Author: VK
Today the International Festival "Moscow Meets Friends" will open in the capital of Russia and will bring together young talents from around the world. The festival is organized by the Charitable Foundation of Vladimir Spivakov, with the support of federal and Moscow government structures. The prestigious event will be held this year for the 10th time. This festival has accommodated approximately 20,000 children from all over the world, from 50 countries. It usually involves dance collectives from Belarus, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, the Caucasus republics.
“The program runs in many places, including hospitals, including children's colonies”, Vladimir Spivakov, President of the International Charity Foundation, People's Artist of the USSR, says. “We, together with the Foundation "Vera", will make our first contribution to the construction of a children's hospice in Moscow, which does not exist yet. And as you know, if I may say so not very modestly, this is the course of my life, because at the Moscow International House of Music we constantly and repeatedly host concerts to help children in need. We collect the funds, and as a rule, fortunately for us all, it ends happily, and in this way we give life to these children. About 111 such surgeries have taken place, not even approximately, exactly 111 surgeries. Moreover, 300 children got a chance for a medical examination. Such festivals are a bridge between the material and the spiritual”.
“Indeed, people associated with culture respond to the pain of others more quickly than those whose help we may be, we would like to see more, people related to business and money”, Nuta Federmesser, President of the Foundation for Hospice Aid "Vera", says. “The foundation "Vera" had a few interesting projects, we had charity performances in Moscow theatres, organized with the help of the Ministry of Culture, we had a concert at the Bolshoi Theatre, we have published two books. I tell you this to demonstrate that people associated with culture, they feel more acutely, they are more vulnerable, they are sensitive to someone else's misfortune, and they quickly come to the rescue. Here's the festival, look at the program, it's huge. It is a gigantic, titanic work. Work on the next festival begins the day after the previous one ends. The number of children who participate, it is the children who are more mature than their peers. We are touched by sitting at your concerts, we applaud, we cry easily, "How wonderful! So young, he plays so well," it is a titanic task. These are people, who when they grow up will become citizens of their country of a completely different quality”.
“I strongly advise those who have not yet been to come!” - Leonid Roshal, Professor and Director of the Institute of Emergency Children's Surgery and Traumatology, says. “If you cannot come to some particular performances, come to the final one. Will it again be held at Moscow State University? And look at it. The soul is happy, you know. You know that you need it. There is a need for union, union of different nationalities from different republics. Not that you sit, as it were, in the Soviet Union, it is more - you sit in the world. And listen to the children. And when they all come together, too. I think it's an absolutely wonderful idea and it is great that it has been implemented. And I see that in general the festival is growing in volume and in intensity”.
