Venezuelan musicians will participate in the I. Sollertinsky Festival in Vitebsk for the first time

November 22, Vitebsk / Sergey Kochetov - BELTA /. For the first time, musicians from Venezuela will participate in the I. Sollerthinsky International Music Festival, which will open in Vitebsk on December 2. This was announced today to journalists by Stanislav Generalnitsky, chief specialist of the culture department of the regional executive committee, as reported by a BELTA correspondent. The story of how a concert by young musicians Raul Suarez (violin) and Joseph Avila (piano) appeared on the poster of the traditional classical music forum is not entirely ordinary. The proposal to organize such a performance was submitted to the festival's organizing committee by the Embassy of Venezuela in Belarus. At the same time, according to the festival regulations, only laureates of international competitions and the faculty of leading conservatories can be participants. "We cannot invite musicians unknown to us to the festival, so we asked them to provide a video, after watching which I can assure you: these are very talented guys," noted Stanislav Generalnitsky. Currently, the musicians are students of the Paris Academy of Music and already have experience performing on a serious stage. In Vitebsk, the performers will bring an interesting program consisting of classical music hits and a number of interesting works that have not yet been performed at the Vitebsk festival, Stanislav Generalnitsky added. Among the new names of this year's festival are also musicians from Finland and Norway. On December 9, a vocal music concert by Sini Tuomisalo (mezzo-soprano) and Camilla Ediassen (soprano) will take place. The vocalists will present a diverse program of ancient Russian romances, as well as Finnish classical romances and folk songs, which will be performed on the Vitebsk stage for the first time. This year, the organizers have established a tradition of inviting talented students from Vitebsk music educational institutions to the festival. "In the opinion of the organizing committee, in addition to satisfying the aesthetic demands of the listeners, the festival should contribute to the development of the national performing school, therefore, starting from the XXII forum, we intend to involve talented youth in the festival orbit," emphasized Stanislav Generalnitsky. On December 3, during the festival, a concert by the orchestra of Russian folk instruments and the accordion orchestra of music colleges of the Vitebsk region will take place. The XXII I. Sollerthinsky International Music Festival will be held in Vitebsk from December 2 to 22 with the participation of musicians from Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, the USA, France, Israel, Finland, Norway, and Venezuela. In total, the festival program includes 10 concert programs, as well as the XII scientific readings of the I. Sollerthinsky Festival and the XX International Shagal Readings. The organizers note that for the second year in a row, there has been competition among ensembles and performers for participation in the festival. "Unfortunately, this year we had to refuse very interesting ensembles, as they did not quite fit into the established festival program," said Stanislav Generalnitsky. In addition, the festival program for 2011 is more than half formed, and next year a large number of music stars are expected to visit Vitebsk, he added. The organizers of the I. Sollerthinsky International Music Festival are the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee, the City Executive Committee, and the state concert institution "Vitebsk Regional Philharmonic Society." -0-