The International Organ Music Festival will take place under the new roof of St. Sophia Cathedral
24/10/20120 views
On October 24, Vitebsk / Diana Kurilo - BELTA /. The XVII International Organ Music Festival "Zvyany Safii" will be held under a new roof. The restoration of the roof of St. Sophia Cathedral, where the festival concerts will take place, which was destroyed by strong winds, will be completed by its opening on October 28. This was reported to a BELTA correspondent by the Deputy Chairman of the Polotsk City Executive Committee, head of the emergency response headquarters, Alexander Mikhalievich.
Despite the fact that the storm that swept over Polotsk on October 6 tore off about 300 sq.m. of roofing, specialists concluded that the entire roof needed to be replaced - more than 600 sq.m. of roofing. The rafter and drainage systems, and the battens also required restoration. The Polotsk construction trust No. 22 became the general contractor for the work. Builders from Vitebsk arrived to assist their colleagues. A total of 17 to 25 specialists worked at the site.
Currently, masters have less than 100 sq.m. of roofing to lay. 10 workers are handling this task. "All work will be completed in full by the start of the festival concerts," Alexander Mikhalievich assured.
The festival will open with a concert featuring Honored Artist of Belarus Ksenia Pogorelaya (organ), Galina Pavlenok - mezzo-soprano, and the chamber choir of the Gomel Regional Philharmonic. Festival participants will also include Martin Rabensteiner from Switzerland, Luca Massaglia from Italy, Natalia Letyuk from Ukraine, Evgeny and Ksenia Avramenko from Russia, and Marek Toporowski from Poland - his concert will close the festival on December 2.
The Saint Sophia Cathedral, functioning as a museum of architectural history and a concert hall, is part of the National Polotsk Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve. It is an architectural monument dating from the mid-11th to the mid-18th centuries. The museum has been open to visitors since 1987. The museum exhibits tell the story of the architectural history of the oldest stone structure in the territory of modern Belarus, its numerous reconstructions, repairs, and the monument's latest restoration. In the Saint Sophia Cathedral, one can see fragments of 11th-century masonry, an almost completely preserved ancient foundation, as well as fresco paintings from the late 11th century, among the oldest in Belarus.
The concert hall in the Saint Sophia Cathedral has been operating since 1983. It hosts the International Festival of Ancient and Modern Chamber Music and the International Organ Music Festival "Bells of Sophia" annually. -0-
BELTA