By the initiative of Alexander Nikolaychuk in December of 2022 1st All-Russian competition of young balalaika performers «Balalaika of the XXI century» was organized.

The competition was held with the participation of:

• Moscow culture department;

• Grieg music school;

• Schnittke musical institute;

• Moscow musical society.

The competition is dedicated to only classical balalaika performing, competitors played two rounds in 6 age categories.

Main competition’s purpose is popularization of classical balalaika performing.

The chairman of the Jury was Andrey Gorbachev – head of the Folk Instruments department of the Gnesins academy.

Members of the jury:

• People’s artist of Russia, professor Valery Zazhigin;

• Soloist of the Ossipov Orchestra, teacher of the Gnesins academy, teacher of the Schnittke Institute, teacher of the Grieg school Aleksey Vrodlivets;

• Soloist of the Ossipov orchestra, the artist of the “Melodiya” label, teacher of the Grieg school Alexander Nikolaychuk.

The special prize of the competition – balalaika made by famous luzier Evgeny Serzhantov. The musical instrument was given to the winner in the III category Timofey Stupakov (Kostroma).

First prize winners in each category were invited to the audio recording session for creating a musical album “Balalaika of the XXI century: the winners play”. Five young musicians took part in a recording: Timofey Stupakov (teacher O. Shurshikova, piano I. Markevich), Viktor Volynets (teacher A. Nikolaychuk, piano A. Gadzhieva), Anna Batova (teacher Yu. Strzhelinsky, piano A. Chufarovsky), Maksim Samsonov (teacher K. Zakharato, piano A. Davydova), Kirill Yakovlev (teacher A. Vrodlivets, piano S.Lips).