Moscow State Conservatory’s International Nikolai Rubinstein Competition for Chamber Ensembles

1. General Provisions

1.1. The full official name of the competition is Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory’s International N. Rubinstein Competition of Chamber Ensembles (hereinafter to be referred to as “the N. Rubinstein Competition”).

1.2. The N. Rubinstein Competition was established in 2010 by Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory (hereinafter to be referred to as “the Conservatory”).

1.3. The N. Rubinstein Competition is held every four years in the autumn. The dates of the respective year’s Competition are to be specified and published on the Conservatory’s official website in advance:
see the webpage of the respective year’s N. Rubinstein Competition with a specific number.

1.4. The competition program is to be specified separately for each round and published on the Conservatory’s official website in advance: see the webpage of the respective year’s N. Rubinstein Competition
with a specific number.

2. Prizes of the N. Rubinstein Competition

2.1. The Organizing Committee of the N. Rubinstein Competition (hereinafter to be referred to as
“the Organizing Committee”: see clause 8.1) is to announce three monetary prizes for the laureates and two monetary prizes for the diploma winners. The amounts of all prizes are to be specified and published on the Conservatory’s official website in advance: see the webpage of the respective year’s N. Rubinstein Competition with a specific number.

2.2. The whole amount of every winning ensemble’s prize is to be paid jointly to one of its musicians.

2.3. Upon the Organizing Committee’s consent, public organizations, foundations, mass media and/or individuals may establish any additional prizes, awards and/or gifts for the competing ensembles. Decisions
to award any special prizes and/or gifts will be made by the Jury Team of Rounds Two and Three
(see clause 3.1.2).

2.4. All the prizes will be paid to the winning ensembles in rubles, tax deducted under Russia’s legislation.

3. The Jury Teams of the N. Rubinstein Competition

3.1. The Organizing Committee is to appoint two teams of the N. Rubinstein Competition Jury (hereinafter to be referred to as “the Jury Teams”):

• 3.1.1. the Jury Team of Round One are to approve the list of participants of Round Two upon results of watching the applying ensembles’ video-recorded performances of their Round One program (hereinafter to be referred to as “the Video Recording”: see clause 5.2);
• 3.1.2. the Jury Team of Rounds Two and Three are to award the prizes upon results of listening to the competing ensembles’ public performances.

3.2. The lists of members of both Jury Teams are to be published on the Conservatory’s official website
in advance: see the webpage of the respective year’s N. Rubinstein Competition with a specific number.

3.3. The results of each round are to be announced publicly as soon as it ends and then published on the Conservatory’s official website: see the webpage of the respective year’s N. Rubinstein Competition with a specific number.

3.4. The Jury Team of Rounds Two and Three may, at their own discretion:

• 3.4.1. award not all of the prizes and/or diplomas;
• 3.4.2. divide the amounts of any prizes and/or diplomas between several winning ensembles within the limits of the established prize fund;
• 3.4.3. share the monetary part of non-awarded prizes and/or diplomas between the ensembles that win any other prizes, within the limits of the established prize fund;
• 3.4.4. award any other special prizes (see clause 2.3).

3.5. All decisions of both Jury Teams are final and irrevocable.

3.6. Upon a decision of the Jury Team of Rounds Two and Three, any competing ensemble’s performance may be shortened or stopped.

3.7. No member of the Jury Team of Rounds Two and Three, including the chairperson, may vote for any competing ensembles whose musicians officially have been/were his/her students during the three years immediately preceding the respective year’s N. Rubinstein Competition. Should such a case take place, the respective member of the Jury Team must notify the Organizing Committee thereon in writing prior to the beginning of the auditions.

4. Procedure for Holding the N. Rubinstein Competition

4.1. Any ensemble may participate in the N. Rubinstein Competition if the following three conditions are met simultaneously as of the first day of the respective year’s auditions:

• 4.1.1. the list of the competing ensemble’s musical instruments meets the requirements of clause 4.3 below;
• 4.1.2. the average age of the competing ensemble’s musicians is less than 31 years;
• 4.1.3. the competing ensemble’s oldest musician is younger than 33 years.

4.2.1. The ensemble that won the First Prize at N. Rubinstein Competition No. Z may not participate
in N. Rubinstein Competition No. Z+1 if all the musicians of this ensemble are the same (see clause 1.3).
4.2.2. No teacher of the applying ensemble may participate in the N. Rubinstein Competition as one of this ensemble’s musicians.
4.2.3. No musician of any ensemble who has applied for participation in the respective year’s N. Rubinstein Competition with a specific number may apply for participation in the same year’s N. Rubinstein Competition with the same number as the musician of any other ensemble.

4.3. The following three categories of ensembles are to be admitted to participate in the N. Rubinstein Competition:

• 4.3.1. piano duo — either two pianos or piano four hands (optionally);
• 4.3.2. string quartet;
• 4.3.3. any string, wind or brass instruments of the contemporary symphony orchestra with/without the piano, provided that an entire ensemble consists of three performers minimum.

4.4. The N. Rubinstein Competition consists of three rounds.

• 4.4.1. Round One is an eliminating contest of the submitted Video Recordings (see clauses 3.1.1 and 5.2).
• 4.4.2. Rounds Two and Three are held publicly.

4.5. The number of the ensembles to be admitted to participate in the N. Rubinstein Competition are
as follows:

• 4.5.1. a maximum of twenty ensembles for Round Two;
• 4.5.2. a maximum of six ensembles for Round Three.

