The jubilee International Organ Music Festival "Bells of Sofia" has opened in Polotsk

The jubilee International Organ Music Festival "Zvyany Safii" has opened in Polotsk, gathering Belarusian and foreign musicians and spectators for the 20th time, despite all difficulties.

On Sunday evening, the city streets are sparsely populated, oak leaves fly underfoot, and when you climb the hill where the ancient St. Sophia Cathedral stands, you meet few people. It seems that the city is empty, and you involuntarily fear: will the concert hall also be without spectators? However, the fears are in vain, behind the doors of the cathedral it is crowded, most of the guests came here in advance and have already taken their seats. The listeners were treated to an unusual concert for the opening. Ksenia Pogorelaya, organist of the St. Sophia Cathedral Concert Hall, and soloists Valentin Yukhnevich (trumpet) and Victoria Babenko (violin) performed a wide variety of music: from Baroque classics to the works of contemporary composers. The musicians prepared their own arrangements of well-known and lesser-known works for this unusual and spectacular trio. And playing an encore for the third time, they amazed the audience with the composition Besame mucho, known to everyone.

The festival does not suffer from a lack of spectators, says its inspirer Ksenia Pogorelaya, but filling the hall requires year-round work: — We maintain contact with our regular listeners, and we benefit from being able to connect on social media. Over 20 years, a tradition of attending our concerts has formed, and as early as September-early October, people inquire about the festival's program. "Zvany Safii" is mainly attended by residents of Polotsk and surrounding towns, with some coming from Minsk. A portion of tickets is pre-purchased by guests from Smolensk and Pskov. There is no organized tourism specifically for the festival, although occasionally a tour company might bring a bus. However, it's packed here anyway. It is noticeable that the majority of listeners in the hall are middle-aged and older. A sign of an organ music lover is gray hair. There are not as many young people as we would like, admits Ksenia Pogorelaya, and there are reasons for this: — It has become difficult to work with young people in terms of season tickets. Previously, we held subscription concerts almost every month, and after 7-8 years, we saw an influx of young audiences. In recent years, this process has slowed down, and we are working with young children: kindergarten, 1st-2nd grades. Perhaps this is due to the removal of the "World Art Culture" lesson from the school curriculum, and in general, there is less music in schools. We tried to revive the World Art Culture program, to showcase the cultural layer of the 17th-18th centuries. Moreover, being in the historical architecture of the Saint Sophia Cathedral. It was interesting; the children simply attended the concert as if it were an unusual lesson. Now it is more difficult to invite schoolchildren and organize them, and as a consequence, our audience is not expanding with young people.

This year marks a jubilee not only for the festival but also for the organ of St. Sophia Cathedral, reminds Tamara Dzhumantaeva, Director of the National Polotsk Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve: — The organ turned 30 this spring. It was built for us by the Czech firm Rieger Kloss and installed in February 1985. And already in March, the first organ concert took place in the museum of the history of St. Sophia Cathedral architecture, when People's Artist of Russia Oleg Yanchenko performed in Polotsk. The concert hall within the walls of St. Sophia was opened in 1983, and before the organ's installation, only chamber music was performed here. True, it took 10 years from the installation of the instrument and the first concerts to the creation of the international festival. The festival "Zvany Safii" is partially funded by the state: despite all difficulties, the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee allocates funds for it annually. Now, famous performers from abroad often do not wait for an invitation — they ask to participate in the festival themselves, rejoices Ksenia Pogorela: — This time, French organist Pierre Zevort performed in the festival's overture, there were guests from Denmark, Russians will perform, a musician from Austria, Johann Trummer — a professor, dean of the Institute of Church Music and Organ, there will be Italian organist and composer Eugenio Maria Fagiani... He, by the way, simply sent me a letter on Facebook, introduced his recordings and biography. We listened — we liked it, and decided to invite him.

Irina Ovsepyan. Photo by Vladimir Shlapak. "SB".