The Russian performing school is widely known in Europe and around the world, at the same time much less is known about contemporary Russian composers. In the meantime, "there have been some really important developments in Russian music in recent years — young composers are thinking very unconventionally and creating works that are very different from what their American or Western European colleagues are writing," says Harvard University composer and professor Chaya Chernovin. She is a member of the international advisory board of Russian Music 2.0, Russia's only program to support contemporary composers.

In 2020, the program awardees have been:

Mark Buloshnikov, senior lecturer of the Composition and Instrumentation department of the Nizhny Novgorod State Conservatory, artistic director and pianist of the contemporary music NoName ensemble, Nizhny Novgorod

Dmitry Burtsev, accordionist-improviser, participant of the VI International Academy of Young Composers in Tchaikovsky City, one of the curators of the •set•by•set Improvised music festival at Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, an author of “Malva” at the Chekhov Moscow Art Theater

Oleg Gudachev, performer and multi-instrumentalist improviser, co-founder, artist and artistic director of {instead} ensemble, participant of various festivals: reMusik.org, "Time of Music: Findesiècle'' and others, music author to productions at the Alexandrinsky Theatre and the Lensovet Theatre

Daria Zvezdina, performer, improviser, laureate of all-Russian composers’ competitions, "DeKa'' art-group member, the"Golden Donkey'' project’s participant at Stanislavsky Electrotheatre

Daniel Pilchen, performer, improviser, participant of  "DeKa'' art-group, music author to productions at Stanislavsky Electrotheatre and Moscow Thater “School of Modern Drama”

Alexey Sysoev, performer, improviser, music author to theater productions by Kirill Serebrennikov, Filipp Grigoryan and dance company Gay&Rony Club, 2013th Golden Mask Award winner for the best work of a musical theater composer, Opera "The Sverlians.  Episode IV is in the repertoire of the Stanislavsky Electrotheatre,

Boris Filanovsky, curator, member of the SoMa group of composers, music is performed by Theodor Kurentzis, Vladimir Jurowski, musicAeterna, unitedberlin, MASM, eNsemble, etc., Opera “The Sverlians. Episode II" is in the repertoire of the Stanislavsky Electrotheatre, the musical sculpture "Architecton Theta" is in the repertoire of the Tovstonogov Drama Theater

Alexander Khubeyev, curator, co-founder and curator of the reMusik.org composition course in Saint Petersburg, a fellow of the Berlin Academy of Arts, the winner of Russian and international music competitions.

In the middle of the lockdown, as one cultural institution after another folded and artists found themselves in distress, eight young composers received grant support and carte blanche to pursue their ideas. Only the number of performers and the length of the work were regulated: from 5 to 9 musicians and 15 minutes, respectively. By mid-fall, eight new works were ready. Different composers, belonging to different generations and aesthetic camps, created new works that often existed at the junction of music, performative practices, and visual art, largely corresponded to the main contemporary academic music and art trends.

For the first time the scores were performed in Moscow on October 16, 2020, at the opening ceremony of the 15th Territory International Festival-School of Contemporary Art, the most important forum of contemporary art in Russia. The first Territory Festival, held in 2006, played a huge role in the history of new Russian music, presenting works by the very young then and now the most renowned contemporary Russian composers in Europe — Dmitri Kurlyandsky and Sergei Nevsky.

In the future, the Aksenov Family Foundation intends to present musical pieces by Russian composers of the new wave in Europe. The initiators of the Russian Music 2.0 project plan to make it an annual event.