Today, September 2, Red Square has welcomed the last two shows of the Eleventh Spasskaya Tower International Military Music Festival.
Before starting both the daytime and evening programs the anchor asked the audiences to honor with a minute of silence the memory of Iosif Kobzon who that day was buried at the Vostryakovskoe cemetery.
This year the first ever daytime show was held within the Festival and it was done especially for the kids. Besides for the first time in the Festival’s history a participant of the Spasskaya Tower for Kids Children and Youth Wind Bands Festival and Contest (held this May in Zaryadye) stepped onto the cobblestone of Red Square. The honor was awarded to the senior girls band of the State Budgetary Educational Institution “School N. 1770” of the Moscow Cadet Music Corps which this year has become the 2nd degree laureate of the contest. Young musicians performed a potpourri featuring four compositions by Michael Jackson. While performing his Thriller the girls even danced in style of the pop music king.
The last evening show like the previous night show of the 2018 Spasskaya Tower Festival featured performances of three equestrian groups including the Cordoba Equestrian Association from Spain, the Cavalry Escort of the Presidential Regiment and the Kremlin Equestrian School.
The Cordoba Equestrian Association representing Spain has been the debutant of this year’s Spasskaya Festival. The cavaliers mounted on five horses and holding flags of Russia, Spain and Cordoba marched along the cobblestone of Red Square with the cavalier dressed as the Spanish grand on a fabulous grey horse of the Andalusian breed in the center.
The Cordoba Equestrian Association was formed in 1996 with the aim of promoting and wide spreading the equestrian world as well as enhancing the cultural value of the emblematic building of the Royal Stables of Córdoba built by a royal decree issued by Philip II in 1570 with the intent of creating the Andalusian horse breed. Since 1929 the stables have been the national monument of Spain.
Audiences of both the daytime and evening shows of the grand finale had the opportunity to see the performance of the one and only Mireille Mathieu who for the tenth time has performed at the Spasskaya Tower Festival.
The French star performed three songs featuring Sous le ciel de paris, Pardonne moi ce caprice d’enfant and Amour défendu.
In the final part of the last show all the participants of the Eleventh Spasskaya Tower Festival went onto Red Square forming a combined band. At that very moment Evgeniy Khoroshevtsev, People’s Artist of Russia and official voice of the Festival, announced that there was a voting held on the official website of the Festival. The Internet users had been offered to choose the two best ensembles of this year from among Russian and foreign participants. At the night of the last show the same opportunity got the TV audience of the TVC channel live broadcast. More than 200 thousands people cast their votes for two best participants of this year’s Festival. Following the voting results the Audience Choice Award was given to the Band of the Moscow Military Music College named after Lieutenant General Valery Khalilov together with the girls of the Boarding School for Girls of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (26%) and the Crescendo Bicycle Showband from the Netherlands (16%).
The Audience Choice prizes to the heads of the winning groups were respectively awarded by Mr. Sergey Smirnov, Head of the Directorate of the Spasskaya Tower Festival, and Mr. Alexander Gorbenko, Deputy of the Mayor of Moscow in the Government of Moscow dealing with regional security and information politics issues.
Conducted by Colonel Timofey Mayakin, Head of the Military Music Band Service of the Russian Armed Forces — Chief Military Conductor and Music Director of the Spasskaya Tower Festival musicians perform the Officers’ Ball potpourri of
As a matter of tradition the main show of the Spasskaya Tower Festival finishes with grandiose fireworks.
Among this evening’s guests of honor there were Major General Gennady Zaitsev, Hero of the Soviet Union and the legendary commander of the A group; Colonel General Yuri Sadovenko, Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation; Mr. Alexander Gorbenko, Deputy of the Mayor of Moscow; Mr. Stiven Seagal, American actor, producer, score writer, musician and martial arts master as well as the citizen of the USA, Russia and Serbia; Mr. Ignacio Ybáñez Rubio, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Spain to the Russian Federation; Mr. Kapila Vadyaratne, State Secretary of the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defense, Mr. Usef Al Zadjali, Ambassador of the Sultanate Oman to the Russian Federation, Mr. Ilya Reznik, poet and People’s Artist of Russia, Lieutenant General Sergey Khlebnikov, Moscow Kremlin’s Commandant; and Colonel Andrey Filyakin, Commander of the Presidential Regiment of the Federal Guard Service of the Russian Federation.
Statistics of the Festival
The 2018 Spasskaya Tower Festival featured 22 bands, two honor guard groups and one dancing company. All in all 1456 artists stepped onto the cobblestone of Red Square. The largest band has been Banda Monumental de Mexico including 96 musicians and 29 dancers. It has also become the youngest group as its eldest participant is only 23 years old while the majority of the ensemble constitute of 12 and 13 years old boys and girls. The smallest band has become the Prince’s Band of Carabiniers from Monaco with just 25 musicians. The eldest participant of this year’s Festival performed within the Company of “Vieux Grenadiers” of Geneva. He’s been Robert Bouleau of 80 years of age. The youngest participants of the Festival are just 11 years old. They are Maria Jose Mendoza Morales of the Banda Monumental de Mexico and Casey Schafer of the Brentwood Imperial Youth Band from the United Kingdom.