The plafond decorated by the artist Adrey Ryabushkin in 1894, was nearly destroyed during WWII. In 1970 a group of artists managed to recreate the painting. The artist-restorer A. Treskin followed Ryabushkin sketches when creating this plafond. Originally the hall housed the organ of the Dresden “Walker” company which has been replaced in 1961 by a “Riger-Kloss” organ made in Czechoslovakia. In 1980s this organ also broke down and remained silent for over two decades. In 2009 during the IX Conservatoire Week a special ceremony will be held to unveil a new “Eule” organ from Germany.

Since the first concert, January 12, 1896 the Glazunov Concert Hall has always been a center of academic and artistic life in the Conserva- toire. It provides training stage and at the same time functions as an open concert hall. The Glazunov Hall preserves spiritual atmosphere of the Conservatoire, upholds its traditions and accumulates artistic energy provided by generations of musicians, who had performed there. Anna Esipova, Leopold Auer, Alexander Verzhbilovich, Vladimir Sophronitsky, Maria Yudina, Sergei Prokofiev, Dmitry Shostakovich, Artur Rubinstein, Glenn Guld, Mstislav Rostropovich and many other outstanding composers from Russia and abroad have performed in the Hall. In 1920 Maly Hall was named after Alexander Glazunov (1865-1936), former director of the Conservatoire who spent almost 25 years working in the music school.

Since 2001 Glazunov Hall has become the main venue for the “International Conservatoire Week” Festival meant to integrate Russia’s oldest musical school into international musical environment and to hold up the status of the Hall as an international stage of the musical high school community.