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Festival Concert Programme
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From 26 October to 5 November 2024, the N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov St. Petersburg State Conservatory will host the XXIV International Conservatory Week Festival. It has already been 24 years that this absolutely unique large-scale event initiated by the oldest higher music school of Russia is presenting various concert programmes, academic conferences, masterclasses, exhibitions, public lectures, educational seminars.
The Festival concert program offers symphonic, choral and chamber works, modern ethnic and crossover opuses, jazz compositions given by the students and professors of the Russian Conservatories and foreign higher music schools. Some works by renowned composers will also be premiered. The Festival special events are dedicated to the anniversaries of the several greatest Russian cultural figures — Alexander Pushkin, Mikhail Glinka and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.
Among the participants, there are soloists and creative teams of the St. Petersburg, Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod State Conservatories, the Belarusian State Academy of Music (Minsk), the State Conservatory of Uzbekistan (Tashkent), the University of Arts in Belgrade (Serbia) and higher music schools of China. There are also guests from Armenia, Hungary and Lebanon.
On 26 October, the Festival will traditionally begin in the Grand Hall of the D.D. Shostakovich St. Petersburg Academic Philharmonia with an opening concert which includes the solemn ceremony of awarding the diploma and the Honorary Professor’s gown of the St. Petersburg State Conservatory to the People’s artist of Russia, well-known public figure and the participant of numerous concert events Nikolai Burov.
The opening concert programme includes the oratorio “Ivan the Terrible” and the Piano Concerto No. 2 by Sergei Prokofiev. The oratorio “Ivan the Terrible” will be performed by Nikolai Burov, the Combined Choir of the St. Petersburg, Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod State Conservatories Choirs and the Armenian State Chamber Choir, and the Symphony Orchestra of the St. Petersburg State Conservatory. The Piano Concerto No. 2 will be played by the St. Petersburg State Conservatory Symphony Orchestra conducted by the rector, the Honoured Artist of Russia Alexei Vasiliev. The solo will be performed by the famous Russian pianist Miroslav Kultyshev.
On 27 October, the Choir Academies will feature the creative teams from Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod and the celebrated Armenian State Chamber Choir presenting a wide variety of choral music in the Concert Hall of the State Academic Capella of St. Petersburg. They will perform the works of the jubilee composers 2024, including the compositions written by Armenian composer Tigran Mansurian.
On 28 October, the National Instruments Ensemble of the State Conservatory of Uzbekistan, as well as the soloists and the Russian National Instruments Orchestra of the St. Petersburg State Conservatory will perform in the Hermitage Theatre as a part of the Ethno – Classic – XXI project.
On 29 October, two world premieres will take place in the Atrium of the Hermitage General Staff building. The collaborative work of the two composers from St. Petersburg — Anton Tanonov and Sergei Ekimov, “The Tale of Kozma Minin and the City of Nizhny Novgorod”, will be presented by the reader, mixed choir, domra, button accordion, bass guitar and percussion instruments. The performance of the cantata “The Chinese Radiance” composed by Yang Jinpeng is timed to the 75-year anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Russia and China within the cross years of culture launched by the two countries.
On 30 October, the conductor Michel El Murr, the soprano Nadine Nassar and the tenor Eliya Francis from Lebanon will perform for the first time in St. Petersburg in the Large Italian Skylight Hall of the State Hermitage Museum. There is also a well-known saxophonist Sergei Kolesov in the concert program. The soloists will be accompanied by the St. Petersburg State Conservatory Chamber Orchestra conducted by the Honoured artist of Russia Arkady Steinlucht.
On 31 October, the traditional concert Festival Jazz will take place in the St. Petersburg State Jazz Philharmonic Hall. The well-known musicians participating in the concert will be headed by the People’s artist of Russia, the founder and artistic director of the Jazz Philharmonic Hall, the Honorary Citizen of St. Petersburg, the Honorary Professor of the St. Petersburg State Conservatory maestro David Goloschekin.
On 1 November, within the Chamber Series cycle, the soloists from higher music schools of China, the University of Arts in Belgrade and guests from Hungary will show their excellence in the M.I. Glinka Small Hall of the St. Petersburg Academic Philharmonia.
On 2 November, the concert program will culminate in compositions written by the St. Petersburg State Conservatory graduates — the Cello Concerto No. 2 by Dmitri Shostakovich and the Symphony No. 4 by Pyotr Tchaikovsky. The works will be performed on the Mariinsky Theatre Concert Hall stage by the St. Petersburg State Conservatory Symphony Orchestra conducted by the rector, the Honoured Artist of Russia Alexei Vasiliev. The solo will be performed by the People’s Artist of Russia Alexander Knyazev.
On 3 November, the Organ Academies concert will be conducted in the Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady of Lourdes. Prominent organ players of the Russian Conservatory and the Belarusian Academy of Music will play the unique Walcker organ.
On the same day, the program “The Step into the Future – 2024” will complete the series of the Festival concerts. The winners of the Competition among youth wood, brass and mixed wind ensembles — the students of the Secondary Special Music School, the N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov Music College, the M.P. Mussorgsky Music College and the first-year students of the St. Petersburg Conservatory will perform in the Concert Hall of the St. Petersburg State Conservatory.
The International Conservatory Week Festival 2024 will launch a new innovative project The Festival Business Venue which includes The Youth Ideas Forum on music events development and presentation, involving cultural institutions managers on the Advisory Board. The St. Petersburg State Conservatory and the Creative Arts Universities students will gain the opportunity to try themselves as the future organizers of culture and art events. The Festival Business Venue will feature a conference for the student volunteer program representatives of different courses dedicated to the St. Petersburg State Conservatory Volunteer Club foundation.
The Festival Applied Research Section includes an academic conference and a documentary exhibition “The St. Petersburg traditions in Russian Art” dedicated to the anniversaries of Pushkin, Glinka and Rimsky-Korsakov; educational seminars on choir and opera-symphony conducting, wind instruments performing, concert management; meet-the-artist events and masterclasses. The Creative Workshop on Music Journalism will continue working headed by the Doctor of Art History, the Moscow State Conservatory professor and executive editor of the “Musical Life” magazine Evgenia Krivitskaya. The Festival Pulse Competition on writing articles, creating video reviews, interviews and essays about the International Conservatory Week Festival events will be traditionally held.