"What an excellent music! What were the names! ..."

XII festival of art song was held at "Krokhal", Ukhta State Technical University, in early June.

The northernmost festival of art song was organized by Ukhta State Technical University with the support of the Ministry of Culture of Komi Republic in order to promote the song amateur art, attracting the attention of young people to the genre of art song, identifying new names and talent, promote the genre and the movement of clubs of art song. Guests from Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Pskov, Syktyvkar, Vorkuta, Arkhangelsk region arrived on the bard gathering.

Traditionally, the festival's program was opened with the guests’ concert. On June 7, in the small hall of the City Palace of Culture songs were performed by Vorkuta singers, Sergei Korobka and Sergey Petrovskiy, Muscovites Andrew Shiroglazov, Galina Shapkina, Alexander Korolev, Nizhniy Novgorod singer, Anatoly Schenberg, marine mechanics of Arkhangelsk region, Nicolay Taezhnyi. The right of the first and the last "chord" of the concert belonged to the founding father of the festival, Ukhta resident, Sergei Sherkunov.

The following two days art songs played in the open air. On Saturday, there was the official opening of the festival. Its participants were welcomed by the Minister of Culture of Komi Arthur Rudolph, the national poet of RK, Chairman of the Festival jury, Nadezhda Miroshnichenko, and USTU Rector, Professor Nikolai Tskhadaya.

Each viewer found his theme and melody, and his mood in the songs heard at the festival. Some identified with Yamal themed songs, "where there is no villa or yacht, but a heavy watch", others have rediscovered the poetry of Nikolai Rubtsov. The military pilot, Alexander Korolev, awakened nostalgia for the days when portraits of Lennon and Lenin hung on the wall next to each other and our hockey was the best in the world. Voice and guitar of Nikolai Taezhnyi made everyone posture up: "Never enemy can drink water from our well!"

Competitive concert determined the names of the winners of the festival. In the nomination "Author" the winners were Ekaterina Doroshkova (Ukhta) and Svetlana Vetosheva as the author of the music (Syktyvkar), Irina Ilinskaya (Cherepovets) and Aleksey Zubkov (Syktyvkar) were diploma winners. In the category "Artists" Paul Voitenok (Syktyvkar) was awarded a diploma. The trio from Vodnyi village: Lily Korinets, Ekaterina Pavlenko and Elizabeth Gushchina, was noted with the special prize "For the interest in the author's song".