Perm Groups Represent Russia at the Festival in Italy
The Italian city of Agrigento, a twin-city of Perm, hosted the 73rd Almond Blossom («Mandorlo in Fiore») Festival which is a regular event sponsored by UNESCO. The festival gathered over 15 000 spectators, including participants from Perm, which made it the most numerous event through the history of the festival.
This year Russia has been represented by groups from Perm - the “Voskresenie” song and dance group led by Irina Kuleva, the Perm Youth Center Orchestra led by Elena Mukhanova; “The Youth” Dance Theater led by Alexandra Svintsova, choreography group of “Yarmarka” Folk Theatre led by the chorographer Alexey Polyakov.
Traditionally, the festival is organized in two stages - the first representing children groups and the second stage involving the professional groups from various cities and countries. The festival programme also included concerts, workshops and parades.
The participants and the spectators witnessed a number of unique joint performances. For example, in the first stage the Perm children group presented the popular Russian “Kalinka” which they sang together with Antonella Rugierro from the world-famous “Matia Bazar” pop-group; the “Voskresenie” and “Yarmarka” had a joint performance with the jazz group from Milan.
During the festival the joint concerts were held bringing together the “Voskresenie” group and well-known Italian musicians Graziano Mossuto and Daniele Guastella who had implemented many successful joint projects through many years of their friendship.
At the closing of the festival the “Voskresenie” Folk Group received a guest-of-honour invitation to visit Agrigento in 2020 when the city will be marking 2600 years of its foundation. In turn, an invitation from the Mayor of Perm Dmitry Samoilov for the City Day to be held in Perm on June 12, 2018 was handed over to Lillo Firetto, the Mayor of Agrigento. As Mr Firetto confessed, it was his dream to come over to Perm and he would do his best not to miss this opportunity.
