The Foundation > The Team
Elena Yakovleva
Co-Founder & Executive Director
“I have been developing the idea of a charitable foundation for a number of years. The idea was to establish a foundation based on the founders’ reputation, therefore, open to collaboration with any artist or cultural institution. The choice of Armenia was obvious: I have been working with Armenians since 2012, and I was astonished by the reach and beauty of its cultural heritage. On top of that, being gifted musically, they know how to work hard. Armenians value care and support.
I hope with all my heart that my experience and expertise will serve the Armenian artists and cultural institutions so we can celebrate the Armenian cultural heritage internationally together.”
Maria Kikina
Head of Advancement
For 15 years Maria Kikina has been working as a classical music events, international music and theater festivals producer.
Her experience includes over 10 years of music events designing and production in the major Russian presenter the Moscow State Philharmonic Society, where she produced more than 700 concerts and projects at the 1500 seats Tchaikovsky Concert Hall. During these years, she collaborated with Zubin Mehta, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Mikhail Pletnev, Vasily Petrenko, Lang Lang, Yuja Wang, Julian Rachlin, Yefim Bronfman, Rudolf Buchbinder, Vladimir Jurowski, Joshua Bell, Gustavo Dudamel, Mariss Jansons, Maxim Vengerov, Daniil Trifonov among the others.
In 2021 as executive producer, Mrs. Kikina organized Summer. Music. Museum. the international music festival which attracted more than 6,000 people during a week for 10 performances, including numerous open-air evenings. The program under the Artistic directorship of maestro Vasily Petrenko featured Mischa Maisky, Kirill Karabits, and Kirill Gerstein.
Her project portfolio includes the New People International Theater Festival in 2018, a large-scale regional festival with an audience of more than 3,500, and over 50 performances within the two weeks in all genres: family & kids performances, modern choreography, drama, and immersive performances (Moscow Region, Russia). Mrs. Kikina’s international experience includes Astana Piano Passion first young pianists competition in Kazakhstan (2013-2014). She was also in the production team of the XIV Tchaikovsky International Competition in Moscow (2011), as well as the Guitar Virtuosi Moscow International Festival (2015-2018) to mention a few.
Mrs. Kikina graduated from the Russian Academy of Theater Arts (RATI-GITIS), specializing in cultural events management and production.
Anna Pronicheva
Producer of Educational projects
Graduated from the British Banking and Finance College with a degree in business. She worked in an educational and marketing startup, dealing with marketing, organization, and processes, as well as an assistant in the field of facilitation and education teams. Anna participated in the organization of events for large companies (Pepsi, Lukoil).
She has experience in launching a startup in the position of an operational manager for the sale of designer products. She worked as an administrative manager in an Irish company in business real estate.
Since 2021, Anna has been working at Primavera Consulting as a production assistant, responsible for the entire process of organizing the event, negotiating with customers, and planning and controlling the schedule of artists.
At Primavera Foundation, Anna is in charge of the development of educational projects.
contact: edu(@)primavera-foundation.am
Astghik Dallakyan
Public Relations Manager
Astghik Dallakyan started her career as an opera singer and voice coach. Having received a professional musical education at the Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory, she worked for ten years at the Armenian National Opera & Ballet Theatre as a choir soloist and later as an opera singer and a soloist.
In 2011, she made a sharp turn and stepped into marketing, discovering herself in the position of the Emporium Marketing, PR & Advertising Magazine Commercial Director. In 2014, she took the role of Project manager at her first stage – the Opera and Ballet National Academic Theatre Support Foundation of Armenia. Among other projects, she was involved in the realization of the Armenian National Opera and Ballet Theatre’s ballet troupe tour at the Mariinsky Theatre with Aram Khachaturian’s ballet “Gayane” (July 20, 21, 2014).
Since 2015, Ms. Dallakyan has collaborated with the Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra as a PR Manager. Throughout these years, she has organized all PR companies of the orchestra and collaborated with numerous famous artists such as Eduard Topchjan, Peter Oundjian, Gorege Pehlivanian, Sergey Khachatryan, Narek Hakhnazaryan, Hrachuhí Bassénz, Lianna Haroutounian, Liana Aleksanyan, Ruzan Mantashyan, Arsen Soghomonyan, Liparit Avetisyan, among non-Armenian musicians: Vladimir Fedoseev, Andrey Boreyko, Vasily Petrenko, John Nelson, Joshua Bell, Augustin Hadelich, Mikhail Pletnev, Mischa Maisky, Nikolai Lugansky, Khatia Buniatishvili, and others. In recent years she also has been doing exclusive interviews for media.
Ksenia Pelishenko
Head of Video Production
Ksenia Pelishenko is a Ukrainian-Russian-Israeli film editor, director, interviewer, and journalist. She started her career in 2011 as a Press room coordinator and writer at the Moscow International Film Festival, she was a part of the festival team for the three years in row. Later she was a production coordinator for several musical TV shows on Russian national television and the prestigious Russian National television award TEFI.
In 2017 she wrote a book about famous Russian-American theoretical physicist and cosmologist George Gamow. The same year Ksenia committed herself to the classical music, and to the projects which were aimed to increase the classical music recognition among youngsters, and to bring a new audience to concert halls.
For the five years until 2022 Ksenia worked for the online educational recourse on classical music Muzium as a video and podcasts production director. Podcast “How to fall in love with opera”, video cycles “The main names of new music” about modern composers and “New Vienna classics”, telling the story of Webern, Berg, Schoenberg, composers who changed the idea of music, collected dozens of views and plays on streaming platforms and YouTube.
Anna Mkrtchyan
SMM Intern
Anna Mkrtchyan is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Digital Business degree at the International University of Applied Sciences. She graduated from Moscow Private Establishment Secondary Comprehensive School “Stolichni-KIT” and won a trip to Moscow in the competition “The Immortal Pushkin composed in Russian.”
Anna was a member of the school theater from 2014 to 2021, where she also assisted in event organization.
Additionally, she studied piano from 2010 to 2016 and worked as an administrator in an online community.