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The 2020 National Award in Literature and Art has been conferred on Grigory Alfeyev (Metropolitan Hilarion) for his contribution to Russian culture and education

Grigory Alfeyev (Metropolitan Hilarion) was born on July 24, 1966, in Moscow. He is an author, composer, documentary filmmaker and Doctor of Philosophy.

Grigory Alfeyev (Metropolitan Hilarion) serves as Chair of the Department of External Relations of the Moscow Patriarchy. He is a member of the Russian Union of Composers; a recipient of the Alexander Nevsky Order (2021), the Order of Honour (2016), the Order of Friendship (2011), as well as international awards and honorary titles.

He has penned 148 literary and scholarly works, including one that is unique in Russia, the biography of Jesus Christ in the Life of Outstanding People series, and the literary-historical study Dostoyevsky Gospel.

Grigory Alfeyev (Metropolitan Hilarion) has directed more than 80 documentaries on Russian and international music culture (films about Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonio Vivaldi, Joseph Haydn, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Dmitry Shostakovich, and others), Russian history (Normandie-Niemen. The Story of a Regiment) and the history of Christianity.

For 12 years, he has been the host of the Church and the World programme on Rossiya-24 with a multi-million audience around the world.

He composes music for choirs, chorus and orchestra, chamber and instrumental music. The music by Grigory Alfeyev (Metropolitan Hilarion) has been performed at concerts more than 300 times in the past 15 years, in Russia and abroad, including by outstanding conductors such as Vladimir Spivakov, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Valery Gergiyev, and by major orchestras and choirs.

The 2020 Russian Federation National Award in literature and the arts has been conferred upon Khibla GERZMAVA for her contribution to the development of Russian and world operatic art

Khibla Gerzmava was born in the settlement of Pitsunda, town of Gagra, Abkhazian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, on January 6, 1970. She is a singer and a leading soloist at the Moscow Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Academic Music Theatre.

Khibla Gerzmava is a People’s Artist of the Russian Federation (2012) and a People’s Artist of the Republic of Abkhazia. She won the Grand Prix at the 10th International Tchaikovsky Competition, honours at many major international competitions, the Golden Orpheus and Casta Diva prizes, and the Prize of Moscow in literature and the arts (2010).

At the theatre, she has performed practically all the leading parts from the lyric coloratura to the lyric dramatic soprano. She sang in productions staged by outstanding directors such as Franco Zeffirelli, Otto Schenk, Willy Decker, Francesca Zambello, Jurgen Flimm, Elijah Moshinsky, and Krzysztof Warlikowski. She collaborates with the world’s most famous conductors.

Khibla Gerzmava travels widely on tours around Russia with solo classical and jazz concerts and performs at such world-famous opera houses as the Royal Opera House (Covent Garden) in London, the Paris National Opera, Wiener Staatsoper, the La Scala Theatre in Milan, and the Metropolitan Opera in New York. She teaches at the Solo Singing Department of the Moscow Tchaikovsky State Conservatory.

In 2001, she organised the Khibla Gerzmava Invites Festival in Abkhazia. Since 2014, the festival has also been held in other cities and countries; in 2019, the 17th festival opened in the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory.

Khibla Gerzmava engages in charity work, helping a musical school in Pitsunda and the Alexei Chichba Music College in Sukhum, the capital of Abkhazia.

The 2020 Russian Federation National Award in literature and the arts has been conferred upon Alexander RUKAVISHNIKOV for his contribution to the development of Russian and world literature and the aesthetic education of creative youth.

Alexander Rukavishnikov was born on October 2, 1950, in Moscow. He is a sculptor and the head of the Sculpture and Composition Chair at the Moscow State Academic Art Institute named after Surikov (Surikov Art Institute) of the Russian Academy of Arts.

He holds the title of People’s Artist of the Russian Federation, was awarded the Order of Honour, and is a full member of the Russian Academy of Arts and a member of the Academy Presidium.

Alexander Rukavishnikov comes from a famous family of sculptors. He is an internationally renowned artist and the author of monumental and easel works, busts, paintings, graphic and medallic works of art, as well as installations.

The sculptor is working in a wide range of artistic spheres, using realism and neo-classical methods in the process of modelling his busts, easily and organically applying grotesque imagery, often using neo-archaic design, gaining inspiration from ancient Russian icon painting, Far Eastern plastics and recognised international works of art. While developing his talent, the sculptor has created his own, unique artistic style.

Mr Rukavishnikov has created numerous sculptures and monuments in Russia and the world, including a monument of Vladimir Nabokov in Montreux, Switzerland, a monument to the International Brigades in Madrid, Spain, monuments to Fyodor Dostoyevsky in Moscow and Dresden, a monument to Alexander II standing near the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, monuments to Sergey Rachmaninov in Veliky Novgorod, to General Skobelev at the General Staff Academy in Moscow, to Sergei Mikhalkov in Moscow, and a monument to Stefan Nemanja in Belgrade.

In 2005, the Patriarch of Antioch awarded two honorary orders to Alexander Rukavishnikov for his sculptures Christ in Majesty and Apostle Paul erected in Syria (in 2016, militant extremists purloined the sculptures from the St Thecla Monastery in Maaloula).

He also created the Rukav art school to support, develop and promote the modern art of sculpture.