The XXV Moscow Easter Festival will take place from 12 April to 10 May. This anniversary season sets a new record both in scale and in duration. The festival retains its traditional strands – Symphonic, Choral and Bell-ringing programmes – as well as its core principles: charitable, educational, and outreach activities that bring together audiences across Russia. The XXV Moscow Easter Festival takes place with the support of the Moscow Government and the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, and with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus’.
Major venues in Moscow and across the regions will welcome internationally acclaimed artists and legendary ensembles. Their performances will mark significant anniversaries, including the 135th anniversary of Sergei Prokofiev and the 120th anniversary of Dmitri Shostakovich. This season also pays special tribute to the 90th anniversary of Yuri Luzhkov, whose name remains inseparably linked to the history of the festival.
“The dedication of the Moscow Easter Festival to Yuri Luzhkov rests on deep foundations. His contribution to the support of cultural initiatives and to the shaping of Russia’s contemporary cultural environment is difficult to overestimate. It was in collaboration with Yuri Mikhailovich, and with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II, that the organisational, social, and spiritual principles of the festival were established – principles that have largely defined its further development and its significant place in the cultural life of the country,” said Valery Gergiev.
On 11 April, on the eve of the festival and of Easter, the Mariinsky II stage will present Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s epic mystery The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya, conducted by Valery Gergiev. Alexei Stepanyuk’s production draws on the traditions of Russian icon painting, emphasising the prayerful character and spiritual depth of the score. The principal roles will be performed by Irina Churilova, Nikolai Gassiev, Yuri Vorobiev, Alexander Trofimov, Alexey Markov and Svetlana Karpova.
The festival will open ceremonially, as tradition dictates, on Easter Sunday. On 12 April at 20:00 a combined symphony orchestra of the Mariinsky and Bolshoi theatres will perform at the Historic Stage of the Bolshoi Theatre under Valery Gergiev. The programme includes Rimsky-Korsakov’s Russian Easter Festival Overture, Stravinsky’s The Firebird suite, Prokofiev’s Scythian Suite (Ala and Lolli) and his Symphony No. 5.
As part of the Symphonic Programme, Valery Gergiev and leading musicians from Russia’s two principal theatres will travel more than twenty thousand kilometres over twenty-nine days, visiting nearly forty towns and cities. In addition to Moscow, performances will take place in Tver, Vladimir, Nizhny Novgorod, Kostroma, Yaroslavl, Tikhvin, St Petersburg, Cherepovets, Vologda, Kirov, Perm, Yekaterinburg, Surgut, Tyumen, Omsk, Kemerovo, Tomsk, Krasnoyarsk, Novosibirsk, Chelyabinsk, Ufa, Orenburg, Saratov, Astrakhan, Vladikavkaz, Rostov-on-Don, Saransk, Penza, Samara, Kazan, Almetyevsk, Naberezhnye Chelny and others. Votkinsk, the birthplace of Pyotr Tchaikovsky, and Smolensk, the birthplace of Mikhail Glinka, will host joint events of the XXV Moscow Easter Festival and the 3rd Music Festival Genius of the Place.
On 9 May, Victory Day, a combined orchestra of the Mariinsky and Bolshoi theatres, conducted by Valery Gergiev, will give a large-scale open-air concert at Poklonnaya Hill, traditionally attended by thousands. Veterans of the Great Patriotic War, public organisations, and students of Moscow’s arts schools will be invited.
The Far East Easter Festival will take place for the third time this year as an annual extension of the Moscow Easter Festival. From 12 to 28 April the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre will perform in Sakhalin, Primorsky, and Khabarovsk regions.
The Choral Programme will feature twenty-nine ensembles from across Russia, including Moscow, St Petersburg, Suzdal, Perm, Yessentuki, Ivanovo, Arkhangelsk, and from South Ossetia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and China. Performances will take place in churches, concert halls, care centres, rehabilitation facilities, and institutions supporting family welfare. For the first time the New Stage of the Bolshoi Theatre will also host choral performances.
Choral events will extend beyond Moscow to numerous towns and cities, including Reutov, Balashikha, Zvenigorod, Istra, Dmitrov, Yegoryevsk, Klin, Krasnogorsk, Shchyolkovo, Sergiyev Posad, Odintsovo, Zaraysk, Kolomna, Podolsk, Serpukhov, Kashira, Alexandrov, Rostov Veliky, Vladimir, Suzdal, Murom, Tver, Staritsa, Tula and Arkhangelsk.
The Bell-ringing Programme will include forty-four concerts in churches across Moscow, St Petersburg, Istra, Zvenigorod, Krasnogorsk, Rybinsk, Kaluga, Yekaterinburg and Feodosiya. More than fifty professional bell-ringers from Russia and Belarus will take part. As always, these performances remain open and accessible to all.
Over the years the Moscow Easter Festival has grown into one of the largest and most anticipated cultural events in Russia. It stands not only as a celebration of music for millions but also as a unique platform for international cultural dialogue. Thousands of performers from around the world have taken part – from globally renowned artists to emerging talents, including laureates of the International Tchaikovsky Competition.
Valery Gergiev and the Moscow Government founded the Moscow Easter Festival in 2002. In 2003 it received national project status with the support of the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin.
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