«Moscow Meets Friends» ? the 15th festival, organised by the Vladimir Spivakov International Charity Foundation, which supports talented children across the country, opened in the capital. This gala concert launched the new season at the House of Music. Report by Lidia Alyoshina.

Behind the scenes of the Svetlanovsky Hall of the Moscow International House of Music, violinists, drummers, vocalists and dancers repeat numbers. And on stage at this time, Vladimir Spivakov announces: «The Fifteenth Festival is open! This auditorium can accommodate about two thousand people. The number of participants in the festival, who will be appearing on this stage, is almost equal to that of young talents from 50 regions of Russia and 32 countries».

«They speak the same language ? The language of music. It is a universal language. I think that all children should be taught music even if they are not geniuses», said Vladimir Spivakov, People’s Artist of the USSR.

Let’s Dance School at the festival for the first time, came from the small German town of Altenkirche. The school has 500 students: dancers from 4 to 86 years old.

«I teach everything in German. It’s not so easy to explain it to children in German, like showing them the breadth of movement, the soul», says Viktor Schjörf, head of the dance school.

As part of the violin ensemble ? students of the Central Music School. Lyudmila Vygovskaya ? 9 years old, winner of international contests. Every day she studies for five hours. Timofeya Ipatova? 11 years old, first took the violin in his hands when he was five. In the second department, Vladimir Spivakov himself, at the «Moscow Virtuosi» chamber orchestra, is performing solo at this festival, the youngest of whom is not yet seven years old.

The festival programme includes concerts, lectures and exhibitions. Among the venues where the participants will perform are not only the House of Music, but also the Bolshoi Theatre and the Pushkin Museum. The show will conclude on 12 October.