Svetlana A. Pavlova

Education: S. A. Pavlova (Cherkasova) graduated with honors from the piano and music theory departments of the 1st Moscow Regional Music College in Kolomna. She studied piano under Elena Dmitrievna Latysh, a graduate of the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music and a student of Professor Lina Borisovna Bulatova, PhD in Art History. Lessons with E. Latysh leave one with a sense of involvement in great art, «which contains everything: honesty, intellect, soul, kindness, and light» (A. Tsybuleva). Under the guidance of E. Latysh, she achieved her first victory at a regional piano competition.

She studied chamber ensemble in the class of Yuri Nikolaevich Mikheev. Y. Mikheev encouraged students to find common ground between themselves and the composer of the piece being studied, exploring the composer’s potential feelings and thoughts. For her graduation, she performed S. Rachmaninoff’s hymn «Christ is Risen!» (transposed by Y. Mikheev into a five-flat key for the convenience of the accompanist) and M. I. Glinka’s «Grand Sextet».

She studied music literature under Honored Worker of Culture of Russia Natalia Mikhailovna Kochetkova. It was N. Kochetkova who provided her with the opportunity for her first major publication in the literary journal Kolomensky Almanakh.

In 1996, S. A. Pavlova entered the Gnesin State Musical and Pedagogical Institute, and as a second-year student, she witnessed the Institute’s transformation into an Academy. This transition was based, in part, on programs developed by the Department of Modern Problems of Music Education, Science, and Culture, which was organized and headed by Yulia Konstantinovna Evdokimova. An outstanding scholar, educator, and vibrant creative personality, Y. Evdokimova was the author of fundamental textbooks and books that form the basis of university polyphony courses; she was a scholar of equal stature across many fields of musicology. Under the individual supervision of Y. K. Evdokimova, S. A. Cherkasova (Pavlova) completed her diploma thesis and subsequently her PhD dissertation, titled «Theory and Practice of Singing na podoben (Based on the Hymnography to Saint Nicholas)». The research material — sacred works in honor of St. Nicholas — and the core problem of singing na podoben were proposed by Y. K. Evdokimova. As noted by her supervisor during the dissertation defense, the research concept was developed by the author independently.

On the recommendation of her academic supervisor, S. A. Cherkasov (Pavlova), she was appointed to the Department of Music History under the leadership of Head of Department Tatyana Yuryevna Maslovskaya and Rector of the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music Mikhail Nikolayevich Sayamov (2007).

In 2020, S. A. Pavlova was awarded the academic rank of Associate Professor. She published the anthology Sacred Music of the Western European Middle Ages in Manuscript Sources of the 3rd-13th Centuries and the educational manual Singing «na podoben» in Russian Music of the  11th-18th Centuries.

Since 2022, S. Pavlova has begun publishing materials from her original lecture course on the history of 19th-century Russian opera (Glinka, Dargomyzhsky, Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky), with the material being presented and vetted at scientific conferences in leading Russian music universities (Gnesin Russian Academy of Music, Rimsky-Korsakov St. Petersburg State Conservatory, Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory, Glinka Novosibirsk State Conservatory, etc.).

Since 2001, S. A. Pavlova has been a participant in international conferences on musicology and eortology. As a researcher of the hymnography of St. Nicholas, she has contributed to comprehensive scholarly editions dedicated to the memory of the Saint in Byzantine and Slavic hagiography, hymnography, and iconography.

Also in 2001, the journal Musical Academy launched its scientific section «Spiritual Culture of the Fatherland» — initiated and curated by Prof. Y. K. Evdokimova, Doctor of Art History — with S. Pavlova’s article «The Glory of St. Nicholas in Rus: Feasts and Hymnography».

In 2007, with the blessing of Archimandrite Makary (Veretennikov), her article «Russian Services for the Nativity of St. Nicholas» was published in the journal Alpha and Omega, featuring the publication of the feast’s hymnography (manuscript texts of the 17th-18th centuries published for the first time).

In 2020, the journal Space of Culture published the only extant notated troparion for the Nativity of St. Nicholas, «Thy Wondrous and Glorious Nativity» (17th century), in S. A. Pavlova’s transcription from Znamenny notation to five-line staff notation.

