Baltic Seasons Art Festival
The Baltic Seasons Art Festival was initiated in 2004 by M.E. Shvdkoy, the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation, by presidential decree of Vladimir Putin On Celebration of the 60th Anniversary of the Kaliningrad Region and the 750th Anniversary of Kaliningrad.
The program of the forum combines drama plays and musicals with performances of different genres and mini student festival and has no analogues in world practice.
The poster of the Festival meets the level of largest international theatrical events and promotes the Kaliningrad Region as one of the significant cultural centers of modern Russia.
Throughout the history of the Festival, its participants included such drama theaters as the State Academic Maly Theatre, the Moscow Art Theatre, the Vakhtangov State Academic Theatre, the State Theater of Nations, the Mark Zakharov’s Lenkom Theatre, the ET CETERA Theatre under the direction of A. Kalyagin, the Moscow Theater of Oleg Tabakov, the Sovremennik Theatre, the Tovstonogov Bolshoi Drama Theater, the Volkov Theatre and many others. Among musical theatres and musical bands which participated in the Baltic Seasons are the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia, the Perm Opera and Ballet Theatre, St. Petersburg Eifman Ballet, the Moscow Musical Theatre, State Russian Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Shostakovich St. Petersburg Academic Philharmonic, New Russia State Symphony Orchestra, the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia, The Oleg Lundstrem State Chamber Orchestra of Jazz Music, the Terem Quartet, the Igor Moiseyev State Academic Folk Dance Ensemble, the Pyatnitsky Russian Folk Choir, the Kuban Cossack Choir, and many others.
Foreign ensembles were also guests of the Baltic Seasons: the Vilnius Municipal OK-Theatre (Lithuania), the Shota Rustaveli National Theatre (Georgia), Kremerata Baltica Chamber Orchestra (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia) conducted by G. Kremer, Lithuania National Opera, Gesher Theatre (Israel), The Comédie-Française (France), La Scala and La Scala Academy (Italy), The Piccolo Teatro di Milano – the Theatre of Europe (Italy), the Choir of the Gremi Theological Seminary after St. Aviv of Nekres of the Nekres diocese (Georgia), the 7 Fingers artist collective (Canada), the Mikhail Chekhov Riga Russian Theatre, the Russian Drama Theatre of Lithuania, Maxim Gorky National Academic Drama Theatre (Republic of Belarus).
The program of the forum included plays prepared by students of leading Russian universities, among of which are the Russian Institute of Theatre Arts (GITIS), School-Studio (Institute) named after V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko of the Moscow Art Theatre, The Mikhail Shchepkin Higher Theatre School (Institute) of the Maly Theatre of Russia, the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography (VGIK), and others.
The Baltic Seasons Festival takes place at the best venues of the region: the Kaliningrad Regional Drama Theatre, the Concert Hall of the Kaliningrad Region Philharmonic Society, the Cathedral, the concert and theatrical complex “House of Arts”, Tilsit Theatre, the Green Theatre in Sovetsk, the Yantar Hall Variety Theater, the House of officers of the Baltic Fleet in Baltiysk, as well as at the open-air sites: the Baltic Glory Square in Baltiysk, the Promenade in Svetlogorsk, the ships of the Baltic Fleet.
Some of the concerts and creative meetings of the Festival have a charitable purpose to help vulnerable social groups and military personnel of the Kaliningrad Region.