On February 16-26, Sochi will host the 11th Winter International Arts Festival with the participation of leading Russian and foreign artists. The festival will be opened with the play 'Do not Leave the Planet' with the participation of Yuri Bashmet and Konstantin Khabensky. On February 18, Jane Monheit (the US) will perform at the festival's annual jazz concert together with Michael Kanan, Neal Miner and Rick Montalbano. On February 23, the world premiere of "The Queen of Spades" will take place. For the first time, the forum will be attended by the unique Beijing Northern Kunqu Opera Theater, which will show the ancient Chinese opera 'The Story of Jade Hairpin'.
Art director of the festival, People's Artist of the USSR Yuri Bashmet said that the first festival of this kind was held in Sochi six years before the Olympic Games: "We have expanded the festival every year and made it more diverse. It has become a very big arts festival. There have been so many things at this festival: Karpov's chess games, dramatic performances, best jazz, symphonic and chamber music. A new genre was born there - the play 'Do not Leave Your Planet' with Konstantin Khabensky. Reality showed that spectators and listeners are really interested in it. We were a cultural layer at the time of the Olympics, but the festival existed before the Games and continues to exist after them."
Executive Director of the Winter International Arts Festival, Director General of the Russian Concert Agency Dmitry Grinchenko said that the festival is expanding: "In addition to Rosa Hall, the Winter Theater and the Organ Hall, where we hold events, there is a completely new site at the Marine Station, the Chaika Hall, which will host of performances of the Rezo Gabriadze Marionette Theatre. As a whole, there will be seven performances during the festival. The festival's lecture program will be expanded. There will be star lecturers, including [art critic, head of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts] Irina Antonova."
"Each of us is actively creating important things for the festival's educational program. There will be four departments in the music academy now - instrumental, vocal, department of composition and department of folk instruments. This year there will be seven finalists in the contest of young composers, not five, as before," Dmitry Grinchenko said.
