Throughout all 900 days of the blockade music was the means that was helping the people of Leningrad winning over death.
Despite all the hardships, the besieged city was living an intense music life. Radio Committee Symphonic Band led by Karl Eliasberg, Music Comedy Theatre, Song and Dance Company of the Leningrad Front, Wind Band of the Leningrad Garrison, battlefield music brigades were among the artistic groups operating in the city.
The Exemplary Wind Band of the Leningrad Garrison was one of the standouts, having performed over 110 times on the Leningrad radio and front along the war. The band staged concerts for officers and soldiers, at hospitals and factories, in the city Philarmonia and even at the children New Year concert at the Pioneer Palace. All in all, in 1943 the band organized 228 concerts.
On March 5, 1942 sixteen of the band’s musicians took part in the premier of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 7 titled ‘Leningrad’.
Every Sunday since 1944 the band started staging concerts in the Tauride Garden and Central Park of Recreation and Culture. Thus, everyone could experience a bit of peaceful life and once again believe that the war would end soon.
Many of the band’s musicians were awarded medals for the Leningrad Defense for their outrageous behaviour and courage.