Yaroslav Zaboyarkin, Principal Conductor of the New Chamber St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra speaks exclusively to Robb Report India ahead of the orchestra’s India debut at NCPA Mumbai today. Excerpts:
Yaroslav Zaboyarkin (YZ): Through this performance, I would most like Indian audiences to experience the depth of the St. Petersburg orchestral tradition: its signature sound, its seriousness of approach, and its profound spiritual concentration. The St. Petersburg school, shaped by figures such as Mravinsky, Arvid and Mariss Jansons, and Temirkanov, has always placed the depth of sound and the thoroughness of interpretation above external effect. I hope the Indian public will feel that in our playing: the care for detail, the sense of the whole form, and the emotional truth that lies beneath the notes.
YZ: Shostakovich's music endures, I believe, because it speaks to the most profound and universal human experiences - suffering, resilience, irony, tenderness, and the longing for inner freedom. It is deeply rooted in its time, yet it reaches far beyond it. In his music, you can hear the voice of one person, and at the same time the voice of an entire era.
When I perform his music, I try above all to serve it honestly. That means respecting the score, the architecture, and the silences, while also allowing the emotional truth to come through - without exaggeration or external effect. His music demands depth, concentration, and a certain inner restraint. It is a great honour that our programme coincides with his 120th birth anniversary. I hope that in Mumbai, Indian audiences will feel both the historical weight of this music and its living, human message - and that it will resonate with them in their own way.
YZ: The St. Petersburg school of orchestral music is, first and foremost, about depth - depth of sound, depth of meaning, and depth of discipline. Its character is one of seriousness and inner concentration: a preference for substance over surface, for the architectural whole over passing effects. The signature St. Petersburg sound is rich, grounded, and deeply expressive, yet always restrained. It carries the weight of tradition without ever becoming heavy or indulgent. We carry it with us to India, not as a museum piece, but as a living way of listening and feeling.
YZ: Being a string player shaped everything. For many years I was a violinist in Yuri Temirkanov's orchestra, and that experience taught me to listen from inside the ensemble - to breathe with the group, to feel the balance, to hear how a phrase is actually built. Now, as a conductor, I try to lead from that same place: with sensitivity to each musician and to the whole. Knowing how an orchestra works from within also means I don't waste time. I try to work like a surgeon - precisely, without unnecessary motion - because I know exactly what will work and what won't, and which approach will bring the result as quickly and clearly as possible. But the goal is never speed for its own sake; it is to use our time together so that the music can speak freely.
YZ: I hope Indian audiences will take away the feeling of a living musical tradition, with its depth of sound, its seriousness of approach, and its inner concentration and pure joy! I hope they will hear something that speaks directly to them, even without words, because as I often say: music is a universal language that needs no translation.
Show information:
15 September 2026 | 7:00 pm at Jamshed Bhabha Theatre, NCPA Mumbai.