3000 kilometers in five days…

Due to long-term friendship, teachers and students of Saratov Conservatoire visited Cheboksary F.P. Pavlov music college (Cheboksary), I.S. Palantay College of Arts (Yoshkar-Ola), Republic Music College (Izhevsk) and I.V. Kazenin College of Music Art (Kirov). The delegation consisted of Professors Alexander Zanorin, Viacheslav Bondarenko, Dmitry Boyko, Valentine Statnik, Angela Khachayanz, Assistant Professors Mesrop Badalyan, Irina Boyko, Nadezhda Kosheleva, Vladimir Levitsky. Within the frame of visit master-classes, concerts and meetings with colleagues were organized, where they discussed issues of arts and music education. Concert program consisted of Russian and European compositions performed by professors of Conservatoire and Chamber Choir under Rector, Prof. Alexander Zanorin. Complexes of educational and methodical literature edited by Conservatoire were presented to colleges.
Within five days, participants of the tour covered about three thousand kilometers with more than thirty-degree temperature fluctuations. «When we arrived in Cheboksary, it was 30 degrees below zero. On the first day of our work there, it warmed up to five degrees above zero, - Prof. V. Bondarenko told. – We went to the North and in every city they told us that we brought them spring from the South».
Renewed agreements of cooperation were signed in Cheboksary and Kirov, plans for further work were also discussed. According to an old Russian tradition, in Cheboksary Saratov delegates were greeted with “bread and salt” and performance of Chuvash national ensemble.  Teachers and students of Conservatoire walked along the famous Bruges embankment and other sights of Yoshkar-Ola and found that I.S. Palantay College of Arts was one of the most beautiful in Russia, especially after the recent renovation.
In Izhevsk, the concert was attended by the Minister of Culture of the Udmurt Republic, Vladimir Mikhailovich Solovyov, who warmly welcomed the delegation and presented letters of thanks to the teachers and a certificate of honor to the conservatoire staff. At the invitation of the Minister, one-hour guided tours were organized for the Saratov delegation in the National Museum of the Udmurt Republic and the Museum and Exhibition Complex of Small Arms named after M.T. Kalashnikov.