The Eighth Sergei Taneyev International Competition of Chamber Ensembles

03 September 2025 - 30 November 2025 |

1. General Provisions

1.1. The full official name of the competition is The Eighth Sergei Taneyev International Competition
of Chamber Ensembles (hereinafter to be referred to as “the 8^th Taneyev Competition”).

1.2. The competition, named All-Russian Competition of Chamber Ensembles, was first held in the City of Kaluga
in 1996. Its founders were: Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory (hereinafter to be referred to as
“the Conservatory”), Russia’s Gnessins Academy of Music, Russia’s Art of Performance Public Foundation, Russia’s Union of Composers, Moscow Composers’ Union, Chamber Music Association affiliated with the International Union of Musicians, Russia’s Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Kaluga Oblast, and the Roskontsert State Federal Budgetary Institution of Culture. Since 2002, the official name of the competition has been Sergei Taneyev International Competition of Chamber Ensembles (hereinafter to be referred to as “the Taneyev International Competition”). Since 2025, the sole founder of the Taneyev Competition has been the Conservatory.

1.3. The dates of the 8^th Taneyev Competition are from 3 September until 30 November 2025 inclusive.

1.4. Program of the 8^th Taneyev Competition (see the list of possible chamber ensembles in Clause 4.5 below):

1.4.1. Round One (eliminating, by video-recordings; the performance has to last no shorter than 15 minutes and no longer than 25 minutes) — two pieces:

(1) the 1^st movement of any work for chamber ensemble composed before 1830 inclusive;
(2) any movement of any work for chamber ensemble composed by Sergei Taneyev.

1.4.2. Round Two (the performance has to last no longer than 40 minutes) — two works for chamber ensemble composed before 1900 inclusive, either an entire work or its separate movements:

(1) a work composed by a Russian author;
(2) a work composed by a Western-European author.

1.4.3. Round Three (the performance has to last no longer than 60 minutes) — two works:

(1) any entire work for chamber ensemble composed by Sergei Taneyev;
(1A) if the ensemble is piano four hands, the 1^st movement of Taneyev’s Symphony in C minor has to be performed (arranged by the author, edited by Vladimir Leyechkis);
(2) any academic work for chamber ensemble composed after 1900, either an entire work or its separate movements.

2. Prizes of the 8^th Taneyev Competition

2.1. The Organizing Committee of the 8^th Taneyev Competition (hereinafter to be referred to as “the Organizing Committee”: see Clause 8.1) is to announce seven monetary prizes for the laureates and three monetary prizes
for the diploma winners:

(1) First Prize in the amount of 180,000 (one hundred and eighty thousand) rubles;
(2) Second Prize in the amount of 150,000 (one hundred and fifty thousand) rubles;
(3) Third Prize in the amount of 120,000 (one hundred and twenty thousand) rubles;
(4) Fourth Prize in the amount of 90,000 (ninety thousand) rubles;
(5) Nikolai Rubinstein Special Prize For the Best Performance of Nineteenth-century Chamber Music
in the amount of 50,000 (fifty thousand) rubles;
(6) Tatiana Gaydamovich Prize For the Best Performance of a Nineteenth-century Chamber Music Piece Composed by a Russian Author in the amount of 25,000 (twenty-five thousand) rubles;
(7) Tigran Alikhanov Prize For the Best Performance of a Chamber Music Piece Composed after 1900
in the amount of 25,000 (twenty-five thousand) rubles;
(8–10) three diplomas in the amount of 20,000 (twenty thousand) rubles each.

2.2. An entire amount of every winning ensemble’s prize is to be paid jointly to one of its musicians.

2.3. Upon the Organizing Committee’s consent, public organizations, foundations, mass media and/or individuals may establish any additional prizes, awards and/or gifts for the competing ensembles. The decision to award any special prizes and/or gifts will be made by the Jury Team of Rounds Two and Three (see Clause 3.1.2).

2.4. All the prizes will be paid to the winning ensembles in rubles, tax deducted under Russia’s legislation.

3. The Jury Teams of the 8^th Taneyev Competition

3.1. The Organizing Committee is to appoint two teams of the 8^th Taneyev Competition Jury (hereinafter to be referred to as “the Jury Teams”):

3.1.1. the Jury Team of Round One are to approve the list of participants of Round Two upon results
of watching the applying ensembles’ video-recorded performances of their Round One program (hereinafter
to be referred to as “the Video Recording”: see Clause 5.2);
3.1.2. the Jury Team of Rounds Two and Three are to award the prizes upon results of listening
to the competing ensembles’ public performances.

