The Russian Horn Orchestra is a the redivivus wonder of the Russian culture. Such orchestras were very popular at the Russian court in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but European brass and symphony orchestras gradually came into fashion, so horn orchestras were forgotten. In 2006 Sergei Polianichko, a Mariinsky Theatre artist, founded the Russian Horn Orchestra with the active support of musicians from St Petersburg.
The sound and structure of the orchestra resembles an organ and its internal organisation is unique. It is possible to produce just one note from the horn, but when played together the musicians are able to work out the complicated multi-sound texture of a composition. That's why the horn orchestra is an example of unity, where the individual skills of each performer form the basis of the ensemble's success.
The 106 hand-crafted instruments with a range of four octaves and a unique tone quality have been recreated in the Horn Music Centre workshop on the basis of preserved models from the 19th century. They are voiced by seventeen musicians (students and graduates of the St. Petersburg Conservatoire and winners of all-Russian and international competitions) and each artist can produce just one sound at a time.
The Russian Horn Orchestra, like orchestras of the past, accompanies important ceremonies, performing for clergymen, prominent statesmen and large audiences. The ensemble has been included in the Russian Book of Records and nominated to the Guinness Book of World Records.
Sergei Polianichko is a horn player and conductor, graduate of the St. Petersburg State Conservatoire, Rostov State Conservatoire, St. Petersburg State Theatre Institute and St. Petersburg Television School. He studied at the faculty of opera and symphony conducting of the St. Petersburg Conservatoire.
As a French horn player he has worked at the Mariinsky Theatre. As a conductor he has collaborated with the Sinfonia Varsovia orchestras (Poland), the Russian National Orchestra, the Svetlanov Orchestra and the Tchaikovsky orchestra.
In 2006 in St. Petersburg he established and led the unique Russian Horn orchestra, with which he toured to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Moldova, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Finland, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Poland, Germany, Austria, Spain, Italy, France, Israel, Bahrain, Cuba, Nepal, Chile, China, Hong Kong, the USA and many regions of Russia.
Since 2007 he has been a Director of the Centre for Horn Music and Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Russian Horn Orchestra. Since 2012 he has been the founder and Artistic Director of the International French horn festival. Since 2015 he has been an Artistic Director and a Director of the Russian Horn Music Centre.
He has been awarded letters of acknowledgement from the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation.