The third Bouquet Kyiv Stage festival of high art will take place in “Sophia of Kyiv”

Bouquet Kyiv Stage 2020: premieres, participants and new projects

The focus of the third festival of high art is Ukrainian artists and the Voice in all its manifestations

The third festival of high art Bouquet Kyiv Stage will take place from August 20 to 25 in the courtyard of “Sophia of Kyiv”. It will be 6 days of music, visual arts, theater, literary readings and discussions, interactive children’s programs and a series of conversations under the ash tree with people creating change. In total, about 40 events are planned, most of which will be broadcast online.

The theme that will unite different genres of art in one space this year is “The City of Masters”. And the slogan of Bouquet Kyiv Stage 2020, which arose during the quarantine, is “Life goes on!”.

“The year 2020. It is already difficult to surprise with something, to understand what is happening, it is impossible to believe anyone… And only the great power of art can bring us out of this drama. On August 20 in the yard of “Sophia of Kyiv”… we will find our beacons and compasses, listen and get to know yourself and the new world around. This is a white bouquet, Bouquet Kyiv Stage. Life goes on!” – says Yevheniy Utkin, co-founder of Bouquet Kyiv Stage.

The organizer of the festival, the Master Class House, announces it as a premiere festival. The focus will be on Ukrainian artists, as well as the Voice in all its manifestations. The Voice, embodied in a variety of singing – opera, choral performances, theatrical performances – is the matrix of the Bouquet Kyiv Stage 2020 program.

This year’s festival will start with the Voice that will cover the city. The AVE choir will sing at the bell tower of Sophia of Kyiv, Victoria Poleva’s music and bells will sound.

The organizers of the festival explain: it will be a symbolic return of the city’s voice after a long quarantine silence.

“We are looking forward to the festival, we really missed the events that fill “Sophia of Kyiv”. And “Sophia” missed. Now all our services are being prepared for the festival, the cathedral itself is being prepared. We do our best to ensure that people who come to the festival get into a safe and comfortable space. That everything worked in harmony. And, of course, we will follow all the recommendations of the Ministry of Health, – says Nelya Kukovalska, Director General of the National Conservation Area “St. Sophia of Kyiv”. – I am sure the festival will be held at a high level. As always”.

Traditionally, admission to all events is free, you will only need to pay for an entrance ticket to the territory of “Sophia of Kyiv”. Also due to quarantine restrictions, no more than 400-450 people can attend concerts this year, and no more than 100 people can attend conversations and literary events. However, you can immerse yourself in the atmosphere of summer concerts or listen to interesting dialogues by turning on the online broadcast.

For the third time, Sophia of Kyiv and Bouquet Kyiv Stage are gathering us under a century-old ash tree to allow us to absorb high art. Quarantine became a forced pause, which, surprisingly, for many became not an obstacle but an opportunity. Opportunity to finally stop, look around and become better, – says Diana Popova, director of the Department of Culture of the Kyiv City State Administration. “Bouquet Kyiv Stage is a breath of fresh air, an invaluable reminder that life goes on.”

Music is the main direction of Bouquet Kyiv Stage. There will be a lot of it this year. This is both classical music and modern academic, jazz, experimental. The language of music will reveal the names of outstanding masters: composers, teachers, conductors, performers.

Among the musical premieres of the festival is the “LYATOSHYNSKY – GALA” musical marathon, dedicated to the outstanding Ukrainian composer Borys Lyatoshynsky. The curator of the project – pianist Yevhen Gromov – worked on the program for over six months.

These are new works by Valentin Silvestrov, which the composer wrote during the quarantine, music by Victoria Poleva. Conductor Tetyana Kalinichenko and the New Era Orchestra are preparing a new BAROQUE TWIST program, which will be attended by Swiss musician Maurice Steger, critics call him “Paganini of recorder”. New jazz programs are being prepared by Nazgul Shukaeva Project and Laura Marti.

A special program performed by violinist Myroslava Kotorovych, soprano Susanna Chakhoyan and the ArteHatta chamber ensemble will be dedicated to the Ukrainian violinist Bohodar Kotorovych. A concert by violinist Bohdana Pivnenko “Dedication to Skoryk” is planned.

Among the special premieres is the “Two Masters” musical film performance. These are fragments of Roman Balayan’s films accompanied by a live performance of Vadym Khropachev’s music, which he wrote for them. As well as the music project of composer and musician Ivan Taranenko “FusioFonia_Music of the Ukrainian land”, in which he combined folk, ethno, classical and jazz.

And musician Andriy Krychenko will present a visual-musical project dedicated to Maria Pryimachenko – “Сhimeras Wonderland”.

Another core of Bouquet Kyiv Stage is the visual program. It will be represented by art exhibitions focusing on the sixties, as well as projects that combine visual art with the latest technologies. This is the exhibition “City of People: Graphics of the

Zakharchuk, Mykhailo Weinstein, Viktor Zaretsky and Alla Gorskaya. Most of the works will be presented to the general public for the first time.

Painter Olexandr Dubovyk, to whom Bouquet Kyiv Stage owes its symbol – the Bouquet – will also present an exhibition of works that have not been exhibited before. Its name is “Memory of the Future”. And the M. Bulgakov Literary Memorial Museum is preparing a special installation about the strong connection between the city and the artist – “Mikhail Bulgakov’s Alma Mater”. GORN workshop will present an exhibition of sculptures “Shadows” at the festival.

The theatrical direction, which first appeared in the program, will be represented by a performance by director Oleg Liptsyn based on Marianna Kiyanovska poetry collection “The Voices of Babyn Yar”. Along with professional actors, ordinary people affected by this topic will join the play.

Oleg Liptsyn, author and director of the theatrical project “Babyn Yar”:

– Our city has absorbed very different moments and very different destinies of people. Babyn Yar is an event that is unlikely to ever be erased   from this book of Kyiv, the event of September 1941, when crowds of people marched through the city. With some hastily taken things, not really understanding where and why they were taken, and which very quickly met with the main milestone of human life. Met unexpectedly, sharply.

So much has already been done, said, written that in order to take up this topic again, some foundation is needed. And I found this basis for myself in the texts of Marianna Kiyanovska “The Voices of Babyn Yar”. This poetic, extremely impressive collection was the impetus for the idea of ​​performance. It seems to me that all our sentimental side of the issue, our attitude to these events – are still external. But Marianne managed to hear and describe it from the inside, and we will try to reproduce it.

In this sense, we are talking about things that can no longer be seen, but that still exist. About this invisible side of the world and events. I wanted to combine history with modernity, to see in today’s Kyiv, in today’s people, in today’s crowd walking through the city, the characters and the possibility of that crowd. And vice versa.

Amоng the new directions – the literary one. Its curator is literary historian and literary critic Yevhen Stasinevych. Dialogues with writers and intellectuals, critics and translators about the interaction of man and the city, about the city as a text and texts about the city, about the voices of places and cities are planned. Serhiy Zhadan, Sofiya Andrukhovych, Kateryna Kalytko, Iryna Tsilyk, Yaroslava Strikha will share their stories and experiences on the literary stage, Mykhailo Nazarenko, Mark Belorusets, Artem Chekh, Svitlana Taratorina, Pavlo Matyusha.

Night poetry readings are also planned.

Yevhen Stasinevych, curator of the literary scene of the festival, literary historian and literary critic:

– We are preparing a small but rich literary program. It will consist of four discussions, one public interview and a poetry reading. What is it talking about? When the organizers announced the theme of the whole festival – “City of Masters” – I immediately wanted to somehow supplement it, look at it from other angles. There is a city of masters, that is, those who decorate the city. And what does the city give to artists? The author does not always have a good idea of ​​where he got these inspirations, why he is written this way and not otherwise. Because, at least, there is a city or cities, places, settlements in which it grows and which then begin to manifest itself somewhere between the lines of those texts. This is such an inverted optics – to talk about the city as a master.

Kateryna Kalytko will be with us – one of the most important authors of today’s literature, she is from Vinnytsia. There will be Artem Chekh, who wrote the novel “District D” about Cherkasy. There will be Serhiy Zhadan, and this is a conversation not only about Donbass, about his native Starobilsk, but also about Kharkiv. In short, it will be a conversation about different cities and the way they start writing with their authors. We will also give the floor to translators. There will be a conversation between the cult Kyiv translator Mark Belorussets and Yaroslava Strikha, one of the most talented representatives of the young generation of translators. They will talk about what to do with the urban spirit in the texts when translating.

There will be a conversation between two science fiction writers. Svitlana Taratorina, who wrote the novel “Lazarus” about an alternative Kyiv of 1910, will speak with philologist and literary critic Mykhailo Nazarenko.

There will also be a public interview with Sofia Andrukhovych, who is one of the most important voices of new Ukrainian literature, and poetry readings.

Another new direction is children’s. Its program will cover the interests of both infants from eight months and older children and adolescents. These will be interactive theatrical performances for kids and their parents “Color Games” and “TIC-TAK” from the association “Creative House”. For teenagers, the program will be prepared by the Archikidz space of architectural education, and creative master classes “City of Masters” involve children, adolescents, and adults.

“Life goes on!” – the topic of traditional conversations under the ash tree, to which the co-founder of Bouquet Kyiv Stage Yevheniy Utkin invites. Conversations will be held daily in the yard of “Sophia of Kyiv” under the century-old ash tree. People who change our lives in one way or another will be invited to public talks.

 

The full program of the festival can be found here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1obtJ9VkUf0Ra6rfbDvMcLj_5TtuVybXa/view

The official website of the festival: https://bouquetstage.com/

Follow the news on the festival’s Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/bouquetstage/

Contacts for help in work and accreditation for the festival:

Kateryna Ivanova + 38 050 207 68 55, k.ivanova@prhouse.com.ua

Natalia Krasnenkova + 38 067 4655426, krasnenkova@prhouse.com.ua