The Ural Philharmonic Orchestra

Orchestra

Ural Philharmonic Orchestra (UPO) is a full orchestra based in Ekaterinburg and considered to be one of the major and best orchestras in Russia and in Europe. UPO was formed by Mark Paverman in 1934 as the Orchestra of the Sverdlovsk Radio. In 1992 it received the new name - 'Ural Philharmonic Orchestra'. In 1995 it was given an "academic" title (this title is conferred to the best theater companies and orchestras of Russia). So its full name is the Ural Academic Philharmonic Orchestra.

During its 70-year history UPO was led A.Margulyan, A.Fridlender, A.Kogan, N.Chunikhin, A.Chistyakov, A.Boreiko. Dmitry Liss has been the principal conductor of the UPO since 1995.

The Orchestra lived behind the «Iron Curtain». It was performing in the «closed city» – the capital of a strategically important region with huge mineral, manufacturing and intellectual resources. The most prominent musicians of the Soviet Union – conductors, soloists and composers – worked with the Orchestra. In the new political situation the Orchestra made a real breakthrough into the outer world. During the last decade, when the opportunity of touring and inviting the foreign musicians appeared, the name of the UPO has become well-known in many countries.

The UPO works harder than any other. It is the only orchestra in Russia that gives more than 100 concerts annually. The UPO is the main resident orchestra of all the musical festivals of the Sverdlovsk State Philarmony.

In 2000-s the UPO gave some dozens of concerts in Germany, Austria, France, Japan, Switzerland, Spain, Italy and other countries and had many honourable mentions in the press (La Semaine, La Liberte, Sueddeutche Zeitung etc). In 2005 at the Arsenal Hall (Metz, France) the UPO with the famous pianist Boris Berezovsky recorded an album for a French producer Rene Martin. In 2005 the orchestra took part in  the federal project "Europalia Russia" – Days of Russian Cultural in Belgium. In 2006 it played in Pleyel (Paris). UPO was the unique Russian orchestra, which represented Russia at the festivals "Les folles journees" by Rene Martin.

The UPO is famous for his collaboration with Emil Gilels, Nikolai Petrov, Denis Matsuev, Gidon Kremer, Vladimir Spivakov, Mstislav Rostropovich, Natalia Gutman, Valery Gergiev and many others.