2020-2021 – Русские Сезоны

2021

RUSSIAN SEASONS IN THE REPUBLIC OF KOREA

In 2021 the main focus of the project was on the events organized by the Russian Seasons in the Republic of Korea.

Since October 2021, when Russian Seasons officially opened in Seoul, 10 concerts within the framework of the project have been held in 6 different cities: Seoul, Daejeon, Incheon, Gwangju, Goyang, Nowong-gu.

Three of them were streamed on the Stay Home with Russian Seasons platform and received over 500 thousand views; concerts were also streamed on Korean resources; the maximum number of Korean unique viewers reached 80 thousand.

The project was inaugurated on October 2 with a concert of the Moscow Soloists Chamber Ensemble under the direction of maestro Yuri Bashmet. The opening ceremony was attended by Deputy Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation V.G. Osintsev and Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism of the Republic of Korea Hwang Hee.

Over the next few days the musical program was presented in five more South Korean cities. The next part of the program featured recitals of the famous Russian violinist Vadim Repin to the accompaniment of the South Korean pianist Tae-Hyun Kim. The musicians presented two different programs in Seoul and Daejeon on October 17 and 18, 2021.

A month later, on November 21, Vladimir Tolstoy, Advisor to the President of the Russian Federation on cultural issues and a descendant of Leo Tolstoy, delivered a lecture at the Hanguk University of Foreign Languages. This was followed by a landmark event – the opening of a portrait sculpture of the great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy at the Seoul House of Literature. Simultaneously, an exhibition of works by young artists of the St. Petersburg State Repin Academy of Fine Arts was opened.

The final chord of the Russian Seasons series of events included two unique concerts by the Mariinsky Stradivarius Ensemble conducted by maestro Valery Gergiev, on November 24, 2021 in the Lotte Concert Hall.

The online closing ceremony of the Russian Seasons in the Republic of Korea 2021 was held on December 30, 2021.

On December 31, Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Nutcracker, which has become the most established symbol of a New Year show, was streamed on the platform of the project’s partner SMOTRIM as part of the project’s closing. Performed by students of the Vaganova Ballet Academy and Mariinsky Symphony Orchestra, The Nutcracker had been filmed a day earlier on the historical stage of the famous Mariinsky Theater.

2020-2021

FRANCE, BELGIUM, LUXEMBOURG

RUSSIAN SEASONS IN FRANCE

The official opening ceremony of the international cultural project Russian Seasons in France took place on January 16, 2020 at the famous Odeon theater in Paris.

The Odeon Theater is one of three theaters that bears the honorary title of Theater of Europe, along with the Piccolo Theatro di Milano and the Maly Drama Theater. The evening included a premiere performance of Uncle Vanya based on the same-name play by the great Russian writer Anton Chekhov. This production, directed by one of the head-liners of modern French directing, Artistic director of the Odeon Theater Stefan Braunschweig, was presented by the prominent Russian theater company – the Theater of Nations under the direction of People’s Artist of the Russian Federation Evgeny Mironov.

The Russian Seasons project in 2020 envisaged more than 400 events.

Prior to the introduction of restrictive measures, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, by the Governments of Russia, France, Belgium and Luxembourg, 117 events took place, including: a tour of the Leonid Yakobson Ballet Theater, the exhibition The Magic of Watercolor by Sergei Andriyaka, concerts by a Russian pianist Rem Urasin and a violin virtuoso Vadim Repin, a tour of the GITIS theater and more.

Due to the epidemiological situation and the cancellation of public Russian Seasons events, an online service Stay home with Russian Seasons was launched on March 23, 2020.

The project was designed as a free media library for video materials of the Russian Seasons participants, aiming at continuation of the Russian Seasons series of events, despite introducing restrictive measures, and provided access to Russian cultural content for foreign and Russian audiences. Streamings of symphonic music concerts, dance and theater productions from leading Russian companies and cultural institutions took place every week.

All streamings at Stay Home with Russian Seasons were accompanied by French or English subtitles.

RUSSIAN SEASONS IN BELGIUM

A symbol of the revival of the project after a pause in 2020, caused by coronavirus restrictions, was the traditional ceremony of dressing the famous statue Manneken Pis in Brussels in a stylized version of the Russian guardsman’s costume, which took place on June 12, 2021, on Russia Day.

The ceremony was attended by representatives of municipal authorities, as well as the Russian Ambassador to Belgium Alexander Tokovinin.

Within the framework of the Russian Seasons in Belgium and with the support of the Russian Center for Science and Culture in Brussels, the choir of the State Academic Chapel of St. Petersburg under the direction of People’s Artist of the USSR Vladislav Chernushenko gave concerts in the country’s four largest Catholic cathedrals. The concerts were attended by more than 3,000 spectators from Europe and Russia and covered all regions of Belgium: Brussels, Flemish and Walloon.

In December, the Bozar Fine Arts Center in Belgium hosted a series of concerts by soloists of the All-Russian Youth Symphony Orchestra and by the Mariinsky Stradivarius Ensemble, the latter conducted by maestro Valery Gergiev.