Sinodal in a concert performance of The Demon, and returned that September for the premiere of a new staged production of this opera.

Ilia Kazakov was born in Kazan in 1992. His recent and future engagements include his debuts at the Hamburg State Opera, with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, at the Salzburg Festival and with the Berlin Philharmonic under Kirill Petrenko.
He is a member of the Vienna State Opera, where he has appeared in roles including Ferrando (Il trovatore), Colline (La bohème), Prince Gremin (Eugene Onegin), Don Basilio (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Varlaam (Boris Godunov), Doctor Grenvil (La traviata), Truffaldino (Ariadne auf Naxos), the King (Aida), Zuniga (Carmen), Pistola (Falstaff), Gualtiero (I puritani), Gaoler (Tosca), Sergeant (Manon Lescaut), Quinault (Adriana Lecouvreur) and Bossmin in the children’s opera Die Entführung ins Zauberreich with music by Mozart. In summer 2023 he also sang the role of Zuniga at the St Margarethen Opera Festival.
Ilia Kazakov studied choral conducting and singing. In 2019 he won the special prize at the international Galina Vishnevskaya Singing Competition.

The young Russian baritone Sergey Kaydalov has won numerous competitions, including the 2017 Minsk International Christmas Singing Competition, the 2017 Georgy Sviridov International Competition of Chamber Singing, the international Young voice of Siberia competition, and the Grand Prix at the International B.T. Shtokolov Vocal Competition in Saint Petersburg in 2018.
In 2019, he won the Queen Sonja International Music Competition in Oslo. In the 2018/19 season, Sergey Kaydalov was a soloist at the Mariinski Theatre in Saint Petersburg, with roles including Ivan Zhuran in Tchaikovsky’s The Enchantress.
Guest engagements in the 2018/19 season included Kudma in The Enchantress at the Opéra de Lyon. He made his house and role début at Cologne Opera in the 2019/20 season in Brett Dean’s Hamlet as Marcellus and Player 4. He joined the Wiener Staatsoper ensemble in the 2020/2021 season.

Born in Murmansk, Tatiana Pavlovskaya graduated from the St Petersburg State Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatoire and completed a post-graduate study and assistantship (with Professor Novichenko).
She has been a member of the Mariinsky Opera Company since her Mariinsky Theatre debut as Tatiana (Eugene Onegin) in 1994. This artist has performed at the world’s leading opera venues such as the Metropolitan Opera (New York), San Francisco Opera, the Washington Opera, La Scala (Milan), the Alte Oper (Frankfurt), Carnegie Hall (New York), the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), and the Bayerische Staatsoper, as well as at international festivals in Ravenna, Salzburg, Baden-Baden, Cincinnati, Glyndebourne and Cagliari (Italy).
She also took part in a gala concert at Buckingham Palace together with Plácido Domingo and the London Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Valery Gergiev.
Tatiana Pavlovskaya currently appears together with many internationally acclaimed ensembles including the New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Munich, Helsinki, Oslo and Stockholm philharmonic orchestras, the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia, the Moscow Virtuosi ensemble, the West German Radio Symphonieorchester, and Radio France’s Orchestre Symphonique.
She has performed under such outstanding conductors of the present day as Valery Gergiev, Vladimir Spivakov, Yuri Temirkanov, Semyon Bychkov, Mikhail Pletnev, Heinz Fricke, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Ion Marin, and James Conlon. In the 2009–2010 season, she took part in a performance of The Infernal Comedy starring John Malkovich.
Critics have described the singer’s vocal style as delicate and, at the same time, sensual and rich in shading and semitones, giving a deep quality to vocal compositions—undeniably confirming her status as one of today’s most outstanding artists. The New York Times notably compared her voice's rich and intense quality to that of ‘fine chocolate’.
Tatiana Pavlovskaya is represented by major recording companies including Deutsche Grammophon, Philips, DECCA, Dallas Records, OEHMS Classics, ArtHaus Musik, the Mariinsky label, and Glyndebourne.
For her stage work, she has been nominated for such prestigious international prizes as a Grammy (2001, for the role of Sofia in Sergei Prokofiev’s opera Semyon Kotko) and a BBC Music Magazine Award (2011, for the role of the Foreign Princess in Antonín Dvořák’s opera Rusalka).

Vyacheslav Vasilyev was born in 1989 in Krasnoyarsk Krai (Krasnoyarsk Region). He graduated from the Rimsky-Korsakov St Petersburg State Conservatory (with Nadezhda Drozdova-Weiner) in 2017.
He was a soloist of the Opera Company at the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre from 2016 to 2023. Since April 2023, he has been a soloist with St Petersburg’s Mariinsky Opera Company and a guest soloist at the Primorsky Stage.
In 2017, Vasilyev participated in the 1st International Eurasian Festival of High Classics in Crimea, and then in the project Academy of Young Opera Singers from Russia at the Monte Carlo Opera, where he took masterclasses from singers Roberto Alagna and José van Dam, conductor Jacques Lacombe, director and choreographer Adriano Sinivia and many others.
In 2018, the artist made his debut at St Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theatre, appearing as Giorgio Germont in La traviata.
In May 2019, he participated in guest performances of The Tsar’s Bride (directed by Vyacheslav Starodubtsev) at the Moscow Concert Hall Zaryadye and Mariinsky-2, portraying Grigory Gryaznoy under the baton of Valery Gergiev. In November 2019, as part of the Primorsky Stage Company, Vasilyev sang at the Buryat State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre in Ulan-Ude, appearing as Lord Henry Ashton (in a concert performance of Lucia di Lammermoor) and Grigory Gryaznoy.
In July 2021, he made his debut at the Moscow State Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theatre, portraying Count Tomsky in The Queen of Spades.
In October 2022, the singer performed the role of Count di Luna in Il trovatore for the first time at the Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre (Baku). In March 2023, he portrayed Macbeth at the Moscow State Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theatre and appeared at Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Concert Hall.