In issue no. 95 our newspaper wrote about the hardships that the organizers of the 15 th Slavic Bazaar faced, when even Ukraine’s participation in this prestigious music forum was in question. Now there’s some good news: Ukrainian performers will be going to Vitebsk after all. This year the audience at the Summer Amphitheater will watch “The Ukrainian Ball,” the title of the program prepared by stage director Vasyl Vovkun. It is based on the “Charity Ball,” which was staged at the Ukraine Palace in November 2005 by Ukrainian pop star Oleksandr Ponomariov.
The Ukrainian program will feature a real kaleidoscope of music ranging from classical music to rock, folk, and variety compositions. Performing with Ponomariov will be musicians of the Symphony Orchestra and the Suziria Aniko Modern Dance Theater. Ponomariov first sang in Vitebsk in 1994 at a young performers’ contest and placed second; the singer Zhanna Bodnaruk also made her debut there. Today she is a member of the jury.
Twenty-four contestants from 21 countries have applied for Vitebsk 2006, the festival’s main event. A total of 30 countries will take part in the festival. Singers from Argentina, Cuba, and Cyprus will be competing for the first time. Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine will be traditionally represented by two contestants, and other countries by one each,” says Slavic Bazaar director Rodion Bass. “This year the jury of the 15 th International Pop Song Contest will be hosted by the Belarusian singer Anatoliy Yarmolenko. We have prepared a diversified festival program. It will be a real holiday of art.”
This year 16-year-old Yulia Sirenko from the town of Yuzhnoukrainsk, Mykolayiv oblast, and 21-year-old resident of Kyiv Dmytro Shelaiev, a graduate of the Kyiv Variety and Circus College, will vie for the Grand Prix (and a prize of 10,000 dollars). This year the festival organizers have decided to gather the winners of previous contests in Vitebsk. Invitations have also been extended to the Ukrainian singers Taisiya Povaliy and Svitlana Slavkovych, Raphael (Israel), Todor Proeski (Macedonia), and others.
There will be 19 participants from 16 countries in the International Children’s Contest. Ukraine will be represented by 11 year-old Rostyslav Todorescu(Chernivtsi) and Kyrylo Kaplunivsky (Dzerzhynsk, Donetsk oblast). This is the fourth children’s competition. The jury will be headed by the Belarusian singer Yadviga Poplavskaya; Ukraine will be represented by the composer Anatoliy Karpenko.
The festival film program includes three movies submitted by Russia (Escape, I Adore You, and Anna), one by Belarus (I Remember) and one by Ukraine (Stolen Happiness). There will also be exhibits, jazz soirees, and meetings with popular actors.
