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Glinka Competition to end with gala concert in Moscow Wed

The names of Competition laureates are to become known late on Wednesday night

MOSCOW, December 14 (Itar-Tass) — The finalists of the XXIV International vocalists' competition named after Russian composer Mikhail Glinka are to compete in the Grand Hall of Moscow Conservatoire here on Wednesday. The concluding stage of the creative contest will be held in the form of a gala concert. The names of Competition laureates are to become known late on Wednesday night.

Fifteen vocalists from Russia, Moldova, Mongolia, North and South Koreas have qualified for the final. Accordinging to Nadezhda Kuzyakova, executive director of the Irina Arkhipova Foundation, the Competition jury points out a high artistic level of the contestants' grounding. Russia is represented in the final by singers from Moscow, St Petersburg, and Ufa. In the third round of the Competition, contestants will sing to the accompaniment of the Symphony Orchestra of the Orpheus Radio under the baton of Sergei Kondrashov and Viktor Kulikov.

The XXIV International vocalists' competition began in the Academy of Choral Art on December 4. It involved over 100 vocalists of Russia, CIS countries, Germany, China, Croatia, and other states.

It is not by chance that the Competition has been also privately dubbed an "Arkhipova" one. Irina Arkhipova headed the Competition jury for decades. It was her life-work. Due to Arkhipova's efforts, the Glinka Competition became the country's national asset. This time the jury is headed by National Artist of the USSR Vladislav Piavko.

The Glinka Competition is among the longest-running and most prestigious musical contests in this country. This artistic contest is notable for lack of a preliminary selection on the basis of recorded performance. The jury evaluates contestants exclusively on the strength of actual singing during public renditions.

Over its five-decade history the Competition has yielded several generations of outstanding executants for the world's vocal art, such as Olga Borodina, Anna Netrebko, Maria Gulegina, Dmitry Khvorostovsky, Vladimir Chernov, Askar Abdrazakov, Ildar Abdrazakov and many other ones.

The Glinka Competition was included in the Federal programme "The Culture of Russia. 2006-2011". The Russian Ministry of Culture, the International Union of Music Professionals, and the Russian State Television and Radio Center are among the founders of the Glinka Competition.

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