Bayan Accordion Harmonica festival is open in Sokolniki

The International festival and competition Bayan Accordion Harmonica kicked off today in the Contemporary Museum of Calligraphy. The event was instituted by the Ministry of Culture of the Moscow Region and is held for students and postgraduates of Russian and foreign educational institutions. The Moscow Regional Art College and Sokolniki Exhibition and Convention Centre are the event’s organizers with Andrey Murashov, Deputy Minister of Culture of Moscow Region as the chairman of the organizing committee and Vyacheslav Semenov, professor of Gnessin Russian Academy of Music, People's Artist leads the judging panel of the competition. The key-note of the festival is to preserve and to promote traditions of playing instruments of the harmonic kind in Russia.

The festival’s participants will show their skills in different age groups. The youngest group is Children up to 10 years inclusive; the eldest group is People up to 25 years inclusive. The judges will take into consideration such criteria as the level of technical skill, emotional and artistic expression of the performance, persuasiveness of the interpretation, artistry and the level of stage culture.

Winners will be selected in five nominations: Academic Bayan, Accordion; Bayan of Variety group, Accordion; Harmonics; Electro Bayan, Electro Accordion, Electro Harmonic and Ensemble. At the result of the competitions the visitors will be awarded with nominations and will be granted with certificates and prize money.

Apart from competitive auditions, the competition and festival’s programme will feature specified stage performances and presentations from the project’s partners: Roland and Scandalli companies. The icing on the cake will be Mirco Patarini, accordionist and winner of the Trophy of the World international competition. He will be holding a live session with the guests and participants of the project. Besides this, a performance of bayan-players from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea will take place within the context of the event. The festival will be open for visitors from March 19th — 20th from 10 am to 9 pm. The official closing and awards ceremony is scheduled for March 21st, at 5 pm. The admission for adults is 150 rubles; for children, students, museum workers and school teachers — 100 rubles. The admission for disabled people, pensioners, war veterans and children up to 7 years is free of charge.

It is worth mentioning that the venue to host the international festival and competition Bayan Accordion Harmonica was picked for a purpose. The event takes place within the framework of the newest exposition opening in the Museum Quarter of Sokolniki. The Contemporary Accordion Museum will be launched in pavilion 17 in 2015. It will showcase musical instruments from all over the world.

Vyacheslav Semenov, chairman of the jury performs an opening speech

First day of the Bayan Accordion Harmonica festival operation