The works of the outstanding composer César Cui (1835–1918), whose name will forever be remembered in music history, are yet to be rediscovered and fully appreciated. Cui was a rare type, one of those universal prodigies who throughout his career combined seemingly irreconcilable talents as an artist and military academic. Cui’s life was shaped by an astonishingly unique outlook that was predisposed to an organic synthesis of various cultural traditions and styles. The composer was born in the city of Vilna (now Vilnius in Lithuania)

César Cui spent much time writing music reviews: between 1864 and 1890, he wrote for a number of major Russian and foreign newspapers. As a critic he advocated the views of the Mighty Handful and, in doing so, propagated the innovative trends in the works of Borodin, Musorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov.

The concert pianists Maria Ivanova and Alexander Zagarinskiy were born in Moscow.

They studied at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow and at the Berlin University of the Arts, the Mozarteum
University of Salzburg and the Lübeck College of Music. They were taught by the likes of Sergei Dorensky, Victor
Merzhanov, Evelinde Trenkner and Hans Leygraf.

In 2004, the two pianists decided to team up as a piano duo. Since then, the duo’s concert schedule has just got
busier and busier.

They have been highly acclaimed by the press: “… Impressed by their sentimental account and technical perfection,
the spectators lavished rapturous applause on the duo…” – Vechernyaya Moskva