History
Ruskeala Symphony Music Festival. Ruskeala Mountain Park (Sortavala region, Republic of Karelia, Russia).
Ruskeala Symphony Music Festival was initiated by the Head of the Republic of Karelia Artur Parfenchikov in 2017. This event that became significant for the cultural and tourist life of Russia, was included into the list of TOP-15 regional events in Russia straightaway. The guests were attracted not only by the offered festival program and all-star cast, but also by the opportunity to visit a unique nature and industry landmark, the Ruskeala Mountain Park. The park is famous for its manmade marble quarries that appeared at the location of marble development during 18th-20th century. The main open-air festival stage was situated in the pearl of the Ruskeala Mountain Park, in a so-called “Italian quarry”. The first festival included only one evening concert featuring Symphony orchestra of the Karelian State Philharmonic.
The program of the second festival in 2018 had seven diverse concerts during two days and the festival became international. Artists from Russia, France, China and Argentina performed in the most beautiful scenery of marble quarries created by nature and human hands that attract hundreds of thousands of tourists every year. In addition to the Symphony orchestra of the Karelian State Philharmonic, other professional musical groups also performed under the festival programs. Ruskeala Symphony Music Festival program was interesting for the public with the most varied tastes and different musical background. The festival program included classical music, contemporary compositions in classical processing, jazz and even artistic word. The interest in the music festival was huge and exceeded the expectations of the organizers. About 6,000 people became festival guests during two days.
Open-air Ruskeala Symphony Music Festival again became the event of the international scale on August 9-11, 2019. The first festival evening continued the tradition of national evenings. Music festival guests listened to the modern English music, from rock to DJ music and symphony orchestra performed by famous British musicians. The second day was the day of the stars and brought outstanding artists and famous groups from five European countries to the festival stage. Masterpieces of world classics, magic of oriental motifs, favorite film music, world crossover and the evening of opera music from soloists of the Bolshoi Theater - awaited the audience. The third day was dedicated to the Year of Theater in Russia and included parades, street performances, musical performances that provided great family time in one of the most beautiful parts of Russia. In 2019 Ruskeala Symphony Music Festival was organized as a part of a 3-year state plan to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Republic of Karelia in 2020. The Festival is supported by the Ministry of culture of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Republic of Karelia.
The festival 2020 was held in spite of the pandemic. Instead of three days it lasted only one, but very eventful. There were five fullfledged concerts: two of them were on the expanse of the Marble Canyon lake and three were on the main stage of the Festival in Italian Quarry. On the railway station Karelian folk-band Skylark met the guests with the national songs and melodies. Of course, the festival had a surprise for its guests: the youngest team of the Karelian Philharmonic - Male Chamber Choir gave their debut concert from the expanse of the Marble Canyon lake. Because of the pandemic they could start their rehearsals at the end of June and in 1,5 month made a fantastic concert programme. For the one day about 5000 people visited the festival.
On August 13-14, 2021, the marble rocks of Ruskeala Mountain Park once again became the natural setting for the concerts of the V International open-air Ruskeala Symphony Festival. Visitors were treated to 10 concerts at different venues: from dancing melodies of Russian folk instruments quartet to rock on bagpipes, from popular classics and music of modern composers of percussion ensemble to jazz manouche. And for the younger visitors an interactive theatrical programme was prepared by the artists of the Puppet Theatre of Karelia.
The VI Ruskeala Symphony music festival was held on July 15-16, 2022. More than eight thousand spectators visited The Ruskeala Mountain Park these days. Ten different concerts were held in the open-air mountain park: from academic music to music of the peoples of Russia, from сhurch songs to Latin American rhythms, from chamber meditation to symphonic music. A wide range of genres is a distinctive feature of the annual Ruskeala festival.
Among its main organizers were the Ministry of culture of the Republic of Karelia, Karelian State Philharmonic and the Ruskeala Mountain Park (OOO Kolmas).