Brest to pass CIS Capital of Culture title over to Kazakhstan’s Shymkent on Dec 9
In 2019, Brest held the title of the CIS Capital of Culture. This year, the city hosted around 100 musical, educational, and theatrical events featuring artists from various CIS countries. A lot of the activities were held for the first time. The most prominent events included the Berestye Assemblies boys choir festival, the Dancing Rainbow choreography festival, the international contest of children's bookmarks, the international parade of orchestras Millennium March, the children's theater and book festival Bookcase, and the conference of CIS librarians. Plans are in place to hold some of these events in Brest on a regular basis.
Kazakhstan's Shymkent will take over as the CIS Capital of Culture 2020 in an official ceremony at the Brest Academic Drama Theater on 9 December, which will become the final event of Brest's time as the CIS Capital of Culture.
The program of the ceremony will include a concert featuring famous soloists from the CIS countries, for example, Honored Artist of the Kyrgyz Republic Janeta Bobkova, laureates of international competitions Aibek Kanatbek (Kazakhstan), Elena Demirdjean (Moldova), and Anna Tverdova (Ukraine), singers Akbar Atamuhamedov and Shirin Mamatova from Uzbekistan, and Tajik artist Zafar Abdualimov. The artists will be accompanied by the CIS Youth Symphony Orchestra that was created on the basis of the Russian State Symphony Cinema Orchestra headed by People's Artist of Russia Sergei Skripka. The orchestra will also perform under the baton of conductors Rasul Klychev (Turkmenistan) and Konstantin Naumenko (Russia).
The celebration will also feature laureates of the international youth award The Commonwealth of Debuts. The IHCF will honor winners of The Commonwealth of Debuts 2018. The year 2018 was declared the Year of Culture in the CIS. The laureates of the award include teacher of the chair of graphics of the Belarusian State Academy of Arts Fyodor Shurmelev, ballet dancer of Astana Opera Aigerim Beketayeva, ballet dancer of the Novosibirsk State Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet Olga Grishenkova, soloist of the Kyrgyz Opera and Ballet Theater Nurjigit Asanov, Tajik pop singer Mehrnigori Rustam, and soloist of the Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater Afag Abbasova-Budagova.
The Russian folk ensemble Voronezh Girls headed by Honorary Artist of Russia Anna Kovrigina will give a concert at the Palace of Culture of Trade Unions in Brest on 10 December.
Attending the celebrations timed to the finish of the CIS Capital of Culture 2019 program in Brest will be First Deputy Chairman of the CIS Executive Committee Viktor Guminsky, IHCF Chairman, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Azerbaijan to Russia Polad Bulbuloglu, IHCF Co-Chairman, Russian President's Special Representative for International Cultural Cooperation Mikhail Shvydkoi, IHCF Executive Director Anatoly Iksanov, and members of the board of the IHCF and the CIS Humanitarian Cooperation Council. The program of the events will also include a joint session of the Humanitarian Cooperation Council and the IHCF. Guests of the celebrations will visit the Brest Hero Fortress memorial complex and lay wreaths at the Eternal Flame, Kazinform refers to BelTA.