In 2009, at the request of Prof. Bozhidar Petrovich Karastoyanov, a medievalist and fellow student of Y. K. Evdokimova at the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory, S. Pavlova organized his practical scientific seminars on Znamenny chant and Znamenny notation at the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music.

S. Pavlova’s educational and outreach activities also include:

• providing scholarly annotations and serving as a presenter for international festivals of the Union of Composers of the Russian Federation, including the 80th-anniversary celebration of M. S. Weinberg, «Music of Friends», «Moscow Autumn», and others;
• organizing jubilee concerts for V. N. Levko, A. A. Muravleva, A. L. Larina, Yu. N. Semashko, the International Symposium «The Organ in the 21st Century», the festivals in memory of A. A. Yurlov and S. Z. Trubachev, and the «Sounding World of Ancient Rus» festival of the Scientific and Archaeographic Council of the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music;
• the presentation of concert programs by the Osipov National Academic Orchestra of Folk Instruments at the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Philharmonic.

In 1997, S. Pavlova’s concert annotations caught the attention of Yuri Semyonovich Korev, editor-in-chief of the journal Sovetskaya Muzyka (now Musical Academy), a music publicist and member of the USSR Composers’ Union. At his invitation, she began collaborating as a music critic and researcher with this leading national musicological journal, for which she conducted an interview with Vladislav Igorevich Kazenin, Chairman of the Composers’ Union of the Russian Federation. S. Pavlova’s articles were included in the Musical Academy collection titled «Dedicated to the 40th Anniversary of the Composers’ Union of Russia».

As a music critic, she has also contributed to periodicals such as Music and Time, Russian Musical Gazette, Literary Gazette, and others. 

S. Pavlova has produced music programs for the radio stations Blago (Kolomna) and Radonezh (Moscow).

In 2023-2024, to mark the 150th anniversary of E. F. Gnesina, she presented an original series of radio programs on Radio Radonezh titled «The Gospel in the Monuments of Russian Opera: Glinka, Dargomyzhsky, Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky».

S. Pavlova views her work as a continuation of the school she underwent under the guidance of her parents — musicians Anatoly Valentinovich and Olga Vladimirovna Cherkasov — as well as her teachers and senior colleagues: Prof. Yu. K. Evdokimova, Doctor of Arts (specialty class, polyphony); M. A. Engovatova (folkloristics); N. S. Gulyanitskaya (harmony, development of the tonal system); Yu. V. Vasiliev (history of Russian music, source studies, archival practice); T. Yu. Maslovskaya (history of Russian music, Silver Age of Russian culture); I. P. Susidko (analysis of musical form, history of Baroque opera); T. V. Tsaregradskaya (contemporary musical systems); I. S. Stogniy (solfeggio, elementary music theory); M. I. Dubrovin (English language); T. M. Jani-Zade (non-European musical culture); and I. P. Shekhovtsova (Byzantine music). She also considers I. V. Levochkin, a paleographer, Doctor of Historical Sciences, professor, and head of the Manuscript Department at the Russian State Library, to be her mentor.

Following the precepts of her mentors, S. A. Pavlova integrates research and educational components into her lecture courses, drawing upon her own analysis of primary musical sources in dialogue with established scholarly traditions. This approach allows her to uncover new facets of musicology that demand responses that are both contemporary and timeless in their significance. 

Research Interests:

• Liturgical musicology;
• Eortology and hymnography;
• Historiosophy of musical art;
• History and theory of opera in Europe and Russia;
• History of early instrumental music in Europe and Russia;
• Works of M. I. Glinka, A. S. Dargomyzhsky, M. P. Mussorgsky, A. P. Borodin, P. I. Tchaikovsky, S. V. Rachmaninoff, M. S. Weinberg, G. V. Sviridov, and V. A. Gavrilin.

Academic and Professional Experience:

Research Fellow, Research Department of Manuscripts, Russian State Library (under the supervision of I. V. Levochkin, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, Head of the Manuscript Books Sector), 2003-2005.

Editor, Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra (during the orchestra’s 75th anniversary season; Artistic Director and Chief Conductor: V. I. Fedoseyev; Deputy Artistic Director: O. I. Dobrokhotova), 2005-2006.

Associate Professor, Department of Music History, Gnesin Russian Academy of Music (Heads of Department: T. Yu. Maslovskaya, D. K. Kirnarskaya), 2007 — present.

list of publications