The results of the selection for "Balcony Music" have been summed up in Nizhny Novgorod.

      In Nizhny Novgorod, the results of the selection of performers for the festival "Music of Balconies. Great Rivers" have been announced, which takes place with the support of the Presidential Fund for Cultural Initiatives. The winners will perform at five festival concerts scheduled for August. This was reported by the Ministry of Culture of the Nizhny Novgorod Region. A total of more than 50 artists participated in the open call. Applications were submitted by both solo performers and groups not only from Nizhny Novgorod and the Nizhny Novgorod region but also from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Samara, Kazan, Irkutsk, Yekaterinburg, Perm, Tyumen, and Rostov-on-Don. As a result, participants for the five festival concerts were selected. The first concert took place on August 1 in the inner courtyard of the Rukavishnikov Estate. Soloists from the Nizhny Novgorod State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater named after A. S. Pushkin, Ekaterina Yasinetskaya and Evgeny Fan, performed opera arias, parts from operettas, and romances. On August 8, the Moscow ensemble Sumarota will participate in the festival—graduates of the Gnessin State Musical College will perform folk compositions in a modern arrangement. The concert will take place in the courtyard of the Syrotkin House at 6:00 PM. Among the winners of the selection is also the soloist of the Nizhny Novgorod Chamber Theater of Opera and Musical Comedy named after V. T. Stepanov, mezzo-soprano Marina Stepanova. She will perform at the concert as part of the festival in Arzamas on August 16, with the venue being the House of Surveyor Dronov. On the balcony of the Nizhny Novgorod Choral College named after L. K. Sivukhin, on August 22, the author and performer Yukhim (Sasha Akimova) from Moscow will perform. Her music project has existed since 2000, and she has participated in festivals and creative residencies in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and other regions. Her song "Flood" is featured in the sitcom "Family Day." Additionally, the selection winner will participate in one of the concluding festival concerts, which will take place in St. Petersburg—on the balcony of the All-Russian Museum of A. S. Pushkin on the Moika River, 12, Ekaterina Kilyushik (mezzo-soprano) from Moscow will perform. In 2023, she graduated with honors from the Ural State Conservatory named after M. P. Mussorgsky in the field of "Academic Singing" and participated in the educational project "Institute of Opera," which was supported by the Presidential Fund for Cultural Initiatives. Let us remind you that the fourth season of the "Music of Balconies" festival runs from June 20 to August 30. A total of 27 concerts are planned as part of the festival, not only in Nizhny Novgorod and cities of the Nizhny Novgorod region but also in other regions. Concerts have already taken place in Gorodets, Chkalovsk, Arzamas, Bolshoye Boldino, as well as in Irkutsk, Plyos, Vologda, and Vladikavkaz, and also at the "Oranienbaum" park venue of the "Peterhof" museum-reserve in St. Petersburg.

      You can follow the festival's schedule on the website: musicofbalconies.rf. Recordings of concerts held outside Nizhny Novgorod are posted in the festival's group on the social network "VKontakte": https://vk.ru/musicofbalcony. Photo: press service of the Ministry of Culture of the Nizhny Novgorod Region

      Kristina Koretskaya