The People’s Artist of Russia, well-known viola player, conductor and teacher Yuri Bashmet is one of the most significant and expected musical events in Belarus.
It is compared to the well-known concerts in Austrian Salzburg and Swiss Verbier, and tickets are always sold out long before the festival starts. It is no wonder — Yuri Bashmet’s performances can’t be called normal, classical concerts. It is more like a modern interpretation of classics with a lot of experimentation. Last year, for example, the festival opening was held in the form of musical-circus show in the capital’s circus. Acrobats and gymnasts soared under the dome to the strains of classical music. And what is more, this festival always gathers a lot of stars!
This year, Bashmet brings the eighth festival to Minsk. The musical forum has pleased audience with performances of soloists from the best opera theatres of the world, the world famous pianist, Nikolay Lugansky, violinist Maxim Vengerov, pianist Rostislav Krimer and talented actors from Russia, Belarus, Poland, Estonia, Sweden, Germany, Turkey and other countries. The President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, congratulated the participants and visitors of the festival at its opening, noting that the festival was a ‘real holiday of music that gathers a constellation of unique talent, from legendary stars to bright young musicians, and pleases us with the variety of musical genres and masterly skill of its participants’.
