Leadership
The people who, for more than thirty years, have made help for gifted children possible every single day.
Pyotr Ilyich Gulko has worked at the foundation since its founding in 1994. An Honoured Artist of Russia, laureate of the Russian Government Prize and the UNESCO Prize, and honorary arts figure of the city of Moscow. He shapes the artistic direction of the foundation's concert programmes and festivals, and leads the projects “Light of Hope” and “Tuning Fork of the Regions”.
Ekaterina Romanovna Shirman — executive director of the foundation from the day of its founding until 2026, the person by whose hands the foundation was built for more than thirty years.
Born on 12 June 1948 in Odessa. In 1973 she graduated from GITIS. She worked as a concertmaster, then at “Rosconcert” as chief editor of the touring department, collaborated with Sviatoslav Richter, Mstislav Rostropovich, Emil Gilels and Vladimir Spivakov, and organised the tours of the “Moscow Virtuosi”.
From 1994 to 2026, Ekaterina Shirman was the permanent executive director of the foundation. An Honoured Worker of Culture of the Russian Federation, laureate of the Moscow city prize in the field of literature and the arts and of the Russian Government Prize in the field of culture. She was awarded the Medal of the Order “For Merit to the Fatherland” and a Letter of Commendation from the President of the Russian Federation.
“All of them our own children” — that is how she spoke of every child in the foundation's care.
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