Fabio Mastrangelo Shared the Inspiration of Russian Culture with the Participants of the Znanie.Pervye Marathon

On March 3, Fabio Mastrangelo, Artistic Director of the F.I. Chaliapin Musical Theater and Principal Conductor of the Northern Symphony Orchestra, spoke at the Znanie.Pervye educational marathon of the Russian Znanie Society. The conversation was devoted to the dialog of Russian and Italian cultures.

The maestro's performance was repeatedly interrupted by applause from the audience - the children appreciated the sincerity and enthusiasm of the actor, who confessed his long-standing love for Russia. The maestro came to St. Petersburg in 1999 - and immediately decided to link his life with this city and this country.

"The governor of my hometown of Bari once joked that I was born in the most Russian city in Italy, but I live in the most Italian city in Russia. Indeed, it is in Bari that the relics of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker are kept. I myself was baptized 22 years ago in an Orthodox church in Saint Petersburg. One day, while walking around town, I walked into a temple and got to a service. There was an 8-person choir singing - but it sounded like 40 people singing. And this singing touched something in my soul that had never been awakened before," the maestro recalled the story of his baptism.    

Fabio Mastrangelo told the children that Russian culture had been close to him since his childhood - books by Pushkin, Lermontov and Dostoevsky. At the age of nine, the boy independently learned the Russian alphabet from an encyclopedia and learned to read and write in Russian. Obviously, the composers also influenced his future destiny.

"One of the first pieces I played on the piano myself was Prokofiev's waltz from the ballet The Stone Flower - a detail I learned later. It's very beautiful. And to this day this waltz is my favorite, it evokes memories of my father, my grandmother, I conducted it - and I can sing it right now!", with these words Fabio Mastrangelo actually sang the first few notes of the piece.

The participants of the meeting were not confused - and sang back a phrase from the musical fairy tale "Bremen Musicians" by Yuri Entin and Gennady Gladkov - the initiator of this musical dialog was the vocalist Darina from Krasnodar.

According to the maestro, music is an additional language that connects all peoples and enables them to understand each other better.

The marathon participants listened to Fabio's reflections on Russian culture with great attention and interest. Anna Gogulina, a pianist from Ekaterinburg, asked to compare pedagogical approaches to teaching musicians in Europe and Russia. The girl herself interned in Italy and Germany and noted that teachers abroad praise students more often.

"Unfortunately, more effective is the Russian pedagogical scheme, when in the process of training you are not praised, but quite the opposite. But the result is better afterwards," commented Fabio.

The participants of the meeting and the presenter Maria Shakhova asked a lot of other questions - about composers as reference points for young people, about how to overcome professional crises, about the balance of Russian and Italian cuisine in an artist's house, about modern trends in music and many others.

The Russian Znanie Society is the general partner of the educational program of the World Youth Festival, and the Znanie.Pervye educational marathon has become one of the main events of the educational program. The most striking presentations of lecturers can be seen on the 24-hour media channel https://russia.znanierussia.ru/tv/Znanie.TV.

An open dialog of young people with Fabio Mastrangelo took place at the Znanie.Pervye marathon on the Multinational Unity Day, which is dedicated to national diversity, folk traditions, the right of every nation to identity and sovereignty.

Also on March 3, on the second day of the marathon, among the lecturers of the Znanie.Pervye marathon were Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of RT TV channel and Rossiya Segodnya media group, President of the All-Russian Federation of Phygital Sports, Olympic champion in artistic gymnastics Nikita Nagornyy, 18-time world champion, 10-time European champion, three-time absolute champion of Russia in rhythmic gymnastics, Honored Master of Sports of the Russian Federation Dina Averina and 5-time world champion in rhythmic gymnastics, Honored Master of Sports of the Russian Federation Arina Averina and many other outstanding people.

Educational marathon takes place in Sirius from March 2 to 6 and covers six sites of the World Youth City: WYF International Airport, Yamal, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Belgorod, and Moscow pavilions. The tracks of the educational marathon are consonant with the meanings of the Festival: “Responsibility for the fate of the world”, “Multinational unity”, “A world of opportunity for everyone”, “Saving the family for future generations” and “We stand together with Russia”.

In addition to the marathon, as part of the educational program of the World Youth Festival, the Russian Znanie Society organized the intellectual tournament Znanie.Game with the participation of scholars from different countries and Znanie.Cinema Lectorium, where viewers can watch legendary Russian and foreign films and discuss them in the company of famous actors and directors. For the Festival participants a multimedia exhibition of the National Photo Contest Znanie.Russia will work, where they will be able to see the main achievements of Russia in the XXI century and immerse themselves in their atmosphere with the help of augmented reality technology.

The World Youth Festival shall become a platform for open dialog between young people from Russia and other countries. After the completion of the events on the Sirius Federal Territory, Russian Znanie Society will continue the educational line of the World Youth Festival from March 9 to 17 within the framework of the regional program WYF 2024, which will cover all federal districts of our country.

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Overview:

The World Youth Festival is held in accordance with the Decree of Russian President Vladimir Putin to develop international youth cooperation. At the first meeting of the Organizing Committee chaired by Sergey Kiriyenko, First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Administration, it was decided to hold the Festival in the Sirius Federal Territory.

20,000 young leaders in education, science, international cooperation, culture, volunteering, charity, sports, business, media, etc., including 10,000 foreign participants, will take part in the WYF 2024. For the first time in the history of the festival movement, teenagers from 14 to 17 years old had the opportunity to join the event, including 500 from Russia and 500 from abroad. 5,000 volunteers from all regions of Russia, including 228 residents of the LPR, DPR, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson Regions be involved in the organization and delivery of the Festival. The organizer of the World Youth Festival is the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs (Rosmolodezh), the operator of the WYF-2024 is the Directorate of the World Youth Festival.

The first federal education marathon was held in May 2021 and became a symbol of the reboot of the Russian Znanie Society. More than 850 lecturers shared their experience during the marathon.

The Russian Znanie Society traces its history back to the Soviet public organization founded in 1947 on the initiative of representatives of the Soviet intelligentsia as the All-Union Society for the Dissemination of Political and Scientific Knowledge (since 1963 — the All-Union Znanie Society, since 1991— the Znanie of Russia Society). Members of the Society were engaged in popularizing science and lecturing on the achievements of the Soviet economy and industry. In 2016, Znanie of Russia was transformed into the Russian Znanie Society. On April 21, 2021, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the need to restart the Russian Znanie Society on a modern digital platform in his address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.