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2018 FIFA WORLD CUP IN RUSSIA

Gergiyev suggests creating children’s choirs as part of preparations for 2018 World Cup

On Monday, the Russian Defense Ministry awarded conductor Valery Gergiyev and the musicians of the Mariinsky Theatre’s symphony orchestra with its newly instituted medal "For Liberation of Palmyra"

Valery Gergiyev Yuri Mashkov/TASS

Valery Gergiyev

© Yuri Mashkov/TASS

MOSCOW, May 17 /TASS/. Maestro Valery Gergiyev, the head of the Russian Choral Society and artistic director of the St. Petersburg Mariinsky Theatre, has suggested creating a functioning system of children’s choirs in Russian regions as part of preparations for the 2018 World Cup.

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"The problem of creating children’s choirs is of special importance personally for me. So long as we do not have permanently functioning choirs in regions, we cannot say that we have achieved our goal. We have travelled to Russian regions, which are actively preparing to host the 2018 World Cup. I think we should use this situation to our advantage. There is not so much time left before 2018. If we start rehearsing in 2017, we could already talk about some functioning scenarios," Gergiyev stressed.

The maestro said that the Russian Choral Society should no longer ask for state subsidies. The society has already received support. The most important thing is to remind regions and governors about the assigned tasks. "I am a very bad chairman of the Russian Choral Society because I cannot deal with its problems every hour. But I am good because I constantly travel to regions," Gergiyev added.

He recalled a very unpleasant situation, which happened to him in one of the regions during this year’s Easter Festival - the receiving party said that it could not host the festival just days before a scheduled concert.

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Conductor Valery Gergiyev says decision on concert in Palmyra was taken two days ago

"They did not tell me ‘Do not come," Gergiyev went on to say. "Finances were not the problem. We come and play free of charge but they sell the tickets, which are quite expensive. I would have never thought of complaining about regions. But what we can talk about if they did not even notify the governor about our arrival? Gergiyev asked.

A day earlier, on Monday, the Russian Defense Ministry awarded conductor Valery Gergiyev and the musicians of the Mariinsky Theatre’s symphony orchestra with its newly instituted medal "For Liberation of Palmyra" for giving a concert in that ancient Syrian town, which had been liberated from terrorists just a few weeks ago.

The Mariinsky theater symphony orchestra under the baton of maestro Valery Gergiyev gave a concert in the famous Roman Theater in Palmyra on May 5. Cellist Sergei Roldugin, the artistic director of the St. Petersburg House of Music, and violinist Pavel Milyukov, a Tchaikovsky music concert laureate, took part in the performance. The audience included Palmyra residents, Syrian and Russian military, UNESCO representatives, the residents of UNESCO and the government of Syria and a delegation of Russian cultural workers.

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2018 World Cup in Russia

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