Press releases

20 Oct 2014

Diverse program for organ music festival in Polotsk this year

VITEBSK, 20 October (BelTA) – The 19th International Festival of Organ Music “Bells of St. Sophia Cathedral” will offer a diverse selection of music acts this year, BelTA learned the National Polotsk History and Cultural Museum-Reserve. The line-up will include musicians from Germany, Poland, Switzerland, Romania, Croatia, Russia and Belarus. this year the festival is stretched in time: the first concert was held in the ancient St. Sophia Cathedral on 12 October, and the last one is scheduled for 23 November.

"Artists come to Polotsk to introduce Belarusian listeners to musical culture of their countries. Every year, the number of participants increases and the geography of the festival gets larger. The program of the 19th festival includes nine concerts: solo organ programs, and also concerts featuring organ music with voice, flute, trumpet, chamber orchestra, chorus,” the organizers said.

The overture to the festival featured a concert by Martin Meier (Germany) on 12 October. On 26 October the Polotsk audience will see the German duet of Josef Miltschitzky (organ) and Susanne Miltchitzky (soprano).

The 19th International Festival of Organ Music will officially open on 6 November with a concert by Polotsk organist Ksenia Pogorelaya and Chamber Orchestra "Europe Center” (conductor Rail Sadykov) who will premier the Mass (Orgelsolomesse) by A. Diabelli.

Professor of organ music of the West University in Timisoara (Romania) Felician Rosca will present the ancient European music and works by Romanian composers of the 20th century on 8 November. Swiss organist Cyrill Schmiedlin will present his program to Polotsk music lovers on 16 November. One of the best organists of Croatia Edmund Andler-Borich will give his ever first concert in Polotsk on 22 November, when Western Europe celebrates the day of patroness of music and musicians Saint Cecilia.

The festival will conclude with the concert program "Organ and copper pipes” - a duet performance of Belarus’ Kseniya Pogoprelaya (organ) and Russia’s Alexander Simanovich (trumpet, piccolo trumpet).

Belarus’ only festival of organ music to Polotsk brings together world-renowned musicians and their fans.

As a museum of the history of architecture and a concert hall, St. Sophia Cathedral is part of the Polotsk National History and Culture Museum-Reserve. It is the specimen of architecture of the mid 11th – mid 18th centuries. The museum became open to the public in 1987. Its exhibits tell the history of the most ancient stone temple built on the territory of modern Belarus, its numerous redesigns, repairs and the last restoration. St. Sophia Cathedral has the fragments of the 11th-century masonry, and the fresco painting of the late 11th century. The Concert Hall in St. Sophia Cathedral was opened in 1983. It annually hosts the International Festival of Ancient and Contemporary Chamber Music and the International Festival of Organ Music "Bells of St. Sophia Cathedral".