Paul Stubbings, who is Director of Music at St Mary's Music School and a well-known organist, played to full audiences in Russia towards the end of October as part of the annual St Petersburg festival of Russian music and poetry, a tribute to the priceless heritage of the great Russian poet and writer, Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin. The programme also featured Russian actor Avangard Leontyev, Classical Symphony Orchestra, Alexander Nevsky Male Choir and other performers and creative teams.
Mr Stubbings also took part in the International Festival of Organ Music where he joined musicians from countries that included the USA, Japan, France, Finland, Estonia, Poland and Russia in a varied programme that included works from each nation.
Speaking about his experiences Mr Stubbings said
“This was my second concert tour to Russia. I found Moscow and St Petersburg both exhilarating, strange and magical!
The Russians take their music very seriously indeed. Of course, the Organ has never really played a part in the indigenous culture, and today it is embraced as something new and rather exotic. Over the month of October this ambitious project brought together nine Concert Organists from all corners of the globe, to share something of their own culture to eager audiences in a downtown cathedral that Lenin had had turned into the city’s swimming baths!
It was an honour and a privilege for me to be the Great British representative at this truly international festival. It was also a delight for me to visit the birthplace of my childhood hero Shostakovich - I even heard someone whistle the marching theme from the Leningrad Symphony - and to be walking in the footsteps of Tchaikovsky, Glinka and the Mighty Handful. “
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