“A ruginit frunza din vii” Festival starts in Chisinau Oct. 19

The tenth International Choral Music Festival “A ruginit frunza din vii” (“Leaves go yellow in vineyards”) will be opened in Chisinau on October 19. The event is held in memory of composer and conductor Victor Creanga.

In a news conference at IPN, director of the Musical-Choral Association of Moldova Elena Marian said the event will involve 23 musical-choral ensembles from Moldova, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Georgia, and Romania.

The opening will take place at the Ginta Latina Theater at 6pm on October 19. The next day, starting at 11am, the Museum of Ethnography and Natural History will host the international competition in the following categories: children’s choir; youth choir; mixed choir; chamber choir, and vocal ensembles.

On October 21, all the participating ensembles will perform traditional music and each participant will present their own country by national music and costumes. The event will be held at the Palace of the Republic, starting at 6pm.

On the last day of the festival, the ensembles will visit churches in Chisinau and will sing sacred music for parishioners there. The Laureates Gala at the National Philharmonic will start at 6pm.

Emeritus conductor Natalia Barabanshchikov said the Festival “A ruginit frunza din vii” is popular in Europe.

The Festival’s budget is of about 1 million lei. The first International Choral Music Festival and Contest “A ruginit frunza din vii” took place in 2007. The event is organized by the Musical-Choral Association of Moldova with the assistance of East-Europe Foundation from the financial resources provided by the Government of Sweden. The partners are: the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research, the National Museum of Ethnography and Natural History, the Moldovan Metropolitan Church and other institutions.

The first festival of the kind involved seven ensembles.