Impressions of the XXI International Conservatory Week festival

Impressions of the XXI International Conservatory Week festival
Thank you very much for your kind e-mail and your warm hospitality in Saint Petersburg! I have to tell, I enjoyed very much to being first time in your beautiful City and also the high level musical moments on the concert and the masterclass as well. 
The concert in the Mariinsky Hall was one of my best concert memory in my life, to play in this beautiful hall and the great orchestra you have, also enjoyed very much to play together with wonderful musician, Maestro Vasiliev, not to mention my colleague Oleg Weinstein, who played marvelously the Liszt 1st Piano Concerto! I send my greetings to all of you!
Behalf of the Liszt Academy in Budapest, I would be very happy, if we could collaborate more in the future and we could find out some opportunities to organize common projects, concerts between your students, professors and our Academy as well. 
I hope we can meet soon in the future!

Warmest regards:
Gábor FARKAS
Professor, Head of the keyboard department at the 
Franz Liszt Academy of Music (Budapest, Hungary)

I want to congratulate you for a wonderful Festival. Everything was super high class artistically, emotionally and organizationally. I felt privileged to be a part of your XXI Festival edition. I also want to thank you for your kindness and hospitality. During my whole stay I felt taken care of so well.
 
Teemu LAASANEN
Festival Manager
Mikkeli Music Festival
Piano lecturer, Head of piano department
Mikkeli Music Institute (Finland)
Founder and CEO of MusicFairyTales

We would like to thank you once again for your warm welcome and the excellent organization of the Festival. It was a great pleasure and happiness for us to perform in the St. Petersburg Philharmonia Small Hall as well as at the Russian-German conference in the St. Petersburg Conservatory! We very much hope that the masterclass of Professor Thomas Steinhöfel will take place next year or later at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. 
We wish you good health and creative power!

Regards, 
The Lied Duo Ensemble
Tatiana TIMCHENKO, soprano, and Tatiana KACHKO, piano
The Franz Liszt University of Music (Weimar, Germany)

I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to you and your team for this wonderful opportunity. It was a true pleasure to be a part of your fine festival and collaborate with such stellar professionals like Mitya Nilov and Grigoriy Osipov.
The students were fantastic to work with, and the faculty was very kind and hospitable. Everyone contributed to the touchingly warm, yet professional atmosphere. Please pass my gratitude and compliments along to your team members.
 
Best,
Ksenija KOMLJENOVIĆ, DMA
Assistant Professor of Percussion
Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi

Thank you and your entire team for inviting and helping me and Ksenija Komljenović to perform at the Festival! Ksenija and I were very pleased to perform together on our home stage at the St. Petersburg Philharmonia Small Hall. In spite of all the potential difficulties with our instruments, everything was organized at the highest level. Every member of your team helped us every minute of our stay in St. Petersburg. 
We hope to see you in the near future, and we wish you health and strength in such difficult times for all. 

Sincerely yours, 
Mitya NILOV, percussion (Russia-USA)

I would like to thank you once again for inviting Adam Baldych (violin, Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music, Katowice, Poland) and the Equilibrium String Quartet (Poland) to the two concerts held in St. Petersburg during the International Conservatory Week festival, as well as for the wonderful time spent in Russia thanks to you. I hope that the musical emotions shared by the artists during the concerts will stay with you for a long time! Thank you also for your support throughout the whole organizational process, which resulted in no problems at all - everyone got safely to their destinations.
I hope we will have more opportunities to work together. 
 
Group Manager Arthur Mahlke (Poland)

As a participant in the conference "German Musicians in the City on the Neva", held October 25-26, 2021 at the St. Petersburg Conservatory as part of the International Conservatory Week festival, I would like to express my deep appreciation for the kind, excellent support of this event, as well as for the invitation and opportunity to participate in the conference, which is a great honor for me. The conference itself left a very bright and diverse impression, starting from the spacious room filled with enthusiastic and highly professional people, continuing with the expressive details of the exhibition, amazing musical accompaniment and ending with impeccable technical equipment. Obviously, nowadays it is very difficult to perfectly organize such an international event. I would like to wish your Festival further success and thank you again for the invitation to the conference, for the opportunity to be and speak at the St. Petersburg Conservatory again, for the warm welcome and for your professionalism.
 