Jury Team of Round One (Russia):

Alexander Bonduryansky, Chairman
Irina Men'kova, Deputy Chairman
Xenia Bashmet
Irina Krasotina
Konstantin Maslyuk
Maxim Puryzhinsky
Vitaly Yunitsky

Jury Team of Rounds Two and Three:

Alexander Bonduryansky (Russia), Chairman
Konstantin Maslyuk (Russia), Deputy Chairman
Irina Anastasyeva (Russia)
Farhad Badalbayli (Azerbaijan)
Vladimir Bal'shin (Russia)
Alexandra Frantseva (Russia)
Yuri Gil'dyuk (Belarus)
Alexei Vassilyev (Russia)
Zhang Kailin (China)

3.2. The results of each round are to be announced publicly as soon as it ends and then published
on the Conservatory’s official website.

3.3. The Jury Team of Rounds Two and Three may, at their own discretion:

3.3.1. award not all of the prizes and/or diplomas;
3.3.2. divide the amounts of any prizes and/or diplomas between several winning ensembles within the limits of the established prize fund;
3.3.3. share the monetary part of non-awarded prizes and/or diplomas between the ensembles that win any other prizes, within the limits of the established prize fund;
3.3.4. award any other special prizes (see Clause 2.3).

3.4. All decisions of both Jury Teams are final and irrevocable.

3.5. Upon a decision of the Jury Team of Rounds Two and Three, any competing ensemble’s performance may be shortened or stopped.

3.6. No member of both Jury Teams, including the chairperson, may vote for any competing ensembles whose musicians officially have been/were his/her students during the three years immediately preceding the 8^th Taneyev Competition. Should such a case take place, the respective member of the Jury Team must notify the Organizing Committee thereon in writing prior to the beginning of the auditions.

4. Procedure for Holding the 8^th Taneyev Competition

4.1. Any ensemble may participate in the 8^th Taneyev Competition if all of its musicians have reached the age
of 16 full years by 3 September 2025.

4.2. No teacher of the applying ensemble may participate in the 8^th Taneyev Competition as one of this ensemble’s musicians.

4.3. No musician of any ensemble who has applied for participation in the 8^th Taneyev Competition may apply for participation in the 8^th Taneyev Competition as the musician of any other ensemble.

4.4. No ensemble that won First Prize at any preceding Taneyev International Competition may participate
in the 8^th Taneyev Competition if all the musicians of this ensemble are the same.

4.5. The following eight categories of chamber ensemble are to be admitted to participate in the 8^th Taneyev Competition:

(1) piano duo 1 — piano four hands;
(2) piano duo 2 — two pianos;
(3) sonata duo — violin and piano (no other instruments of this duo are admitted);
(4) piano trio (violin, cello, piano);
(5) string trio (violin, viola, cello);
(6) string quartet (two violins, viola, cello);
(7) piano quartet (violin, viola, cello, piano);
(8) piano quintet (two violins, viola, cello, piano).

4.6. The 8^th Taneyev Competition consists of three rounds. Round One is an eliminating contest of the submitted Video Recordings (see Clauses 3.1.1 and 5.2). Rounds Two and Three are held publicly.

4.7.1. The Jury Team of Round One is to admit a maximum of twenty ensembles for Round Two.
4.7.2. The Jury Team of Rounds Two and Three is to admit a maximum of twelve ensembles for Round Three.

4.8.1. The musicians of all the ensembles admitted to participate in Round Two of the 8^th Taneyev Competition must personally attend the organizational meeting (hereinafter to be referred to as “the Initial Meeting”)
on 24 November 2025 at 11:00 in Room 210 of the Conservatory’s Great Hall Building.
4.8.2. The drawing of lots is to be held during the Initial Meeting in order to establish the unified sequence
of the competing ensembles’ performances. Also, a registration fee is to be paid during the Initial Meeting
by the Organizing Committee’s instruction.

4.9. The sequence of the competing ensembles’ performances in Rounds Two and Three is to be determined
upon results of the drawing of lots and remains unchanged until the end of the 8^th Taneyev Competition, omitting
the withdrawn ensembles’ counting numbers.

4.10. The musicians of each competing ensemble are to determine the sequence of performing the pieces on their program in Rounds Two and Three themselves.

4.11. Schedule of the 8^th Taneyev Competition (the Conservatory’s Small Hall):

• 24 November (Monday), 19:00: Opening Ceremony
• 25–26 November (Tuesday-Wednesday), 10:00–17:00: Round Two
• 27 November (Thursday), 10:00–17:00: Auditions of the ensembles that are willing to apply for Nikolai Rubinstein Special Prize
• 28–29 November (Friday-Saturday), 10:00–17:00: Round Three

Information about the workshops of the Competition will be published later.

