In memory of the greats: How Moscow’s art schools preserve the legacy of the classics

Today, almost 6,500 educators teach classes at 153 children's art schools and specialized institutions of additional creative education in the capital. Many of them are People’s and Honored Artists of Russia, Honored Workers of Culture of Russia and Honored Workers of Culture of Moscow, says Deputy Moscow Mayor Natalya Sergunina.

“More than 20 per cent of the teaching staff are young people. That is every fifth teacher. Despite their age, they have achieved great results as they are prize winners of Russian and international competitions,” she said.

According to her, young teachers, in addition to their core employment, perform on major stages in the country and around the world. For example, Angelina Gvozdareva, a teacher at the Children's Music School with the Moscow State College of Musical Performance named after Frederic Chopin, is a two-time laureate of the Moscow Prize and a first-degree Moscow Mayor's grant awardee, a winner of the 7th International Yampolsky Competition and international violin contests.  She was also awarded gold medals at the 14th and 16th Youth Delphic Games Russia and the 10th Open Youth Delphic Games CIS. As a soloist of the Moscow State Academic Philharmonia, Angelina performed in Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev and other concert halls.

Meanwhile, balalaika player Andrey Pypin teaches at Stravinsky Children's Art School and often participates in the school orchestra’s concerts not only in the capital but also in other cities across Russia and Belarus. The musician is a prize-winner of various specialized competitions, including the Balalaika in a Tailcoat national competition and festival.

Young specialist Ekaterina Miroshkina teaches academic vocals at Shebalin Children's Music School.  Previously, she was a Bolshoi Theater choirmaster, was in charge of the music department at the Firebird Moscow State Puppet Theater and founded the choir chapel called LuxMundi.

Moscow’s art schools preserve the legacy of the classics

Metropolitan art schools are named after great musicians and artists. In memory of the classics, specialists arranged school-based museums with valuable artifacts, historical documents, ancient instruments and personal belongings of Russian geniuses.

Some children's art schools and specialized institutions of additional creative education are located in historical places in Moscow. For example, at the intersection of Znamenka Street and Krestovozdvizhensky Pereulok, there is a majestic Empire style edifice with Ionic columns and a mezzanine. Over the course of more than three centuries, the former Apraksin-Buturlin estate has changed several owners. In fact, it was home to an associate of Peter the Great, Fyodor Apraksin, Count Roman Vorontsov and other statesmen. It also witnessed rehearsals by the opera troupe of Giovanni Belmonti and Giuseppe Cinti and performances by the Znamensky Opera Theater. Ivan Turgenev, Nikolai Karamzin and Leo Tolstoy used to visit it. Today it accommodates students of the Gnessin Moscow Special School of Music.

During the restoration, architects restored the façade and interior of the building on Znamenka Street using 19th-century drawings, from the hand-assembled parquet flooring to antique stoves to window bolts. This way, music and classical architecture merged there in one building.

Another mansion, which belonged to the family of outstanding composer Sergei Taneyev, hosts the same-name children’s school of music and a museum. The hall in the historical part of the building on Chisty Pereulok, where he used to live and work, is dedicated to the history of the Taneyev family, while the rest part is occupied by classrooms and two memorial offices. One of them displays Taneyev’s works, historical documents and other exhibits, and the other room is dedicated to his teachers Anton and Nikolai Rubinsteins and Pyotr Tchaikovsky, who visited the Taneyevs’ house more than once.

In 2014, the old estate was restored to return its historical façade. A three-story school building was built nearby. In the courtyard, workers recreated a building that was called a coach class. The school orchestra also holds classes and rehearses here.

Sergei Taneyev was a very modest man and did not have things of value, so exhibits for the museum were collected bit by bit in archives and libraries. Last year it got a donation of a music book with the composer’s autograph, which had been bought at auction. Once Taneyev gave it to one of his admirers, whose descendants decided to sell the priceless rarity. Today the museum houses about a hundred artifacts and documents, although the central exhibit is certainly the house itself Marina Valitova teacher at the Taneyev Children's School of Music

Richter Room and “live” Schnittke Museum

Some famous musicians were friends with creative educational institutions, giving concerts and lessons there. Outstanding conductor and composer Evgeny Svetlanov often visited the art school in Kulakov Pereulok, which was later named in his honor. Today, Svetlanov Children's Art School has a Svetlanov memorial room, which also holds classes.

For twenty years great pianist Svyatoslav Richter performed in the Grand Hall of the School of Arts on Kashirskoye Highway. After the concert, he liked to have rest by the samovar in the artists’ room, which he called his own. Today it houses a memorial museum where you can see photographs, records, concert programs, autographs and other rarities from the personal archive of the legendary musician and his wife Nina Dorliak.

Last year, one of the Svyatoslav Richter school’s educational buildings was renovated under the Art for Children project, young musicians and their teachers enjoying new furniture, musical instruments, technological and educational equipment.

