Faculty
Our Faculty Team
Pre-college faculty
Yuri Bondarev, born in St. Petersburg, switched to the viola after studying violin at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” in Berlin and was accepted into the class of Prof. Tatjana Masurenko at the Leipzig Musikhochschule, where he also took his concert exam. Since 2012 he teaches as a lecturer for violin, viola and chamber music at the International Music Academy Anton Rubinstein,
Contacts:
Yuri Bondarev
Viola / violin
Misha Nodelman is a master violinist who joined the Russian musical elite at an early age. His effortless masterly violin playing and deep musicality make every concert with him an event. Misha Nodelman is first concertmaster of the Neue Philharmonie Westfalen, an international prize winner and has been teaching as an assistant to Prof. Zakhar Bron in Cologne since 2006. Since the winter semester of 2022/23, Misha Nodelman has been a lecturer for violin at the Anton Rubinstein International Music Academy.
Contacts:
Misha Nodelman
Violin
Lisa Franken was born into a family of musicians, she started playing the cello and piano at the age of already 4. She later received her musical education at the conservatories of Cologne (Germany), Maastricht (Netherlands) and the Royal Flemish Conservatory of Brussels (Belgium) in the Bachelor of Music and Master of Music/Concert degree programs, which she graduated with honors. From the winter semester 2016/17 Lisa Franken will teach cello at the International Music Academy Anton Rubinstein in Düsseldorf.
Kontakt:
Lisa Franken
Violoncello
Leonid Grudin studied flute with Prof. Jean-Michel Tanguy at the Staatliche Musikhochschule Mannheim from 1990 to 1995 and graduated with a diploma in orchestral music. In 1998 he obtained the diploma “Artistic Education” and in 2001 the diploma “Concert Examination” with Prof. Maxence Larrieu. Since 2016 Leonid Grudin has been a lecturer for the subject flute at the International Music Academy Anton Rubinstein.
Contact:
Leonid Grudin
Flute
The Italian pianist Gabriele Leporatti is active throughout Europe, the USA and China and performs in many renowned concert halls. He is currently a lecturer at the Anton Rubinstein International Music Academy in Düsseldorf, regularly gives masterclasses and lectures worldwide. Several of his students have won prizes at international piano competitions. He is also active as an artistic advisor at concert series and festivals and as a jury member at international competitions.
Contact:
Gabriele Leporatti
Piano
Veronika Salikhova is a graduate of the St Petersburg Conservatory in the piano class of Prof Nina Seregina. She plays solo and in ensembles in St. Petersburg and abroad – in Poland, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Slovenia, Sweden, Latvia, Estonia, Finland. She has been a piano teacher at the Anton Rubinstein International Music Academy since 2018.
Contact:
Anastasia Galenina
Piano
Veronika Salikhova is a graduate of the St Petersburg Conservatory in the piano class of Prof Nina Seregina. She plays solo and in ensembles in St. Petersburg and abroad – in Poland, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Slovenia, Sweden, Latvia, Estonia, Finland. She has been a piano teacher at the Anton Rubinstein International Music Academy since 2018.
Contact:
Veronika Salikhova
Piano
The Russian pianist Ilja Scheps studied at the famous Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, where he later taught himself. He taught for many years at the conservatories in Rostock and Dortmund and at the Music Academy in Darmstadt. He has been a professor at the Cologne/Aachen University of Music since 2003. Since November 2022, Prof. Scheps has been teaching piano at the Anton Rubinstein International Music Academy.
Contact:
Ilja Scheps
Piano
The Australian-British singer was born in St. Petersburg, Russia. Alexandra Sherman completed her first musical studies in piano in Jerusalem and singing in Melbourne. After graduating with honours from the Victorian College of Arts in Melbourne, she continued her vocal studies at the Royal College of Music in London, where she completed postgraduate studies and an opera school. She has been teaching singing at the Anton Rubinstein International Academy of Music since the 2017/18 winter term.
Contact:
Alexandra Sherman
Vocal
Alla Blatow graduated as a concert pianist, chamber musician and piano teacher from the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in St. Petersburg. From 1985 to 2000, she taught piano at the Folkwang Hochschule Essen and gave numerous masterclasses in Western Europe, Russia and China. Since 2002, she has taught piano at the Anton Rubinstein International Music Academy.
Contact:
Alla Blatow
Piano
From the age of 7, Mikhail Mordvinov was taught piano by Tatyana Zelikman at the Gnessin Music School in Moscow. After graduating from high school in 1994, he began his studies at the Russian Gnessin Academy of Music under Professor Vladimir Tropp. This was followed by postgraduate studies at the Hanover University of Music and Drama with Prof. Bernd Goetzke. From 2004 to 2010, he taught at the Russian Gnessin Academy of Music. Mikhail Mordvinov has been teaching piano at the Anton Rubinstein International Academy of Music since the 2016/17 winter semester.
Contact:
Mikhail Mordvinov
Piano
Irina Leveleva graduated as a concert pianist, chamber musician and piano teacher from the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in St. Petersburg. She also continued her successful career as a piano teacher. Her pupils have won numerous prizes at national and international competitions. She has been teaching piano at the Anton Rubinstein International Music Academy for several years.
Kontakt:
Irina Leveleva
Piano
Risa Tanaka is a Japanese violinist born in 2000 in Osaka, a city in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. She started playing the violin at the age of 5 and attended Hyogo Nishinomiya Senior High School of Music in 2015. She graduated there in 2018 with a major in violin. A year later, Risa moved to Hamburg to complete an international student year there. In 2019, she graduated from the Hamburg Conservatory and in the winter of the same year, she began studying for her bachelor’s degree in violin performance at the Anton Rubinstein International Music Academy. In 2022 she completed her Bachelor’s degree with her main teacher Mr Vassili Voronin. Risa has also been studying for her Master’s degree since winter 2022 and is currently in her third semester.
In 2007, Risa won 2nd place in a children’s violin competition. Two years later she took 3rd place in the same violin competition and in 2014 she won 1st place and the Osaka Mayor award at the Miotsukushi Music Competition.
Risa Tanaka
Violin
Futaba Sakaguchi ist Absolventin der Tokyo Geijutsu-Daigaku (Staatliche Universität für Bildende Künste und Musik Tokyo), wo sie in der Geigenklasse von Prof. Gerhard Bosse studierte. Ihre Fertigkeiten verfeinerte sie weiterhin in der Meisterklasse von Prof. Herwig Zack an der Hochschule für Musik Würzburg.
Futaba Sakaguchi ist Preisträgerin mehrerer nationaler und internationaler Wettbewerbe, darunter der Concorso Violinistico Internazionale „Andrea Postacchini“ und renommierten DAAD-Preis.
Seit 2005 ist sie Mitglied der Ersten Violinen der Düsseldorfer Symphoniker und neben ihrer Orchestertätigkeit engagiert sie sich als Dozentin für Violine und Kammermusik an der Internationalen Musikakademie Anton Rubinstein in Düsseldorf.
Futaba Sakaguchi
Violin