Fifty-four musical numbers will be performed at the 5th International Children’s Jazz Festival Pacific Fusion, organized by International linguistic School and scheduled for April 23-24. The event will feature student musicians from art schools, studios, and musical classes in the Primorye and Amur regions, as well as performers from Japan, China and South Korea.
“Pacific Fusion is an exciting event for us, as the organizers, and also for the participants, particularly as the performances will be judged by experienced professional musicians,” explains ILS Principal Olga Shevchenko. “The festival will include an exhibition of paintings called ‘I paint music’ along with well-known Vladivostok performers, such as the FireFox jazz quarter, where two of the members are ILS music teachers Olga Sergienko and Vyacheslav Vedernikov.”
Pacific Fusion is the only children’s jazz festival-competition in Siberia and the Russian Far East. Young musicians, with help from their teachers and parents, begin to prepare for the event in early spring and by late April are ready to demonstrate for the judges and audiences their mastery of jazz songs and improvisations.
“This year Pacific Fusion is being held in two stages: off-site and on-site,” notes Olga Shevchenko. “A total of 74 applications were received for the off-site preliminary stage, and the judges chose 54 to perform during the on-site stage. We await our festival with great anticipation, noting that it takes place just a week before International Jazz Day, which the world celebrates on April 30.”
One week from now, approximately 200 young musicians will delight our guests and audiences with their improvisations and interpretations of various jazz classics.”
“Jazz is a kind of free expression,” says Pacific Fusion judge Anatoly Smirnov, who is a Decorated Artist of the Russian Federation and artistic director and chief conductor of the Pacific Ocean Symphony Orchestra. “We hope that the students and their teachers will offer us interesting musical numbers, with surprising elements and a high level of performing skill.”
