"Tchaikovsky - Music Without Visas" in Kazakhstan
https://von-meck.org/int by Denis von Meck May 01, 2025
On April 28-29, the International Charity Foundation named after N.F. von Meck held events of the project "Tchaikovsky - Music Without Visas" in Almaty.
comp. Irina Chepaykina
Lectures, exhibitions, a music laboratory dedicated to P.I. Tchaikovsky and his works coinciding with the 185th anniversary of his birth were held.
A music laboratory was organized for students of the Almaty College of Music named after P. Tchaikovsky: master classes of Russian professors in violin, piano and vocals. The event aroused great interest, received many positive responses and thanks. Not only participants of the master classes, but also many listeners were present there since the training was conducted by experts, laureates of many international competitions: Eleonora Karpukhova - pianist, associate professor of the Moscow Conservatory named after P.I. Tchaikovsky; Anastasia Timoshenko - a violinist, an artist of the state symphony orchestra "Novaya Rossiya" under the direction of Y. Bashmet, a senior lecturer of the State Musical Pedagogical Institute named after M. M. Ippolitov-Ivanov; Valery Makarov - a soloist of the Bolshoi Theater of Russia and the Moscow Theater "Novaya Opera" named after E. V. Kolobov. Later, the young talents, the college teachers and guests from Moscow performed a concert where they played Pyotr Tchaikovsky's works. The audience applauded for a long time, and there was a standing ovation.
The project manager, Denis von Meck, president of the international foundation, a descendant of the Tchaikovsky and von Meck families, held a lecture at the music college "P. I. Tchaikovsky - a musical innovator", where he highlighted little-known interesting facts from the composer's creative life. And in the Republican Kazakh Specialized Music Boarding School for Gifted Children named after Akhmet Zhubanov, he spoke about Pyotr Ilyich as a traveler in a lecture entitled “Tchaikovsky on the world map" as well as about his successful performances and love for his music in different countries. Video recordings were made for those who could not attend the meetings; the materials will be presented to a wide range of viewers.
In Almaty, the project team presented two new exhibitions in the Tchaikovsky College: a collection of colorful posters of the famous USSR-France film “Tchaikovsky” (1970) in many languages from Argentina, the USA, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Japan and other countries as well as a large collection of coins and medals with Pyotr Tchaikovsky's portraits from 20 countries of the world in the foyer of the Great Hall of the Kurmangazy Kazakh National Conservatory.
In addition, D.A. von Meck was invited to a concert of the chamber orchestra "Giovani talenti" held with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the presentation of the collection "Works of Kazakhstan composers from the orchestra's repertoire"to deliver a welcoming speech.
The project "Tchaikovsky - music without visas" is large-scale: it will cover countries of the near and far abroad. In the CIS region- Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. Events will also be held in China, Mexico, Argentina and other countries. The main goal is to popularize the works of P.I.Tchaikovsky in the world, to form interest and a positive attitude towards Russian culture. A short biography of the composer has been prepared and published in Chinese. As part of the project, the book will be translated and published in Spanish.
Tchaikovsky's music unites peoples, overcoming all kinds of barriers. His works became the basis for the creation of a visa-free musical space, where cultures meet and enrich each other. As the great Russian composer himself wrote: "Music is a treasure to which every nationality contributes its own, for the common good."
The project "Tchaikovsky - Music Without Visas" is implemented with the support of the Presidential Foundation for Cultural Initiatives. The general information partner of the project is TASS and the information partner of the von Meck foundation is the magazine "International Affairs" (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation).