A festival is a project of large dimensions, which involves a lot of preparation behind the scenes, involving in the background, requiring the non-stop work of many people. The Sverdlovsk Academic Philharmonic would not be able to make such a present to the listeners of Yekaterinburg without the work of numerous volunteers. Even simple tasks become difficult when you have to do all of them at once. The staff members of Sverdlovsk Academic Philharmonic would like to thank the volunteers of the festival for their help. They are responsible for many tasks of the festival – they help to meet the guests, musicians, journalists, to translate and interpret from English, Chinese, Spanish, German, Korean, fulfil the role of the correspondents, camera men, and do many other, sometimes small, but important things.

All tickets for the concert of Byzantion Choir are already sold. In this regard we are happy to inform you that everyone has possibility to hear the inimitable Byzantine singing. On the 12th of October, at 16.00 Romanian Byzantion Choir gives a concert at the orthodox bell-tower church Bolshoi Zlatoust (Big Chrysostome) located at 8th of March str., 17 in Yekaterinburg. This concert is going to be the first charity event of the festival.

(с) Photos by Christian Hufnagel and Sverdlovsk Philharmonic

Sorry, this entry is only available in Rus.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Rus.

Happiness, enthusiasm, pleasure in the eyes of the audience. The second day of the festival not only brought the visitors to the date with the breathtaking rhythms of the traditional Chinese melodies, but also a gift in a form of 700 small Chinese drums.
Each visitor was given this simple musical instrument, which elated all the guests. The last music piece was performed both by the audience and by the orchestra. On a conductor’s signal the musicians and the audience played in turn.  Elation came to rapture when each listener felt as a part of high-power and harmonious chorus.
After this inspired action, the listeners and  musicians all in one applauded with the same eagerness, that they had just put into the drum playing. So their efforts were rewarded with an inimitable Chinese interpretation of “Kalinka”.

>> See report on the Festival Blog

It is symbolic that the first sounds of the festival «Eurasia» were the drumming of the exotic Korean drum changgu, sounded at the press conference in honour of the Opening of the festival «Eurasia». It is a little-known in Russia and in the West musical instrument and for the first time in history it will have solo with the orchestra at the concert on 4 October. Such a daring art decision was born in the creative imagination of the contemporary Korean composer Eun-Hwa Cho, who specially composed the new composition for the festival by the request of the Ural Philharmonic orchestra. How the unique idea occurred to her and what it means – about that and many other things everyone can learn at the meeting with composers (Eun-Hwa Cho, Leonid Desyatnikov and Olga Victorova), which will take place the next day after the evening of premieres, to be exact on 5 October at 13.00 in the Chamber hall of the Philharmonic.

Towards a new music – on a meeting with the composers!

A welcome speech by the Director of the State Hermitage museum Mikhail Piotrovsky.

Dear friends!

I am happy to greet the guests, the organizers and the participants of the Second International Music Festival “Eurasia”. My sincere congratulations to the Sverdlovsk Academic Philharmonic and the city of Yekaterinburg on opening such a great and impressive musical event. The programme of the festival enraptures by the plenty and the variety of the events: orchestras from China, Netherlands and Germany, the musicians from 14 countries, “The Silk Rout” project, and imposing academic conference devoted to mutual influences of East and West cultures.

The idea of the festival is very close to me, as to the orientalist. The intercultural dialogue, the richness of cultural languages, observant eyes of a researcher are directed to the East, over the ethnic, mental and cultural barriers. It is not a mere coincidence that a Latin aphorism “Ex Oriente Lux” – “Light from the East” has become the festival motto. We can overcome the detachment of two worlds, two civilizations only by means of direct communication, deep learning of the concept of “foreign “ with the help of music and art. The Festival “Eurasia” has been organized intentionally to solve this humanistic problem.

I wish the festival every success, storms of applause to the musicians, and the brightest musical impressions to the visitors of the Sverdlovsk Academic Philharmonic.

The flag of the festival is fluttering above the Philharmonic.
At the main entrance to Sverdlovsk Academic Philharmonic which embraces the participants of the non-stop Eurasian Music Festival, such as China, Japan, South Korea, Germany, Romania, Spain, Vietnam, Turkey, Latvia, Netherlands, Great Britain, USA, Azerbaijan and Russia whose flags are installed guests from the 14 different countries are able to find the symbolic of their countries.
The main flag of the Eurasia Festival waves above the building that has drawn together the musical forces of different countries.