On March 28-30, 2026, Ryazan will host the Vladimir Spivakov Invites Festival for the second time. The three-day-long music forum already took place there in 2024 supported by the Ryazan Region Government as part of the festivities on the occasion of the 85th anniversary of the Ryazan Philharmonia. The main participant of the Festival, along with the maestro, will be the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia.
The Vladimir Spivakov Festival history goes back to 2001 when the maestro organized a biennial music fest in Moscow with the participation of world celebrities and younger artists. With time, the project went beyond the Russian capital and started taking place in many other regions from Murmansk to Omsk. Ryazan became one in the row.
On March 28 the soloist in the concert, opening the Festival, will be Ilya Papoyan, a young graduate of the Saint-Petersburg Conservatory, awardee of the first edition of the Rachmaninoff Competition for pianists, composers and conductors, the 17th edition of the Tchaikovsky International Competition and some other contests in Russia and abroad. Ilya Papoyan is regarded as one of the most interesting performers of Rachmaninoff's music; in 2023, he performed all Concertos by the composer in two evenings (in the Great Hall of the Saint-Petersburg Philharmonia). The most famous of them, the Second, will be performed on the opening night of the Festival in Ryazan. In Part 2 of the program the NPR will play the most popular music from Tchaikovsky's ballets.
On March 29, Vladimir Spivakov will present to the Ryazan audience one of the NPR's most popular programs – “A Corner in France”. The maestro calls it a music travel to Paris, which includes works by Ibert (Paris Suite), Ravel (Bolero), Fauré (Pavane) and Shchedrin's Carmen-Suite that was performed by great Maya Plisetskaya.
The Festival will close with the concert on March 30 with the star of the Russian opera stage Hibla Gerzmava (soprano). She will demonstrate the mastery of reincarnation singing different heroines from operas by Bellini, Puccini, Verdi and Mascagni. The artistic collaboration of Vladimir Spivakov and the renowned diva started many years ago and they have presented many illustrious programs in Russia and abroad, including the large-scale All-Russia project I Love You, Life dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Great Victory.