French Embassy Cultural Counselor in Russia is on business visit in Ufa

UFA, 28 March 2017. /Bashinform News Agency, Alfiya Agliullina/. The Cultural Counsellor to the French Embassy in Russia Olivier Guillaume and representative of the Alliance Française Foundation Mireille Cheval are paying a business visit to Ufa.

On March 26, they visited the headquarters of the Ufa branch of Alliance Française and enjoyed a solo concert of the president of the International Conservatory of Music in Paris Françoise Levechin-Gangloff in the organ hall of the Bashkir Philharmonic Society.

Yesterday, a working meeting between Olivier Guillaume and heads of cultural and art institutions of Bashkortostan took place within the framework of the business visit. The First Deputy Minister of Culture RB Valentina Latypova, the director of the Bashkir Opera and Ballet Theatre Ilmar Almuhametov, the director of the Bashkir Philharmonic Society Aidar Zubaidullin, the director of the Rodina cinema Tatyana Razina, the director of the National Museum of Bashkortostan Gali Valiullin and the director of the Nesterov Bashkir Art Museum Airat Teregulov took part in it.

During the meeting, the participants discussed issues of cooperation between Bashkortostan and France in the field of culture and art, and considered a possibility of joint projects.

Also, the guests had an introductory tour of the Bashkir Opera and Ballet Theatre. They were especially impressed by the exposition of the theatre dedicated to the great dancer of the 20th century, Rudolf Nureyev. Director of the theatre Ilmar Almukhamedov also presented musical projects of the company.

"Our theatre is always ready to provide a venue for French projects," said Ilmar Almukhamedov. According to him, in the autumn of this year a joint event will take place in the theatre with musicians from the Netherlands. And this spring Ufa will host the 21st Rudolf Nureyev’s International Festival of Ballet Art. Soloists and representatives of Russian and foreign theatres are invited to the large-scale event. A new scenographic version of the "Crane Song" ballet will be shown as part of the festival.

Representatives of the French Embassy in Russia were also informed about other cultural projects - the International Festival of National and Ethnic Cinema "Silver Akbuzat", the International Festival "Berdemlek-Commonwealth", the World Festival "World Folklore-2020", the festival of contemporary art "The Heart of Eurasia", the ministry representatives report.

"We have close cooperation with the Embassy of the Netherlands, the USA. In April, visitors from America will come at our 21st International Jazz Festival "Pink Panther". Musicians from Switzerland, Estonia, China, South Africa will visit Ufa in the framework of the "Heart of Eurasia" festival. We are looking forward to cooperation with musicians from France", the director of the Bashkir Philharmonic Society Aidar Zubaidullin underlined.