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Maestro Gergiev to conduct Verdi’s Requiem at memorial concert in Moscow

Soloists Tatiana Serzhan (soprano), Yulia Matochkina (mezzo soprano), Nazhmiddin Mavlyanov (tenor), Ildar Abdrazakov (bass), the choir and the Mariinsky Symphony Orchestra will also take part

© Ruslan Shamukov/TASS

St PETERSBURG, December 27. /TASS/. Maestro Valery Gergiev, the artistic director and chief conductor of the Mariinsky Theater in St Petersburg is expected to conduct Verdi’s Requiem at Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Concert Hall on Thursday, December 29, at a concert of remembrance for the victims of the Tupolev-154 jet crash near Sochi.

"The concert is dedicated to the victims of the Tu-154 plane crash, which occurred over the Black Sea [on December 25]. Requiem by Giuseppe Verdi will be played," the press release said.

The Tupolev-154 bound for Syria vanished from radar screens in the early hours on December 25, two minutes after takeoff from Sochi/Adler airport where it made a stopover for refueling.

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The list of the passengers aboard included servicemen, newsmen from Pervy, Zvezda and NTV channels, the renowned leader of healthcare and charity progrms for children Yelizaveta Glinka, more commonly known in Russia as Doctor Liza, and a big group of Alexandrov (Red Army) Choir vocalists, instrumentalists and dancers, who were supposed to give a concert for the Russian Aerospace Force servicemen on Hmeymim base in Syria.

The Artistic Director and main conductor of the Alexandrov Choir, Valery Khalilov, was also among the passengers.

The Russian authorities declared that no one of the people aboard survived the crash.

The Defense Ministry said the debris of the jet were found in the waters off Sochi 1.5 kilometers away from the shore at the depth of some 50 m to 70 m.

The press attache of the Mariinsky Thearter said Valery Khalilov and other members of the Alexandrov Choir, as well as the head of the Defense Ministry’s Department for Culture, Anton Gubankov, and the advisor of the same department, Oksana Badrutdinova were maestro Gergiev’s longtime partners and friends.

"For many years, they were linked by creative projects, including the annual Moscow Easter Festival," she said.

Soloists Tatiana Serzhan (soprano), Yulia Matochkina (mezzo soprano), Nazhmiddin Mavlyanov (tenor), Ildar Abdrazakov (bass), the choir and the Mariinsky Symphony Orchestra will take part in performing the Requiem. They will be joined by the choir of the Moscow-based Academy of Choral Art and the Alexei Kozhevnikov Academic Choir of the Moscow region.

On Monday, maestro Gergiev began a concert in St Petersburg with calling a minute’s silence in memory of the victims of the jet crash.

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