Ural Philharmonic Orchestra

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Ural Philharmonic Orchestra (UPO, in russian Уральский академический филармонический оркестр, УАФО) is a full orchestra based in Yekaterinburg (former Sverdlovsk, Russia) and considered to be one of the major and best orchestras in Russia and in Europe.

It was formed by Mark Paverman, famous russian conductor, in 1934 as the Orchestra of the Sverdlovsk Radio.

In 1992 it received the new name - 'Ural Philharmonic Orchestra'.

In 1995 it was given an "academic" title (this title is conferred to the best theater companies and orchestras of Russia). So its full name is the Ural Academic Philharmonic Orchestra.

The orchestra uniting a hundred of musicians is famous for its interpretations of classical musig as well as modern music. It gives 100 concerts every year. The UPO is the main resident orchestra of all the musical festivals of the Sverdlovsk State Philarmony.

In 2000-s the UPO gave some dozens of concerts in Germany, Austria, France, Japan, Switzerland, Spain, Italy and other countries and had many honourable mentions in the press (La Semaine, La Liberté, Sueddeutche Zeitung etc).

In 2005 at the Arsenal Hall (Metz, France) the UPO with the famous pianist Boris Berezovsky recorded an album for a french producer Rene Martin.

The UPO is famous for his collaboration with Emil Gilels, Nikolai Petrov, Boris Berezovsky, Denis Matsuev, Gidon Kremer, Vladimir Spivakov, Mstislav Rostropovich, Natalia Gutman, Valery Gergiev and many others.

Nowadays the UPO has two conductors:

Dmitry Liss - principal conductor of the UPO since 1995
Enkhe (Enkhbaatar Baatarzhyvan) - conductor of the UPO (since 1991) and principal conductor of the Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra (since 1998)