
The UNESCO Headquarters was home to the Belarusian Telegraph Agency (BelTA) exhibition of archival materials about the history of the membership of Belarus in this organisation. In the same place, with assistance of the National Historical Museum of Belarus, they opened the exhibition devoted to the 200th anniversary of Iosif Goshkevich — this ‘Belarusian line’ is in the list of memorable dates of UNESCO for 2014.
The trip to Paris became an original gift for young artistes of well-known group Dudariki from Minsk. They were there with full the complement including Dmitry Rovensky, who is the head of the group. “When rumours reached us that we may be invited to Paris, we at first thought it was a joke!” Dmitry Dmitrievich said. “After the New Year, the Ambassador of Belarus to France, Pavel Latushko, visited our gymnasium #14, and it became clear that it was necessary to prepare for a performance!”
According to Rovensky, over 700 spectators were at the concert hall, and the Minsk gymnasium students displayed Belarusian national musical art in their thirty minute performance. They sang, danced, and played accordions, pipes, reed-pipes and ocarinas, as well as playing household things: railways, a cash register, a saw... At first, the Minister of Culture, Boris Svetlov, briefly told about the achievements of Belarus in the field of culture and then presented this original collective to the audience.
How did Paris receive Dudariki? “It was a great success. We performed our program perfectly, there was much applause and a long ovation,” Dmitry Rovensky is happy with his students. “By the way, we carried our national musical instruments to France from the museum of the gymnasium, the exhibits for which we have been collecting for many decades. The exhibition of 50 instruments with more than 30 names was organised in the foyer before the beginning of the concert, and people showed great interest in it.” The Dudariki concert was organised by the Permanent Representation of Belarus under UNESCO with support of the Minsk City Executive Committee. The artistes received new scenic costumes.
After their performance, they were invited to perform there again in May. The head of the group said that the artistes stayed in a hotel located in the very centre of the city. Parisian impressions will stay in the memory of the Minsk gymnasium students for a long time.
By Ivan [b]Zhdanovich[/b]