Vladislav V. Vals

Vladislav Valeryevich Vals is one of the most brilliant and talented saxophonists in Russia. A virtuoso musician and an outstanding teacher, he is Professor in the Woodwind Department of the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music, devoting much of his time to training students and actively promoting the saxophone in Russia.

Having received an excellent education in Russia and abroad, Vladislav Valeryevich has combined the traditions of the Russian and European schools of saxophone playing to create his own distinctive performing style. In recognition of this, in 1999 he was awarded First Prize at one of the world’s most prestigious events, the International A. K. Glazunov Saxophone Competition.

He began his teaching career in 2000 as a teacher at the M. I. Glinka Magnitogorsk State Conservatoire.

Vladislav Valeryevich has taught at the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music since 2011.

He became an Associate Professor in the Woodwind Department and has served as a Professor since 2013.

Vladislav Vals is deeply committed to concert and educational work and collaborates with leading symphony and chamber ensembles and conductors. He has performed in more than 50 Russian cities, including Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Birobidzhan, Vladivostok, Abakan, Petropavlovsk‑Kamchatsky, Kazan, Almetyevsk, St Petersburg, Magnitogorsk, Prokopyevsk, Verkhneuralsk, Novosibirsk, Salekhard, Noyabrsk, Penza, Arkhangelsk, Novorossiysk, Nalchik, Sochi, Simferopol, Nizhny Novgorod, Kemerovo, Lipetsk, Murmansk, Nefteyugansk, Nevinnomyssk, Novokuznetsk, Bratsk, Kislovodsk, Omsk, Krasnodar, Vladikavkaz, Volgodonsk, Kurgan, Rostov‑on‑Don, Zheleznovodsk, Kirov, Samara, Ufa, Voronezh, Perm, Norilsk, Volgograd, Krasnoyarsk, Saratov, Tyumen, Irkutsk, Khabarovsk, Saransk, Feodosiya and many others, as well as in concert halls across the USA, England, France, Romania, Austria, Spain, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, China and other countries.

Vladislav Vals has appeared as a soloist with many of the country’s leading orchestras, including:

• Samara Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra (conductor Mikhail Shcherbakov);
• Krasnoyarsk Academic Symphony Orchestra (conductor Lin Tao);
• Moscow State Academic Symphony Orchestra (conductor Aleksei Khodorshenkov);
• Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Nizhny Novgorod Philharmonic (conductor Vladimir Ziva);
• Novosibirsk Academic Symphony Orchestra (conductor Yuri Tkachenko);
• State Chamber Orchestra «The Seasons» (conductor Vladislav Bulakhov);
• Ural Academic Philharmonic Orchestra (conductor Aleksei Dorkin);
• Khakass Republican Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra (conductor Vyacheslav Inkizhekov);
• Krasnodar Philharmonic Orchestra (conductor Pavel Aznauryan);
• Chamber Orchestra of the Dagestan State Philharmonic (conductor Stanislav Khrzhanovsky);
• Chamber Orchestra of the Sochi Philharmonic (conductor Ivan Ivanov);
• Chamber Orchestra of the Astrakhan Philharmonic (conductor Vladislav Ivanovsky);
• Ryazan Governor’s Symphony Orchestra (conductor Sergei Aselkov), among many others.

Vladislav Vals has been invited to perform solo parts with the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Russian Federation under Evgeny Svetlanov, the State Academic Symphony Chapel of Russia under Valery Polyansky, the orchestra of the Moscow «Novaya Opera» Theatre under Jan Latham‑Koenig, the State Philharmonic Orchestra under Gennady Rozhdestvensky, the Vadim Sudakov State Chapel of Moscow under Anatoly Sudakov and others.

Vladislav Vals has appeared with great success in solo programmes in many of Russia’s foremost concert halls, including:

• the Grand Hall of the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory;
• the Grand Concert Hall of the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music;
• the Small and Rachmaninov Halls of the Moscow Conservatory;
• the Svetlanov and Chamber Halls of the Moscow International House of Music;
• the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall;
• the Grand Concert Hall of the Moscow House of Composers;
• the Arkhipovsky Music Salon;
• the Concert Hall of the St Petersburg State Academic Capella;
• the concert halls of the Samara, Novosibirsk, Sverdlovsk, Tyumen, Tatar, Pomor, Perm, Saratov, Omsk, Irkutsk, Sakhalin, Bashkir, Khakass, Krasnodar, Volgograd, Chelyabinsk, Mordovia and Krasnoyarsk State Philharmonic Societies.

He has taken part in a charity project of the Ministry of Culture of Russia and the Russian Cultural Foundation entitled «With Love to You, North Caucasus!».

He has also appeared at international and all‑Russian festivals, including:

• «Russian Culture in Italy»;
• the Russian Art Festival in Cannes (France); «Golden Autumn in the Kremlin» (Moscow, Russia);
• «Stars in the Kremlin» (Moscow);
• the International «Golden Autumn» Festival in the Grand Concert Hall of the Moscow House of Composers;
• the «Vozvrashchenie» («Return») Chamber Music Festival at the Moscow Conservatory;
• «Luchezarny Angel» (Moscow);
• the «Talents of the Twenty‑First Century» Festival in Samara;
• the Russian Art Festival in Romania (Bucharest);
• the Russian Art Festival in Spain (Barcelona);
• the «White Nights» Music Festival (Arkhangelsk);
• jazz festivals in Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk and Yekaterinburg.

Vladislav Vals has appeared in concert programmes in the Republics of Buryatia, Khakassia and Dagestan and throughout the North Caucasus, has given a series of recitals in cities of the Ural Federal District, the Kamchatka Territory and across the Kemerovo Region, and has taken part in concert tours of Italy (Florence, Milan, Venice, Pisa, Lucca) and the USA (New York, West Virginia, Boston, Georgia), as well as an extensive solo tour of China (Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Shenyang, Harbin, Guangzhou, Qingdao, Dalian).

Vladislav Valeryevich Vals combines an intensive concert schedule with equally intensive teaching, ensuring a high standard of professional training for students of the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music. His students are frequent prize‑winners at prestigious all‑Russian and international woodwind performance competitions.

V. V. Vals is regularly invited to serve as chair or member of the juries of international and all‑Russian competitions and gives masterclasses in various regions of Russia and abroad (Moscow, Yekaterinburg, Magnitogorsk, Perm, Kemerovo, Abakan, Vladivostok, Petropavlovsk‑Kamchatsky, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Prague (Czech Republic), Georgia and West Virginia (USA), Vienna (Austria), Beijing and Shanghai (China) and other cities).

Vladislav Valeryevich is a regular participant in educational programmes of the Russian Cultural Foundation, the «New Names» Foundation and the «Sirius» Educational Centre of the «Talent and Success» Foundation.

Since 2014 Vladislav Valeryevich Vals has been an official artist of Yamaha Music.

He has been commended by the Head of Administration of the city of Penza for organising and delivering the «Travelling Academy of Arts» programme and for his substantial personal contribution to the development of aesthetic education of children and young people, and has received an Honorary Diploma from the Ministry of Culture of the Kamchatka Territory for his outstanding professionalism, many years of collaboration and participation in Creative Schools for gifted children, young people and teachers.

For his significant contribution to the development of musical art and his extensive educational and concert activities, Vladislav Valeryevich Vals received a Letter of Appreciation from the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation in 2002.