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Combined military band of around 900 musicians to play at Moscow’s Victory Day Parade

Forty military bands will make up part of a combined orchestra, the Directorate of the Spasskaya Tower International Military Music Festival informed TASS

© Sergei Bobylev/TASS, archive

MOSCOW, April 7. /TASS/. Forty military bands will make up part of a combined orchestra, which will furnish a musical accompaniment for the Victory Day Parade on Moscow’s Red Square on May 9, the Directorate of the Spasskaya Tower International Military Music Festival informed TASS.

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"According to tradition, the combined military band provides the musical accompaniment for the Victory Day Parade on Red Square every year. In 2021, it consists of 40 military bands belonging to the Russian Armed Forces and other security, defense and law enforcement agencies," the Directorate said.

As stated by Major General Timofey Mayakin, head of the Military Music Band Service of the Russian Armed Forces and music director of the Spasskaya Tower festival, the musicians, along with other participants in the parade, conduct rehearsals at the Alabino training ground in the Moscow Region.

"A combined orchestra should function like clockwork. Our task is to merge about 900 musicians into a single entity and work in sync with one another. Rehearsals will be held according to the approved schedule, three times a week," Mayakin specified.

According to the Directorate, the combined military band includes permanent participants in the Spasskaya Tower International Military Music Festival - the Russian Defense Ministry’s Central Military Band, the Rimsky-Korsakov Central Navy Band, the combined military bands of the Russian National Guard troops and the Russian Emergencies Ministry, the military band of the Margelov Ryazan Higher Airborne Command School and the orchestras of military educational institutions and the military units of security, defense and law enforcement agencies.

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