Raufal Mukhametzyanov: “Wind of Change is our and the sponsors’ money”
Tatar songs for Americans: what Wind of Change is taking to New York
25 compositions, a team of 70 people, Chulpan Khamatova — these are the plans of the authors of the project reviving Tatar pop culture Wind of Change. Next January, artists from Tatarstan will give a concert on one of the most famous sites in the world — in Carnegie Hall. Moreover, the project is financed by the project’s producers and the money of individual sponsors, without public money. More is in Realnoe Vremya’s report.
Three seasons of assault
The project Wind of Change was born spontaneously. The subject of the low quality of Tatar pop culture came up during the celebration of singer, professor of the Kazan Institute of Culture, people’s artist of Russia and Tatarstan, laureate of the Tatarstan State Award Venera Ganeyeva's jubilee — primitive arrangements, the dominance of synthesiser, the misery of the concerts themselves. Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov who was at the singer’s jubilee celebration joined the talk who unexpectedly offered Director of the Musa Jalil Tatar State Academy Opera and Ballet Theatre Raufal Mukhametzyanov take on a pop culture project. So the opera theatre completely unexpectedly became a place where the transformation of Tatar pop culture began.
Wind of Change now is three seasons of successful and top shows, it is more than 100 songs — both folk and songs written by composers that got new fresh arrangements made by great professionals. All the three seasons in Kazan had a full house. Apart from the concerts in Kazan, there was a concert in Moscow, too, in the huge hall of the Kremlin Palace. And here is the continuation of the project. Next January, the Wind of Change team will take the programme to New York, to Carnegie Hall.
“Two parts of our best songs”
As Producer General of Wind of Change Raufal Mukhametzyanov told Realnoe Vremya, the audience in New York would see a programme of two hour-length parts. It will include the best performances of the previous seasons of Wind of Change. Alina Sharipzhanova, Aydar Suleymanov, Ilnar Miranov, Elza and Artur Islamovs — the stars of the three previous seasons — are among the participants of the concert in the USA. There are new names, too. For instance, leading soloist of the Kazan opera theatre Gulnora Gatina and others.
“During the three seasons of Wind of Change, we have shown more than a hundred songs with new arrangements, the commitment of the singers with gorgeous choreography and the orchestra, with deliberately created scenography. It was a beautiful and professional show. Not a concert but a real show with a completely different quality. It can be shown around the world. This is why we decided to make a mix of the best performances during the fourth season and demonstrate this show on the world’s number one site. And Carnegie Hall is this site. This concert in New York isn’t the finale of our project, it is one of its development stages. The show must go on. It will probably change, we will maybe make a musical with its participants, they are ready for it. We’ve been working together for three years, we know the potential of the singers and understand who of them can participate in a theatre piece,” Raufal Mukhametzyanov told the newspaper.
Apart from the element of prestige — the show will be on one of the top stages of the world — the creators of Wind of Change also plan to have a good quality recording of the programme in New York. “The teams that are responsible for the job in New York and those who work in Kazan were formed a long time ago, we’ve recently had a week of rehearsals. In other words, the programme is rehearsed here, the lighting plot is done here and then is shifted to America,” Raufal Mukhametzyanov explained.
According to the American side’s proposal, a celebrity must present the programme in Carnegie Hall. Chulpan Khamatova was chosen, the format of the performance is now discussed, but there has been reached an agreement with the actress.
“We are spending off-budget money”
The schedule in New York is going to be tight — a rehearsal to test the acoustics of the hall and a concert. The team that will head to America chaired by unchangeable musical director of the project Vadim Eilenkrig consists of 70 people.
The project that’s is worth 15,3 million is paid with off-budget money. “It is the money we earned on our own and sponsors provided,” the producer general of the project explained. The rumours that taxpayers’ money is being spent on the trip to America aren’t true.
The programme that will travel to America will be rehearsed from 20 November, too. And it will be performed for citizens of Kazan on the stage of the Musa Jalil Tatar State Academy Opera and Ballet Theatre during two events in late November. So the show goes on.