The life and creative path of the greatest contemporary composer Alfred Schnittke is inextricably linked with the Moscow State Institute of Music (MGIM) on Marshal Sokolovsky Street, which was named after Schnittke. A brilliant musician who graduated with honors from the conducting and choral department of the October Revolution Music School (that was its name at the time) and a conservatory graduate, he returned there as a teacher.

Already a world-famous musician, Schnittke was always keeping in touch with students and teachers, sharing his knowledge. After the maestro died, his widow and muse Irina Schnittke donated to the institute the entire furnishings of her husband’s Moscow and Hamburg offices and his personal belongings. Today, its branch, the Schnittke Center, is the only and the world’s largest research laboratory that studies the composer’s legacy.

It is not by chance that the institute is commonly known as the Alfred Schnittke House. All the furnishings and artifacts in the Moscow and Hamburg offices, such as a desk, a piano, a lamp, books, albums, magazines, records, paintings, icons and a collection of awards, are arranged exactly as they were during the composer's lifetime. Moreover, it is a “live” museum as it has no barriers or glass. It also hosts classes, symposiums, scientific forums and concerts, while students can come at any time to listen to recordings, look at scores and learn about the great master’s work Anna Alyabyeva Head of the Department of Philosophy, History, Theory of Culture and Art, Schnittke MGIM

Museum of Guitar and Balakirev's piano

Ivanov-Kramskoy Children's Music School on Academician Vinogradov Street invites to its guitar museum,  which was founded by the famous musician’s daughter, Natalia Ivanova-Kramskaya. Its collection includes personal belongings of Alexander Ivanov-Kramskoy, rare posters and newspaper articles about his work, musical notation, lutes and vihuelas from the 12th and later centuries, in addition to materials and documents related to contemporary guitar art.

In 2021, the school was renovated under the Art for Children project to get acoustic panels, new flooring, doors, stair railings, air conditioners, lighting fixtures, musical instruments, furniture and equipment.

Meanwhile, Balakirev Children's Art School on Ferganskaya Street give concerts featuring an antique piano.  Outstanding composer and teacher Mily Balakirev once gave this Becker instrument to Alexey Timofeev who is known as the author of the romance Weeping Willows Are Sleeping. His descendants donated the piano to the school, and it is now one of the most valuable exhibits at the Museum of Art Education dedicated to Balakirev.

In fact, Mily Balakirev founded Russia’s first-ever free music school, headed the well-known “Mighty Handful” of composers and united people not only with his talent but also with his significant social efforts. For more than 20 years, our employees have been collecting historical documents, music albums and books, photographs, textbooks and other items related to the life and work of Balakirev and his associates. In addition to the Becker piano, the museum also keeps his photograph that our students’ parents bought ten years ago at an auction in Europe. Olga Smirnova Director, Balakirev Children's Art School

The museum collection also includes crystal apples made in the city of Gus-Khrustalny. This gift has a symbolic meaning because the name Mily is of ancient Greek origin and means “apple tree”.

The school is being revamped as part of the Art for Children project, so Balakirev Museum will move to the historic school building on Novokuzminskaya Street.

Conductor's baton and unique matryoshka doll

Other art schools in Moscow, which are named in the honor of legendary musicians preserve the memory of them, too. For instance, the museum at Stravinsky Children's Art School on Mitinskaya Street displays many copies of documents, photographs and letters of the “Igor the Great”, as the composer’s contemporaries used to call him. A central display is however presents more than 150 photographs from the personal archive of Tikhon Khrennikov and Karen Khachaturian, who welcomed Stravinsky in the USSR in 1962. After the large-scale reconstruction of the art school, the area of the building increased fivefold.

In the museum of Kalinin Children's School of Music in Kapotnya, one can see the concert tailcoat and conductor's baton of Nikolai Kalinin, and in the memorial room of Nikolai Rubinstein, founder of the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, at Rubinstein Art School on Verkhnyaya Krasnoselskaya Street, there are documents, photographs and recollections of contemporaries about the great pianist.

One of the most remarkable museums, the Turner’s House, is located in the Babenskaya Craft Toy Children’s Art School, not far from the village of Babenki, where the unique folk craft originated in the 2nd half of the 19th century. It displays turning tools, including a handicraft machine from the early 20th century, and more than 1,000 wooden toys that were extremely popular in Russia and abroad. The museum shelves are decorated with bright pyramids, fairy-tale mushrooms, painted nesting dolls, multi-piece Easter eggs, wooden lotto pieces and other handmade items.

Our art school was built to preserve the craft of Babenskaya toys as the production line shut down in the 1990s. The museum's founder and school teacher Sergei Vidanov collected historical documents, lathes and product samples and created an impressive collection, which is presented in the exhibition hall on the ground floor. We have about 200 types of matryoshka dolls, including a 30-piece one, and unique spillikins in hazelnut shells. Such miniature toys have never been produced anywhere else Anna Vidanova Head of the Academic Department, Babenskaya Craft Toy Children's Art School