An interview with Olena Zenina

                                                            
- Oleno Mykolaivno, tell, please, about history of creation of Festival «Summer Musical Rays» and what does its essence consist in?
- The idea of creation of Festival «Summer Musical Rays» belongs to the Director General of the National Philharmonic of Ukraine Dmytro Ostapenko. Traditionally, we closed our Philharmonic season at the end of June. July and August were the «dead season» for concerts. However, at that time, a lot of tourists and visitors were in our capital and not all of our admirers departed from Kiev. Coming from it, we decided that listeners needed to enjoy the beautiful music in summer too. Moreover, all concert institutions and stages of Kiev are closed in August. So, in August of last year the first Festival «Summer Musical Rays» was conducted, and it caused outstanding interest of listeners. Nine concerts, the programs of which consisted of orchestral works, happened. Performers were: Symphony Orchestra of National Philharmonic of Ukraine, Kiev Chamber Orchestra, National Academic Symphonic Band of Ukraine and National Chamber Ensemble «Kiev Soloists».
- What does the present Festival prepare to the listeners? 
- It turned out, that this format could be saved annually, because in summer our listener audience consists of 75-80 percent of tourists.  During our concert season they do not come to us. So, this year orchestral music will be again presented to public in performance of the same orchestras, but their repertoire will be fully renewed. 
The first concert will take place on August 4, and last one - on August 29. The concerts’ schedule foresees that Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and Day of Independence will be free of concerts. So, on working days, we will wait for listeners in the Lysenko Concert Hall with joy.
-  Give us, please, more details on performers.
-  They are: Symphony Orchestra of the National Philharmonic of Ukraine, which will have three concerts, as well as Kiev Chamber Orchestra and National Academic Symphonic Band of Ukraine. National Chamber Ensemble «Kiev Soloists» will appear with two concerts. Two concerts-surprises of the present festival will be: appearance of orchestra of the Amsterdam Jan Sweelinck University and concert of ensembles of artists of the Symphony Orchestra of the National Philharmonic of Ukraine in different compositions (trios, quartets, quintets). Also, this year, soloists will come out, namely Andriy Ostapenko (guitar), Yuriy Samoilov (baritone), Dariya Dadykina (piano), Vitaliy Kostenko (tenor), Yuriy Karnaukh (bayan), Quartet of Guitarists «Kiev».                
- And as to the repertoire? 
- In the main, repertoire will consist of popular classics. I will not list all program, I will say only that it includes works of Rossini, Rodrigo, Liszt, Mahler, Brahms, Rodriguez, Kern, Miller, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovitch, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, Grieg, Dvorak, Puccini, Morricone, Schubert, Silvestrov, Bibik, Vivaldi, Handel, Saint-Saens, Gershwin, Bach, Piazzolla, and many other composers.
-  What about the festival in the future?
-  We hope that the next year we will conduct the Festival «Summer Musical Rays» again, because, as we ascertained, there is a large necessity of it. Last year, the Lysenko Concert Hall was the only concert venue of Kiev, where appearances of musical groups took place in August.
-  What will you wish to the listeners?
- Good rest in summer! And we invite all persons interested in music to the National Philharmonic of Ukraine for concerts of the Festival «Summer Musical Rays» in August. 

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