4.6.1. The musicians of all the ensembles admitted to participate in Round Two of the N. Rubinstein Competition must personally attend the organizational meeting at the Conservatory (hereinafter to be referred to as “the Initial Meeting”). Information about the time and venue of the Initial Meeting is to be published
on the Conservatory’s official website in advance: see the webpage of the respective year’s
N. Rubinstein Competition with a specific number.
4.6.2. The drawing of lots is to be held during the Initial Meeting in order to establish the unified sequence
of the competing ensembles’ performances.

4.7. The sequence of the competing ensembles’ performances in Rounds Two and Three is to be determined upon results of the drawing of lots and remains unchanged until the end of the respective year’s N. Rubinstein Competition, omitting the withdrawn ensembles’ counting numbers.

4.8. The musicians of each competing ensemble are to determine the sequence of performing the pieces
on their program in Rounds Two and Three themselves.

4.9. At the end of the N. Rubinstein Competition, an award ceremony and a concert of its winning ensembles (hereinafter to be referred to as “the Final Concert”) will be held. The time and venue of the Final Concert are to be set by the Organizing Committee and published on the Conservatory’s official website in advance:
see the webpage of the respective year’s N. Rubinstein Competition with a specific number.

4.10. The winning ensembles must perform at the Final Concert with no remuneration. In case of refusal to participate in the Final Concert with no valid reason, the prize awarded to the winning ensemble will not be paid.

5. Submission of the Applications, the Documents, and the Video Recording

5.1. In order to participate in the N. Rubinstein Competition, the musician of every applying ensemble must:

• 5.1.1. fill out his/her personal online application form (hereinafter to be referred to as “the Application”;
  see the link on the webpage of the respective year’s N. Rubinstein Competition with a specific number) and insert the following documents into its respective fields:
• 5.1.2. the front pages of all the applicants’ passports or other identifying documents (with each holder’s photo and signature) — as PDF files;
• 5.1.3. one collective artistic photo of the applying ensemble taken against a neutral background with a minimum resolution of 300 dpi — as a JPG file;
• 5.1.4. the applicants’ certificates of everyone’s music education and/or certificates from their respective educational institutions (if students), either in Russian or in English, — as PDF files;
• 5.1.5. a brief artistic portfolio of the applying ensemble, including information about the group’s teachers, participation in any other competitions of chamber ensembles (including the year, venue and award), as well as any other information that the applying ensemble’s musicians consider essential for the Organizing Committee, — as a DOC/DOCX file.

5.2. In addition, every ensemble applying for participation in the N. Rubinstein Competition must submit their Video Recording (see clause 3.1.1) in the form of  a valid link to one of the following three “cloud” services: google.com, mail.ru, or yandex.ru. The obligatory technical requirements are as follows:

• (1) the video recording has to be made with a still camera as a single frame: no editing is allowed;
• (2) the link must open one and the only video file of high density;
• (3) only the AVI, MOV, WMV, or MP4 file formats are admitted;
• (4) the video file may not be downloaded on any streaming video hosting (e.g. youtube.com, hulu.com, vimeo.com and the like).

5.3. Every applicant who is a citizen of Russia must submit three additional documents:
see the N. Rubinstein Competition webpage in Russian.

5.4. The deadline for submitting the Applications, the documents, and the Video Recording is to be specified and published on the Conservatory’s official website in advance: see the webpage of the respective year’s N. Rubinstein Competition with a specific number.

5.5. The fact of forwarding the Applications and the Video Recording to the Organizing Committee (see clause 5.1.1) means the applicants’ unconditional consent with all the terms of these Regulations and their Annex.

5.6. The Organizing Committee may reject any Applications, documents and/or Video Recordings that do not meet any of the above-mentioned requirements.

6. Financial Terms

6.1. A registration fee for participation in the N. Rubinstein Competition (hereinafter to be referred to as
“the Fee”) is to be paid after the Initial Meeting by the Organizing Committee’s instruction in any of the following four currencies, optionally: (1) Russian rubles; (2) Chinese yuans; (3) US dollars; (4) euros.

6.2. The amount of the Fee is to be updated and published on the Conservatory’s official website in advance: see the webpage of the respective year’s N. Rubinstein Competition with a specific number.
The Organizing Committee assumes that the amount of the Fee is to be economically equivalent in all the four currencies; however, the team reserves the right to adjust it selectively, considering any current fluctuations
of the respective exchange rates to be officially established by the Bank of Russia.

6.3. All transportation and other expenses directly or indirectly related to participation in the N. Rubinstein Competition have to be paid either by the competing ensembles themselves or by their sponsoring organizations.

7. Special Provisions

7.1. The Conservatory is one and the only owner of an exclusive copyright for audio- and/or video-recording,
as well as for any TV and/or online broadcasts, of all the rounds and the Final Concert.

7.2. The competitors receive no remuneration for their performances during the rounds; nor are they paid any copyright for any usage of audio- and/or video-recording, as well as of any TV and/or online broadcasts, of any of their performances by the Conservatory.

7.3. These Regulations are published on the webpage of the International N. Rubinstein Competition
of Chamber Ensembles located on the Conservatory’s official website, both in Russian and in English.
All the clauses that concern the holding of each N. Rubinstein Competition in the respective year are published on the webpage of the respective year’s N. Rubinstein Competition with a specific number, both in Russian and in English.

7.4. Should any dispute or disagreement arise in the interpretation of any of the terms of these Regulations and/or their Annex, the versions published in Russian shall prevail.

8. Contact Information

8.1. The N. Rubinstein Competition’s Organizing Committee is the Department for Festivals, Competitions and Special Events of Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory’s Center for Coordinating Artistic Projects.

• 8.1.1. Official telephone number: +7 (495) 055 5519.
• 8.1.2. Official e-mail address: artmosconsv@gmail.com
• 8.1.3. Official mailing address: 13 Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street, Moscow, 125009, Russia.