On November 25, Vitebsk /Sergey Kochetov - BELTA/. The XXIII International I. Sollertinsky Music Festival, which will be held from December 1 to 23, will bring together the elite of world pianism in Vitebsk and, for the first time, alongside classical music, will present folk music to listeners. The artistic director of the Vitebsk Regional Philharmonic, Nelly Matsaberidze, told journalists today about the features of the upcoming festival program, as reported by a BELTA correspondent. The festival's concert program will be opened by the Dmitry Pokrovsky Ensemble – a unique singing group from Russia that has managed to combine the scientific study of folklore with its professional performance, as well as the traditions of folk music with modern musical culture. Expanding the genre boundaries of the festival, the organizers, with the support of the "Russkiy Mir" Foundation, managed to invite a group that essentially introduced the fashion for folklore music. The Dmitry Pokrovsky Ensemble's repertoire includes over 2,000 folk songs, tunes, dances, and rituals, and the ensemble has collected a collection of authentic folk costumes and musical instruments. The founder and long-term leader of the ensemble, Dmitry Pokrovsky, collected unique varieties of folk singing from various regions of Russia. Although the festival is dedicated to classical music, there is another side to the coin, and that is folk music, without which there would be no classical music either, noted Nelly Matsaberidze.