Russian Horn Orchestra (St. Petersburg) Soloist Vardan Harutunjan (duduk) Artistic director and conductor Sergei Polyanitshko In the program: Bach, Rossini, Tchaikovsky, et alIn 1751, it was decided to prepare a birthday surprise for the Russian Empress Yelizaveta Petrovna, and an ensemble with two dozen hunting horns was set up to play during the rest breaks of the Empress's favorite recreation, hunting. Empress and her companions were fascinated by the sound of the horns, and several horn orchestras were immediately formed in the court. Special music was created for them that was performed to celebrate court events. Such a way of making music was very expensive - one person played only one pitch, and the collusion required a very high level of technical mastery. The Russian Horn Orchestra was formed in 2006 by Sergei Polyanichko. Today, their hand-made instrument collection has grown to 106 horns, played by 17 young Russian musicians. The orchestra performs court music of that time, as well as arrangements of all kinds of classical music works. All instruments are made by the instrument maker Vladimir Goloveshko.