Russian flautist Anna Kondrashina has been hailed as one of the most communicative, exciting and inspiring performers of her generation. A prizewinner of several prestigious competitions around the world, such as the Kobe International Flute Competition in Japan and the Nicolet International Flute Competition in China, she has recently been awarded the Worshipful Company of Musicians Silver Medal in the UK.
Her international career and reputation growing rapidly, Anna has performed as soloist with the Buchmann-Mehta Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Zubin Mehta and the Kobe City Chamber Orchestra with Hiroshi Sekiya, to name a few.
She is frequently invited to perform as principal and section flautist with numerous esteemed ensembles, such as the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the Arch Sinfonia Orchestra, London, Persimfans Orchestra, Russia and has worked with notable conductors such as Sir Mark Elder, Trevor Pinnock, David Afkham and Daniel Oren. In 2018 Anna has been selected to join the London Philharmonic Orchestra Foyle Future Firsts Development Programme and the following year was awarded a place on the Philharmonia Orchestra MMSF Instrumental Fellowship Programme.
Anna regularly appears at some of the most prestigious venues around the world including the Wigmore Hall, St. James’s Piccadilly, St Martins in the Field, Royal Festival and Queen Elizabeth Halls, London, the Great Hall at the Moscow Conservatory and the Suntory Hall in Tokyo and has collaborated with renowned artists including Rachel Podger, Denis Bouriakov and Vag Papian. Since 2018 Anna been a Concordia Foundation artist.
Apart from her exciting career as a modern flautist, Anna has a very keen interest in historical performance. She was one of the founding members of the “Musica Aurora” chamber baroque ensemble that has toured extensively in Russia and Germany. Their first public appearance took place in 2012 with the programme “Plaisirs de Paris” and was received with great acclaim by both the audiences and critics who appreciated the extraordinary high professional level of the musicians and the sensitivity and deep emotionality of their performance. Anna has appeared with various baroque ensembles around the world, such as Pratum Integrum, La Villa Barocca, Jerusalem Baroque Orchestra and regularly appears at notable baroque music festivals, such as Utrecht Early Music Festival, MA Festival in Brugge, Belgium, ”Bach&Bacco” in Italy and the International Early Music Seminar in Israel. In the UK she has performed as part of the Kohn Foundation Bach Cantatas series at the Royal Academy of Music. In 2019 Anna performed the first flute in Bach’s Matthew’s Passion, directed by Trevor Pinnock. During her time at the Royal Academy, Anna has had lessons with the renowned baroque flautist Lisa Beznosiuk.
Born in Moscow, Anna began her primary education at the prestigious Gnessin School of Music, which she followed with a Bachelors degree from the world famous Moscow Tchaikovsky State Conservatory under the tutelage of Olga Ivusheikova, excelling on both modern and baroque flutes. Anna has received an Artist’s Diploma from the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music in Tel Aviv, winning the Adler-Buchmann Scholarship Award for outstanding foreign student. In 2017 Anna received the honour of a full scholarship to study the Master of Arts in Performance programme at the Royal Academy of Music, London, with the renowned flautist William Bennett. Her studies were generously made possible by the Future of Russia Foundation and Khodorkovsky Foundation. Upon her graduation with distinction from the Royal Academy, Anna received numerous awards for her studies, including the Dip Ram title and the Marjorie & Dorothy Whyte memorial Fund award for all her achievements during her time at the institution. Anna now lives in London, UK, and plays on an Altus flute with a Mancke headjoint, generously donated to her by Jane Elizabeth Bass.