VTB will present the 8th Ildar Abdrazakov International Music Festival in Sevastopol.

      August 11, 2025 16:56

      [132]

      Culture and leisure

      On August 12 in Sevastopol the opening of the VIII Ildar Abdrazakov International Music Festival (6+), which will be held with the support of VTB, will take place. For the first time in the festival’s history it will be held on the Crimean Peninsula, and from September 19 to 25 it will continue in the Far East — in Vladivostok, Ussuriysk, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.

      The opening, featuring leading soloists from the Bolshoi and Mariinsky Theatres, Helikon-Opera and New Opera, will be held at the Sevastopol Center of Culture and Arts.

      “For several years now we have supported the Ildar Abdrazakov festival, which helps talented young people not only to make a name for themselves but also to take their deserved place in the world of opera. Over the past seven seasons the festival has covered 25 cities in Russia, gathered more than 42,000 spectators and millions of views of online broadcasts. We attach great importance to expanding the project’s geography, as this will make opera accessible even to the most remote corners of the country,” says Natalia Kochneva, Senior Vice President of VTB.

      The festival will introduce new names to the public — the top graduates of the educational program of the VIII Ildar Abdrazakov International Music Festival. On the stage in the Far East will be: Chingis Bairov, an artist of the Bolshoi Theatre’s Youth Opera Program; Maria Boyko, a soloist of the Voronezh Opera and Ballet Theatre; and Ekaterina Ivanova, Grand Prix winner of the Muslim Magomaev International Competition.

      The program also includes a joint project with the Mariinsky Theatre — a concert performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Attila with the Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev, in which Ildar Abdrazakov will sing the title role.

      The festival’s educational program has already attracted more than 5,800 applications from around the world and has produced over 220 participants. Last year the program was enhanced by the “Ildar Abdrazakov Summer School,” created with the support of VTB — a ten-day intensive in St. Petersburg for gifted vocalists.

      Background

      The VIII Ildar Abdrazakov International Music Festival was founded in 2018. Over seven seasons the project’s geography has covered 25 cities across the country, and its events have been seen by more than 42,000 spectators in concert halls and a multimillion audience through broadcasts on the Mezzo and Russia — Kultura channels and on social networks. The festival has at various times featured world-renowned artists such as Ramón Vargas, Lawrence Brownlee, Claudio Sgura, Veronica Gjiyeva, Vladislav Sulimsky, Dmitry Korchak, Vasilisa Berzhanskaya and others. Among the conductors are Valery Gergiev, Speranza Scappucci, Alexander Sladkovsky, Fabio Mastrangelo and others.

      Ildar Abdrazakov is an Honored Artist of the Russian Federation, People’s Artist of the Republic of Bashkortostan and the Republic of Tatarstan, and a laureate of the State Prize of the Russian Federation.

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