4.12. An award ceremony and a concert of the 8^th Taneyev Competition’s winning ensembles (hereinafter to be referred to as “the Final Concert”) will be held on 30 November 2025 at 14:00 in the Conservatory’s Small Hall.

4.13. All the winning ensembles of the 8^th Taneyev Competition must perform at the Final Concert with no remuneration. In case of refusal to participate in the Final Concert with no valid reason, the prize awarded
to the winning ensemble will not be paid.

5. Submission of the online applications and the Video Recording

5.1. In order to participate in the 8^th Taneyev Competition, the musicians of each applying ensemble must:

5.1.1. enter their personal information in the online application form (hereinafter to be referred to as
“the Application”) and insert the scanned copies of the following documents into its respective fields:
5.1.2. the front pages of all the applicants’ passports or other identifying documents (with each holder’s photo and signature) — as PDF files;
5.1.3. one collective artistic photo of the applying ensemble taken against a neutral background with
a minimum resolution of 300 dpi — as a JPG file;
5.1.4. the applicants’ certificates of everyone’s music education and/or certificates from their respective educational institutions (if students), either in Russian or in English, — as PDF files;
5.1.5. a brief artistic portfolio of the applying ensemble, including information about the group’s teachers, participation in any other competitions of chamber ensembles (including the year, venue and award),
as well as any other information that the applying ensemble’s musicians consider essential for the Organizing Committee, — as a DOC/DOCX file.

5.2. In addition, every ensemble applying for participation in the 8^th Taneyev Competition must submit their
Video Recording (see Сlause 3.1.1) in the form of a valid URL link to one of the following three “cloud” services: google.com, mail.ru, or yandex.ru. The obligatory technical requirements are as follows:

(1) the video has to be recorded as a single frame of still camera: no editing is allowed;
(2) the link must open one and the only video file of high density;
(3) only the AVI, MOV, WMV, or MP4 file formats are admitted;
(4) the video file may not be downloaded on any streaming video hosting (e.g. youtube.com, hulu.com, vimeo.com and the like).

5.3. Every applicant who is either a citizen or a permanent resident of Russia must submit three additional documents: see the 8^th Taneyev Competition webpage in Russian.

5.4. The deadline for submitting the Applications, the documents and the Video Recording in order to participate
in the 8^th Taneyev Competition is 1 September 2025.

5.5. The fact of forwarding the Applications and the Video Recording to the Organizing Committee (see
Clauses 5.1.1 and 5.2) means the applicants’ unconditional consent with all the terms of these Regulations.

5.6. The Organizing Committee may reject any Applications, documents and/or Video Recordings that do not meet any of the above-mentioned requirements.

5.7. In the event the applying ensemble refuses to participate in the 8^th Taneyev Competition after the Initial Meeting, the registration fee paid will not be refunded.

6. Financial Terms

6.1. The amount of the registration fee for participation in Round Two of the 8^th Taneyev Competition is to be
6000 (six thousand) Russian rubles from one ensemble.

6.2. All transportation and other expenses directly or indirectly related to participation in the 8^th Taneyev Competition have to be paid either by the competing musicians themselves or by their sponsoring organizations.

6.3. The Organizing Committee provides the musicians of the ensembles admitted to participate in Round Two
of the 8^th Taneyev Competition with free accommodation in the Conservatory’s dormitory for all the days
of the auditions (see Clause 4.11).

7. Special Provisions

7.1. The Conservatory is one and the only owner of an exclusive copyright for audio- and/or video-recording,
as well as for any TV and/or online broadcasts, of all the rounds and the Final Concert.

7.2. The competitors receive no remuneration for their performances during the 8^th Taneyev Competition;
nor are they paid any copyright for any usage of audio- and/or video-recording, as well as of any TV and/or online broadcasts, of any of their performances by the Conservatory.

7.3. These Regulations are published on the Conservatory’s official website, both in Russian and in English. Should any dispute or disagreement arise in the interpretation of any of the terms of these Regulations, the version published in Russian shall prevail.

8. Contact Information

8.1. The 8^th Taneyev Competition’s Organizing Committee is the Department for Festivals, Competitions and Special Events of Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory’s Center for Coordinating Artistic Projects.

8.1.1. Official telephone number: +7 (495) 055 5519.
8.1.2. Official e-mail address: artmosconsv@gmail.com
8.1.3. Official mailing address: 13 Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street, Moscow, 125009, Russia.