The international festival Flute Virtuosos & Northern Lyre will be held for the third time at the Mariinsky Theatre from April 3 to 8, in the Concert Hall and the chamber halls of Prokofiev and Rachmaninov. The audience will be treated to seven concerts featuring musicians from Russia, China, and Turkey. Master classes for students and postgraduates of music educational institutions in Russia will be conducted by leading flutists and harpists from Istanbul, Beijing, Moscow, and St Petersburg.
The initiative to hold Flute Virtuosos & Northern Lyre was put forward by one of the finest flutists, Denis Lupachev, and one of the brightest harpists, Sofia Kiprskaya. Both festivals were launched eight years ago and have been held every spring since then, merging into one large-scale instrumental project in 2021.
The festival offers a unique chance to see talented orchestra artists in a new role: not just as sensitive ensemble players but as solo virtuosos. It also provides a rare opportunity to hear the solo voices of instruments and to meet outstanding artists from around the world.
The festival will open on April 3 in the Mariinsky Theatre's Concert Hall, featuring works by Bach, Franz Benda, Sinisalo, Kikta, Reinecke, Briccialdi, and Sarasate. Performers will include flutists Bülent Evcil, Dan Men, Denis Lupachev, Fedor Kalashnov, and harpists Elizaveta Alexandrova, Artemy Izmaylov, Sofia Kiprskaya, Anastasia Mozol, Nika Ryabchinenko, Maria Fedorova, conducted by Haoran Li, a bronze medalist of the Rachmaninoff International Competition for Pianists, Composers, and Conductors.
The concert on April 5 will feature masterpieces of the global repertoire for harp and flute by Mozart, Tishchenko, Tchaikovsky, Ravel, and will premiere the Flute Concerto by Alexey Pozin and the Flute Concerto by Fazıl Say. Performers include flutists Bülent Evcil, Sofia Viland, Denis Lupachev, Irina Stachinskaya, Anna Komarova, and harpists Irina Donskaya-Tishchenko, Sofia Kiprskaya, Yankelika Sushkova-Irina, conducted by Arseny Shuplyakov, a gold medalist of the Valery Khalilov International Conducting Competition.
The festival will conclude on April 8 with a gala concert featuring works by Chenwei, Joachim Andersen, Pietro Morlacchi, Theobald Boehm, Ginastera, Reinecke, Evgeny Magalif, Kemal Günüç. Performers include flutists Bülent Evcil, Sofia Viland, Anastasia Kaneyeva, Diana Krivenko, Denis Lupachev, Irina Stachinskaya, Aglaya Shuplyakova, Stanislav Yaroshevsky, Murat Salim Tokaç (ney, Persian flute), and harpists Sofia Kiprskaya and Çağatay Akyol, who will bring a unique lyre first seen in Sumerian civilization 5000 years ago and perform a concert by Turkish composer Kemal Günüç dedicated to Göbekli Tepe. The concert will be accompanied by the Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Cemi'i Can Deliorman, chief conductor of the Presidential Symphony Orchestra (Ankara).
Additionally, the festival will feature chamber evenings. On April 4, there will be a concert by Irina Stachinskaya (flute) and Elena Serova (piano); on April 6, a program From Türkiye with Love by Bülent Evcil (flute) and Çağatay Akyol (harp); and on April 6, a performance by soloists of the St Petersburg House of Music, followed by a showcase of world repertoire gems for flute and harp on April 7.
Open master classes by flutists and harpists are also part of the festival. On April 4, sessions will be conducted by Bülent Evcil (Istanbul) and Dan Men (Beijing); on April 5 by Irina Stachinskaya (Moscow) and Diana Krivenko (Moscow), Yankeleka Sushkova-Irina (Moscow) and Çağatay Akyol (Ankara, Istanbul); on April 6 by Nikolay Mokhov (St Petersburg) and Stanislav Yaroshevsky (Moscow); and on April 7 by Sofia Kiprskaya (St Petersburg). All are welcome to join as listeners, and those wishing to participate as students must submit an application, with forms and submission deadlines available on the page of each master class.
In anticipation of the festival, a concert “Spring Ripples” featuring young talents from Russian musical educational institutions will take place on March 31 at 14:00 in the Rachmaninov Hall.
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