“We attended a vocal music concert and got to know the city”

Trainees of the Russian-Language Promotion Centre, which are students from China, Venezuela, and Iraq, attended a vocal music concert at the Samara Institute of Culture, and then walked through Samara shining with its evening lights.

The concert took place in a newly renovated 19th-century mansion known as the Governor’s House. Aspiring stars of academic singing – students, master students and postgraduates of the vocal department of the Institute of Culture – performed on the stage of the Assembly Hall that preserved the interiors of the ballroom. The program included works by foreign and Russian authors, romances, arias. The students demonstrated all the variety of voices: bass, baritone, tenor, soprano and contralto.

The evening ended with a walking tour around the city’s old part. The future students saw the Samara Drama Theater, the monument to Chapaev, the Strukovsky Garden, Alfred von Wakano’s Eating-House, Aksakov Square and the Art Nouveau Museum. The tour ended on Kuybyshev Square, the largest one in Europe.

The future engineer from China, Kang Zhuohao, noted,

“I really enjoyed the concert and was impressed with Kuybyshev Square”. His group-mate Chu Zhaohang said, “I found out that the Strukovsky Park is the oldest one in Samara”. Their friend Liu Yuheng added, “I liked the Drama Theater. It’s a very beautiful Russian-style building”. Venezuelan Jean Sanchez shared his impressions, “I was at an opera concert for the first time. It was wonderful!”

Before returning to their student hostel, the trainees of the Russian-Language Promotion Centre tasted Russian cabbage rolls and cranberry compote at the local canteen “Stolovushka”. Now the young people are going to get acquainted with the art of Russian ballet.