There is no doubt that it was amazing. In the sunny Saturday evening, September, 9th, when the capital was celebrating the Day of the city, the bank of the Moskva-river turned into the concert ground for the international ethnic festival “Music of our hearts” in the territory of the museum and reservation park “Kolomenskoe”.

One by one, the true stars of ethnic music were performing on the stage: Pelageya (Russia), Sevara (Uzbekistan), Nino Katamadze and the “Insight” band (Georgia), the “Rustavi” ensemble (Georgia), Yasmin Levy (Israel). The headliner of the festival was the worldwide famous composer, an old comrade of Emir Kusturitsa, the author of music to many films in different languages – the global citizen and Balkan patriot Goran Bregovich.

The viewers could hardly ever guess that ethnic music may be so various. Lyrical and psychedelic, hard-rock and jazz, avant-garde and academical, economic and extravagant, strict and daring, democratic and exquisite! Ethnic music is good for joy and sadness, thinking and dancing, past and future recollections and plans. Thus, ethnic music is so universal that it can find the way to any listener’s heart. It was brilliantly shown at the festival “Music of our hearts”. Very acute name! The camera was moving over the viewers, catching different faces from the crowd. No one was indifferent!

The patroness of the festival, the honored artist of Russia Zara, in whose repertoire ethnic music takes a special place, showed not only a good taste, but also extraordinary abilities of organization. In December 2016 the singer was honored the title “The Artist for peace by UNESCO”. At the meeting with the CEO of UNESCO Irina Bokova she shared her old dream – to hold the International day of ethnic music in Moscow. Getting her support, Zara started preparing to the festival which later got the name “Music of our hearts”.

Zara performed that evening on the festival ground as well, singing songs in different languages. The audience was surprised by the duets with the participants of the festival – Pelageya, Yasmin Levy and the “Rustavi” ensemble. Duets are fashionable now, and it’s worth saying that Zara arrange them in a proper way.
“I want music to be beyond politics. Moreover, I don’t want any international conflicts, – the singer says. – Music and culture must stimulate it. People don’t understand the language the artists sing, but they feel music by their hearts. It’s wonderful”.

“Everybody do their best”, said Sevara, the singer from Uzbekistan, sharing her impression of the festival. Eight months of long preparation weren’t in vain. It could be proved by all the stuff: decorations, sound engineering, variety of art background. Technical providing of the event answered the level of the invited singers on maximum.

Visual effects should be told more about. Each performance in the program,that lasted more than three hours, was accompanied by a little masterpiece of video-art, made especially for it. Each song nursed both ear and sight! Organically, the program included the video greetings of Russian cultural masters: Sergey Bezrukov, Yury Stoyanov, Zurab Ceretelli, Joseph Kobzon.
Vladimir Medinsky – the head of the Ministry of Culture – attended the festival. Very likely, at the day of 870th anniversary of Moscow, one of the best concert grounds of the capital took place in “Kolomenskoe”. To gather such an amount of stars in one place is a real phenomenon. Talking to journalists behind the scene, the head of MC was very satisfied with the fact that the festival was organized without spending budget money at all.

The glade and the hill slope in front of the stage were crowded with people. On organizators’ estimations, at the same time there were about six thousand people. The total number of the festival “Music of our hearts” viewers was over ten thousand. Those, who couldn’t visit “Kolomenskoe” this Saturday, can only have enough patience – the next festival of ethnic music will be in a year!

The source: Moscovsky komsomolec