Regards and warmest wishes, 
Natalia Valerievna GUBKINA,
PhD in Art History 
Bildungs und Kulturförderungsinstitut Elitelyzeum GmbH. (Vienna, Austria)

Die wissenschaftliche Konferenz „Deutsche Musiker in der Stadt an der Newa“, die vom 25. bis 26. Oktober 2021 unter der Leitung von Larisa Vasil’evna Popkova am St. Petersburger Konservatorium stattfand, hat bei mir einen hervorragenden und nachhaltigen Eindruck hinterlassen. Die Referenten waren bestens ausgewiesene Spezialisten auf ihren Gebieten, die Vorträge reich an neuen Erkenntnissen. Es ergab sich das Bild einer nahezu dreihundertjährigen Geschichte von Musikbezie-hungen zwischen St. Petersburg und den deutschsprachigen Ländern, einer Geschichte, in der die Konferenz des Jahres 2021 selbst den jüngsten Baustein bildete.
Für uns Teilnehmende aus dem Ausland war es eine große Freude und Ehre, dabei sein zu dürfen. Nicht nur in inhaltlicher, son-dern auch in organisatorischer Hinsicht war die Konferenz exzellent vorbereitet, und dank der Unterstützung des 21. Festivals „Internatio-nale Woche der Konservatorien“ unter der Leitung von Lidija L’vovna Volček waren die Umstände, unter denen die Konferenz stattfand, in jeder Hinsicht angenehm – und das, obwohl die äußeren Bedingungen der Pandemie die Durchführung von vornherein erschwerten. Eine Fortsetzung des Unternehmens würde ich sehr begrüßen, ebenso die Herausgabe des Konferenzberichts.

Prof. Dr. Stefan WEISS
Musikwissenschaftliches Institut
Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover (Hannover, Germany)

Lassen Sie mich noch einmal Dank sagen für die Möglichkeit, an der von Ihnen veranstalteten Konferenz „Deutsche Musiker in der Stadt an der Newa“ teilzunehmen.
Es war eine überaus nützliche Veranstaltung, weil das Thema der Konferenz meines Wissens bislang selten in solch einer umfassenden Zusammenschau betrachtet worden ist. Die Beiträge waren von hohem fachlichen Niveau, die Intensität der Forschungen der einzelnen Wissenschaftler beachtlich. Die Vorträge haben meinen Wissensstand wesentlich erweitert und Anstoß zu weiteren Forschungen gegeben.
Eine wunderbare Ergänzung waren die musikalischen Zwischenspiele – weil bislang selten gespielte Werke vorgetragen wurden und die wiederum in einer bemerkenswerten Qualität (z.B. das Streichquartett Nr. 2 D-dur von Franz Adam Veichtner). Den Musikern ist hier sehr zu danken!
Ebenso bemerkenswert war die gesamte Organisation der Konferenz – ein Umstand, der wegen der durch die Pandemie erschwerten äußeren Umstände umso mehr ins Gewicht fällt. Von diesen Schwierigkeiten haben die Gäste nichts gemerkt, der Ablauf der Konferenz und die Betreuung waren sehr angenehm.

Haben Sie nochmals herzlichen Dank!
Dr. Christian NEEF
Autor für Russland und Osteuropa 
(Hamburg, Germany)


Dear colleagues, I would like to thank you for organizing the conference "German Musicians in the City on the Neva". Interesting information, friendly atmosphere of discussions and excellent living conditions made the work of the conference participants fruitful and comfortable. I find the idea of including musical "illustrations" in the reports to allow a direct appreciation of the works of forgotten composers a good one.
I wish you further success in the reconstruction of the history of Russian musical culture.

Elvira Korneevna PETRI
Honored worker of culture of the Russian Federation
Research worker of the Nizhniy Novgorod M. I. Glinka State Conservatory

I would like to give my heartfelt thanks to the organizers for the opportunity to participate in the International Scientific Conference "German Musicians in the City on the Neva". Two days of the conference were filled with vivid impressions and unique emotions. I would like to note the high professional level of the reports, the wide geography of the participants, the accurate and logically structured program, perfectly realized idea of connecting theoretical research with the performance of music of the heroes of just sounded scientific studies. Special thanks for the organization of the life of the visiting participants, for a very good and conveniently located hotel.
All the best to you.
 
Regards, 
Marina Gennadyevna DOLGUSHINA
D. in Art History, associate professor, 
Head of the Department of Musical art and education
Vologda State University