Svetlana Stepchenko graduated from the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, where she had taken viola classes with the famous Fyodor Druzhinin until 2000. A laureate of several competitions in Russia and abroad, she performed as a soloist and in chamber ensembles, while performing the first viola duties at the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia since it was founded in 2003. She is also in charge of the “Three Centuries of Viola Music” Festival in Russia and artistic director of the “Russian Viola” ensemble. Her repertoire is quite vast as it spans baroque to contemporary composers