In the cultural capital of Russia, as St Petersburg is often called, the 14th international festival "Christmas Musical Meetings in Northern Palmyra" is opening on Thursday. Northern Palmyra is another metaphorical name of the former imperial capital of Russia, Galina Busheva, head of its organizing committee said.

This year's musical meetings will bring together performers and music groups from nine Russian cities - Moscow, St Petersburg, Krasnodar, Orenburg, Belgorod, Tver, and Lipetsk. For the first time the festival will see musicians from Kursk and Irkutsk. Since the festival was launched, it has been participated in by musicians from more than 40 cities.

An event of the festival will be a concert devoted to the 70th birth anniversary of the famed Russian conductor Alexander Dmitriev. There will also be evenings dedicated to the 200th anniversary of Mikhail Glinka and the 90th anniversary of Georgy Sviridov, a series of concerts devoted to the 60th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45.

The festival will end on January 27 on the day marking the 61st anniversary of the liberation of Leningrad from the Nazi blockade: the Philharmonic orchestra will perform Dmitry Shostakovich's Leningrad symphony, which was premiered in the besieged city.

All in all, the festival will offer its audiences about ten concerts, which will be held at the St Petersburg Academic Philharmonic Society named after Dmitry Shostakovich, the Kochneva House and the House of Concert Performers.

The founders of the festival are the Union of Concert Performers of Russia, the city committee on culture, the Culture Ministry of Russia, and the St Petersburg Academic Philharmonic Society. Yuri Temirkanov is the musical administrator of the festival, and Alexander Uteshev, its art director.

News source: www.en.rian.ru/
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